tv PBS News Hour PBS March 30, 2021 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT
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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, on trial-- witnesses to the death of george floyd offer at times emotional testimony against former police officer derek chauvin, who is charged with murder. then, a historic settlement-- the university of southern california is paying out more than a billion dollars total to sexual abuse victims of a former campus doctor. plus, myanmar in crisis-- clashes between military forces and protesters grow more violent as ethnic minorities are targeted by airstrikes, while rohingya refugees face covid-19
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and devastating fires. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: whether you're a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u.s.-based customer service team is here to find a plan that fits you. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org.
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>> and with the ongoing support 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. >> woodruff: the second day in the trial of former police officer derek chauvin was emotional and tense. one eyewitness to the death of george floyd told jurors in minneapolis that chauvin was cold and heartless. chauvin is charged with second and third degree murder and
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manslaughter in the death of george floyd. yamiche alcindor has our report. and a note: this story does include some video of the incident that was shown during the trial. >> alcindor: for hours, witnesses described what they saw on may 25th, 2020, detailing the last moments leading up to the death of george floyd. among those testifying today: darnella frazier, the young woman who filmed the now-viral cell phone video of the incident. frazier was not shown on the court's cameras because she was a minor at the time of floyd's death. still, through audible tears, she recalled that day, and was >> i heard george floyd saying, "i can't breathe. please, get off of me. i can't breathe." he cried for his mom. he was in pain. it seemed like he knew, like he knew it was over for him. he was terrified. he was suffering.
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this was a cry for help. >> alcindor:razier also described how filming floyd's death changed her life. >> when i look at george floyd, i look at my dad, i look at my brothers, i look at my cousins, my uncle, because they are all black. i have a black father, i have a black brother, i have black friends. and i look at that and i look at how that could have been one of them. it's been nhts i've stayed up apologizing and apologizing to george floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life, but it's like, it's not what i should have done, it's what he should have done. >> alcindor: frazier's nine year old cousin also took the stand. >> i was sad and kind of mad. >> and tell us, why were youad and mad?
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>> cause it felt like he was stopping his breathing and it was kind of like hurting him. >> alcindor: earlier in the day, lawyers finished questioning donald williams, another witness on the scene. he spoke about how his wrestling and martial arts training shaped his view of floyd's killing. at times, williams' testimony grew tense as chauvin's attorney, eric nelson, tried to prove that chauvin and the other officers were distracted by the group of onlookers. williams is heard on darnella frazier's video shouting at chauvin. >> you called him a tough guy? >> you called him a bum at least 13 times? >> that's what you counted in the video? >> that's what i counted. >> then that's what you got, 13. >> and that was early on, right? those terms grew more and more angry, would you agree with that? >> they grew more and more
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pleading for life. >> so, again, sir, it's fair to say that you grew angrier and angrier? >> no. i grew professional and professional and i stayed in my body. you can't paint me out to be angry. >> alcindor: the day also included testimony from other witnesses, including a minneapolis firefighter who was at the scene. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the united states officially passed 550,000 deaths in the pandemic. that's out of more than 30 million confirmed cases. and, the world health organization formally reported that covid-19, likely spread from animals, and not from a chinese laboratory. the lead investigator said all sides tried to influence the
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report, but to no avail. >> in our discussion, in our work, we were never pressured to remove a critical element in our report. as i said, the report is something that all the scientists on the joint team can stand behind. >> woodruff: the head of the w.h.o. acknowledged that china withheld data, and he voiced doubts about the findings. the u.s. and other nations demanded further investigation. president biden announced new initiatives on anti-asian violence today. the measures include $50 million covid relief money for programs that help survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. that announcement followed an attack on an asian-american woman in new york city. surveillance footage showed a man kicking her, and stomping on her face. police say he shouted anti-aan
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insults, then walked away as bystanders did nothing. the 65-year-old woman is hospitalized wh serious injuries. the u.s. state department today scrapped trump-era human rights policies. they had promoted conservative causes, including religious freedom and property rights, but they sidelined abortion and l.g.b.t.q. rights. secretary of state antony blinken called that approach unbalanced. >> all people are entitled to these rights, no matter where they're born, what they believe, whom they love, or any other characteristic. human rights are also co-equal; there is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others. >> woodruff: the state department also denounced human rights abuses in china, russia and syria. in myanmar: ethnic karen refugees faced new air attacks by the military. thousands have already fled into neighboring thailand. meanwhile, protests continued
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against myanmar's military coup. people filled the streets despite new shootings by security forces. we'll return to this, after the news summary. gunmen in eastern afghanistan have killed three women who were giving polio vaccinations. they were shot in jalalabad. that area has seen a spike in islamic state attacks. afghanistan and pakistan are the only countries where polio is still endemic. china tightened its grip on hong kong's elections today. lawmakers in beijing voted to enlarge the territory's legislature, but cut the share of directly elected seats. many in hong kong accused china of breaking a pledge to respect their autonomy. >> ( translated ): hong kong has changed already. there's no election, are you joking? this isn't an election, it's merely a game that benefits certain people. >> ( translated ): it was promised that hong kong wouldn't change for 50 years, but it
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hasn't been 25 years. i am worried about my future, as well as those of the people around me. >> woodruff: the changes also require that prospective candidates be vetted by a pro- beijing committee. back in this country, lawmakers in kentucky have expanded access to early voting, in a partial break with trends in other states. the bipartisan bill passed late monday. it provides three in-person voting days before election day. it also ends pandemic measures that expanded mail-in voting. and, on wall street, stocks slipped as interest rates climbed. the dow jones industrial average lost 104 points to close at 33,067. the nasdaq fell 14 points, the s&p 500 slid 12 points. still to come on the newshour: clashes between military forces and protesters grow more violent in myanmar. rohingya refugees face the dual threats of covid-19 and
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devastating fires. anti-transgender bills in several states raise alarms for activists. plus much more. >> woodruff: it is the largest sexual abuse settlement ever in higher education. last week, the university of southern california announced it would pay more than $850 million to hundreds of women who were allegedly preyed upon by a campus gynecologist over nearly three decades. it's the third settlement u.s.c. has reached with groups of victims. all told, u.s.c. will pay more than one billion dollars to survivors in multiple legal
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settlements. the women were among thousands treated by dr. george tyndall. he was the sole full-time gynecologist at the university from 89 until 2016, when he was finally suspended. since thenhe's been arrested, charged with dozens of assault counts and is now awaiting trial. audry nafziger is one of the survivors of the abuse. she is now a sex crimes prosecutor and deputy district attorney in ventura county, california. >> woodruff: and a warning, our conversation contains explicit language involving sexual abuse. audry nafziger, thank you so much for being with us. this gynecologist was able to abuse these women, allegedly, over 27 years without the university moving to step in until the very end. how is that possible? >> you know, judy, it is
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almost inexplainable because there were complaints. i saw him in 1990, and i know that a woman in 1989 complained to the university. and they did nothing. and they received repeated complaints throughout the decades, and still they did nothing. they empowered him to continue to perfect preying upon women. it is just horrible. >> woodruff: as you said, you were one of the earliest victims. and you said 1990 -- what happened to you and what happened -- how did you deal with it? >> i saw him in 1990, and i went to the health center. he invited me into his room. he closed and he locked the door. i had vry little experience with this types of medical exams, so i didn't know what to expect. so after he locked the door, he had me get on the
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table, disrobe, put my feet in stirrups, and proceeded to give me an examination without gloves. he -- during part of that examination, he asked to take photos of my body and positioned my hands, and this was with an old .35 millimeter type of camera. he told me it was for medical purposes. he false diagnosed me with a sexually transmitted disease that i learned later was untrue. he went to the back of the room and dimmed the lights, and he started tell me this story about his time in the philippines, and how he passed a woman around in a bar with a bunch of men. he told me how they were performing oral sex on her. and he kept asking me over and over again from the back of the room, in the dark, audry, what do you think of this? audry, what do you think of this?
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and he kept saying my name over and over again. i wanted to crawl into a little ball. i didn't know what to make of it. i thought he was coming to get me. i didn't understand at the time what was going on. it was a very frightening experience to endure. i later took my records with me when i graduated, in 1992, from s.c. law, and i carried them with me, and i promised myself i would report him one day, and i never did, like so many other survivors of these types of offenses. i didn't know if anybody would believe me. it was just me and him in a room. later, when i opened my file, i saw that the record was negative, that he done a lab test on me and it came back negative, and all of it was a big lie. >> woodruff: and there were so many other women who had experiences as bad as yours, and even worse. >> absolutely. i have met several survivors where he tried the exact same tactic.
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as a sex crimes prosecutor, i'm well-aware that sexual predators will perfect their craft over time, and they'll keep doing the thing that works so they can get to victims. they groom victims. they find ways of having access to them. and it was really just horrifying to find myself in the shoes that i find myself in, to know that i'm one of thousands of women that he put his hands on for sexual interests, and in criminal, horrible ways. he did it for his own sexual sick desires, and the university basically backed him for all those years. women young enough to be my daughters are his most recent victims. it is unbelievable. >> woodruff: it is so hard to understand, and, as you say, there were so many women -- many women didn't complain, but many did explain. and women who worked in his office, as nurses or aides, they also complained, and yet these
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complaints were turned away. they weren't heeded, listened to, by the university. is there any explanation for why? >> i can think of a couple of things. u.s.c. prides itself on its brand, and that has led to its downfall in many other scandals, not unlike this one. i will say this: the board of u.s.c., i believe, agreed, and the president, i think he backed it, paying dr. tyndall $200,000 to leave before the case broke. and the people that were making this bad decision -- they weren't women or minorities or stakeholders, there wasn't diversity. there wasn't a voice. i think that should be examined in this case. i think it is a problem. >> woodruff: there is also reporting, audry nafziger, that he particularly singled out asian-american women. what do you know about that? >> oh, one of my dear
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friends is asian-american, and she is a survivor, and she is also one of the charged victims in the criminal case, the things he told her, the way he approached her, and he used her race against her because she has told me -- i'm not obviously asian-americanshe has told me in her culture, they don't talk about sex. and if women were going in college to get birth control, which is one of the main reasons people saw him, they couldn't talk to their parents about it because they shouldn't even be having sex outside of marriage. so they were particularly vulnerable to him, and i think he knew that and i think he exploited that. and that's what predators do. they pick their population and they exploit their vulnerability, and that's what he did here. >> woodruff: and given all that has happened, audry nafziger, what more do u. u.s.c. need to do? >> they're going to have to diversify the board and
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change the makeup of the people who make the main decisions. that needs to change and it needs to change right away. u.s.c. should review their internal investigations. they promised to do so. they did an internal investigation -- i think that would show us all of the people who knew and stood by and did nothing. i think those people need to be held to account. that would be meaningful to me, meaningful to all of the survivors. other cases like this, like larry nassar and penn state, other people were held to account, criminally charged and sent to jail. and a lot of people stood by and allowed this to happen. i would like to know who they are and why they didn't do anything. >> woodruff: such a disturbing and painful story. audry nafziger, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: u.s.c. is not the only major university in los angeles dealing with this issue. in januaryu.c.l.a. reached a
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$73 million settlement with more than 5,000 women who were patients of a former gynecologist there, dr. james heaps. he faces more civil litigation, as well as over 20 criminal felony counts related to sexual conduct. heaps has denied the allegations. >> woodruff: two months ago myanmar's military overthrew the civilian government, provoking widespread demonstrations that have left morehan 500 protestors dead. the conflict is now entering a new stage, as demonstrators are uniting with ethnic armed groups. just this evening, the u.s. state department ordered all non-emergency government employees and their families to leave the country.
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this weekend the military bombed one group in karin state, sparking a humanitarian crisis along the thai border. nick schifrin has the story. >> schifrin: along the burmese thai border, the only safe place from airstrikes are caves. they bring mats for matt tress so they can sleep away from nearby homes stained with the blood of victims. they are ethnic koran, fleeing with only what they can carry. many hide out in the forest, many escape by boats to neighboring thailand. many are badly wounded and had no medical attention or sustenance since they fled. >> i haven't eaten anything for two consecutive days. >> reporter: initially hundreds of refugees fled their homes, only to be met with wire and thai soldiers who forced them to return to myanmar. >> they are afraid and scared, and they feel it is not safe for them to
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turn back. they have no choice. >> reporter: akuchi terner is in a group of society groups that work along the board and says military airstrikes are sadly nothing new. >> they are against the burmese, and for many to remove them from our areas. they kill their own people, they murder their own people. this is something they have done to the ethnic area for so long already. >> reporter: myanmar has about 20 ethnic armed groups in yellow, that control about one-third of the country's territory. the koran national union are the o oldest. the aratin army in the rohingya. they targeted the rohingya with scorched earth. these conflicts between the state and ethnic groups go back 75years.
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>> and another piece of far eastern history is made with the signing of the burma treat ta. >> reporter: in 1947, the b burmese government -- >> they were always sort of outside, and they started fighting against the newly formed government, even then. >> reporter: priscilla clap says the myanmar military came to rule the country for decades by keeping ethnic armed groups apart and pitting them against each other. >> the country is very heavily armed. it is awash in armed groups. and if they are all operating separately, the milthemilitary has beenble to keep them more or less under control. but that may be changing. >> reporter: across th country, young protestors opposed to the coup are targeted for death. soldiers are beaten and shooting people in the
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street. this last saturday was the deadliest day since the coup. often the victims are children. 13-year-old siway young was killed by a single bullet to the head. [yelling] >> reporter: his family filled his funeral with a song of revolution, there and burmese anger has fueled widespread anger almost every day for two months. some fightith home made weapons. others are armed with disobedience. the civil disobedience movement has broad tens of thousands of government employees in the streets to grind the country to a halt. and now the koran are protecting and siding with the protestors. the koran recently broke a cease-fire to attack the military's supply lines. that led to this weekend's military airstrikes, and now other ethnic groups are threatening to cancel their ceasefires with the military. >> the army is being increasingly challenged by various different desperate groups in the country that are now
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joining forces. >> reporter: and do you believe that threatens military rule? >> i think it makes the country basically ungovernorable for the military. >> for the young people, we see it is very different from the class. they are very, very smart and (indiscernable) in this fight, and also a light has changed. we can see that they started to understand the suffering of the ethnic people, and also start to realize how bad the military regime is. >> reporter: that realization allows the military's opponents to unify, but the military will continue to use whatever means necessary to hold power. for the pbs "newshour," i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: we turn to another aspect of the on going crisis in myanmar-- rohingya refugees
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forced to flee to cramped refugee camps in bangladesh, battling the cornavirus and now being asked to relocate to a flood prone island. newshour special correspondent tania rashid reports. >> reporter: what were once homes, hospitals, and schools at the world's largest refugee camp burns to ash, as a massive fire rips through these makeshift settlements. 15 people were killed, 400 missing, and tens of thousands displaced. three years ago, the rohingya, a muslim minority group, fled a bloody military crackdown launched by the myanmar military and police bordering bangladesh. mass killings, rapes, and arsons drove close to a million into these sprawling camps in cox's bazar. in a report published in 2019,
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u.n. investigators warned of genocidal intent. the myanmar army denies that, and claims, it only acted against insurgent groups who attacked police. but these fires have uprooted these rohingyas lives again. >> reporter: bangladesh authorities and aid agencies have been providing emergency assistance to over 45,000 homeless refugees. since december, the bangaldeshi government has started moving more than 13,000 refugees from the overcrowded camps to basan char, a remote island in the bay of bengal. according to our local sources, the bangladesh government has offered those affected by the fires help with relocating there now. we visited the low-lying plain in early 2017, back when it was just a undeveloped strip of land with some crude buildings. experts on climate change deemed the land-mass unlivable; but the government said it would be better than the overcrowded
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camps. in a promo video last year, the bangladeshi government claimed to have constructed dams, cyclone shelters, hospitals, mosques, and schools to house 100,000 rohingyas under “safe conditions.” sayed noor said he would consider moving to the island to escape the poor living conditions inside of the camps. >> ( translated ): i think that vasan sor can be better from camp because every apartment is made with brick. >> reporter: his 16-year-old niece fowzia was sent to bhasan char last year by the bangladesh navy after being stranded atea for months when she tried to flee to malaysia. after several attempts to make contact with her, he gets her on the phone to check on her situation. he's been concerned about her safety. >> reporter: she said she's not feeling well and misses her family and wants to go home. after hearing from fouzia, sayed said he would only agree to
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relocate to bhasan char with his family so they can be reunited together. these fires aren't the first ones to happen here. there were two fires in the month of january according to news reports. it is unclear why the fires keep happening. as the bangladesh government continues its investigations into the cause of the fires, the rohingya continue to live in crammed unsanitary living conditions, making them some of the most vulnerable to covid-19. bangladesh' has administered over three million doses of the first vaccine to its citizens, and has initiated plans to include the rohingyas in its national vaccination drive. but so far none have been vaccinated. for now the strict lockdown imposed by the government last year continues, with an 80% decrease of humanitarian aid staff on the ground. essential services including food and medical supplies have
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been allowed into the camps, through specially-arranged checkpoints organized by the bangladesh army. the u.n. refugee agency has teamed up with the bangladesh government to train 1500 community health workers inside the camps to raise awareness about the virus. dr. fahadin aktar works in early responsive care at the camp. >> ( translated ): here first we check their temperature, we set up compulsory hand washing points, all people must wash their hands and maintain proper social distancing. before, five people sat together, but now in one seat, two people sit together with a barrier for social distancing and make sure all patients wear masks so people maintain social >> reporter: despite the efforts, dr. aktar says he's seen a sharp decline in the numbers of rohingya patients. many are scared to go to the hospital. >> ( translated ): those with suspected symptoms are tested and quarantined. this has sparked fear among the rohingya, concerned that they could be sent somewhere else, separate from their families if they share their symptoms.
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>> reporter: the official numbers say there have been only 400 confirmed covid-19 cases and 10 related deaths at the camp. bangladesh authorities insist cases at the camps are increasing at a much slower rate than global trends due to the enforced lockdown. but the longing to go back home remains for many of these refugees despite the ongoing military coup back in myanmar. for weeks, tens of thousands of peaceful protestors have taken to the streets of major cities protesting the military's seized power. in response, the police are cracking down violently with the bloodiest days this past weekend. many rohingya activists we spoke with are hoping their support for the movement in myanmar will be a turning point in their on- going fight for justice, despite the lack of support from ousted leader aung sang suu kyi, who defended the military against accusations of genocide in the hague in 2019.
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but the aftermath of the recent fires have taken their lives for a drastic turn, as the place they sought refuge has put them in limbo yet again. for the pbs newshour, i'm tania rashid. >> woodruff: a record number of bills to limit transgender rights have been introduced this year in state legislatures across the country. john yang reports on how the legal and cultural battles are playing out. >> yang: judy, the arkansas legislature passed a measure prohibiting physians from providing establisd gender- affirming medical care to transgender children. also yesterday, south dakota governor kristi noem issued
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executive orders banning transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams. according to the human rights campaign, an l.g.b.t.q. advocacy group, lawmakers in 28 states are considering 93 bills targeting the rights of transgender americans. and sports bans are in arkansas and mississippi are set to become law this summer. kate sosin is the l.g.b.t.q.+ reporter for the "19th news." >> john: kate, can you give us an idea -- there are a lot of bills, but can you give us an idea sort of the range of things these bills would do? >> yeah. there are currently two main types of bills being considered in legislatures across the country. one, of course, is this transgender sports ban, which mostly seeks to limit transgender participation in sports, particularly transgender young girls playing on girls teams. and then the other is a ban on transgender medical care for youth. so young people, when they reach a certain age, if
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they have gender disphoria, which means they experience mental duress because they are transgender, might not want to go through puberty, so their doctors might prescribe them puberty blockers so they don't have to go through puberty and can make a decision when they're older about whether or not they want to medically transition. and this would make it illegal for them to get that gender-affirming care that medical organizations and doctors have decided is the appropriate care for transgender youth. >> john: kate, why are we seeing these bills? are these in response to anything, response to incidents or cases across the country? >> 2015 saw the advent of marriage equality nationwide, and there was a switch in terms of what lgbtq advocates wanted us to do, and there was a focus from opponents of lgbtq equality, and they
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also wanted to focus on the advancement of transgender rights. so the shift really became a focus and what we call bathroom bills, which was limiting transgender people from using public bathrooms. and the most prominent example that we saw was in north carolina, which passed an anti-trans bathroom measure. that was repealed because the boycotts and the economic fallout were so severe that the state lost -- we $3.76 billion over the course of several years. so those measures time and again failed. they failed at ballot boxes. they failed in the state legislatures. and then the next wave of bills we saw were the sports bills and the medical bans, and that's where we are today. >> john: are there cases of transgender girls trying to play on girls sports teams and creating problems because of that?
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is that what these bills are responding to? >> there are a few examples of transgender girls participating in sports. but by and large, "the associated press" did ask more than a dozen different states' lawmakers, do you have examples of transgender girls where this is an issue? and they said no, this was a preventive measure. so transgender kids have been participating on sports teams for years and years and years, and we haven't this raised as an issue. it seems to only be raised as an issue when transgender girls win in their sports. and we have one prominent example that we can point to, which is connecticut, where two transgender women were successful in their track competitions. andrea and terry. and the fact they were both in connecticut, they're both black trans women, seemed to be the
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genesis for a lot of these bills. >> john: if there are not a lot of cases this is responding to, and there is one case in connecticut, why are all of the other states doing this? why is this coming up now? why so many of these bills? >> there are a few things. one is: a lot of us -- we know a gay person or lesbian person or a bisexual person. and transgender people and children are even less known. this is an issue the american public is less familiar with, and it is easier to legislate around. when we talk about an issue of fairness in women's sport, it is confusing for a lot of people. we all want to support fairness in sports. we all want to support women's rights. so this is an issue that is easily confused. and then, you know, we have this issue of major anti-lgbtq organizations that have taken this up, right? and they have formed
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coalitions and have provided bills to these state lawmakers. you can go on and sign up for them on a legislation in your state and you'll be provided a bill, whether it is on a trans medical ban or a sports measure, just by filling out a form, as if you were signing up for a mailing list. so all these states didn't wake up on the same day and decide to essentially pass these bills in the same year. this is a push for a movement that is responding to the advancement of transgender rights. >> john: is this the latest case in the cultural wars between the political parties? >> you know, this seems to be a response or a tactic to try to bring back, um, white suburban women back to the d.l. p., after touch a loss with the presidential ticket. the question is will it work?
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the polling suggests no. more and more people know transgender people, and there is overwhelming support for the equality act, which would be landmarked lgbtq rights legislation federally. so more and more people support lgbtq rights. more and more people support transgender rights. and this push to limit the rights of transgender youth doesn't necessarily seem to be a winning issue as a wedge issue. so it will be really interesting to see how this plays out as lawmakers push this and the g.o.p. voting base does not seem to support it, according to polling. >> john: kate sosin of the 19th news, thank you very much. >> thank you so much for having me. >> woodruff: the biden administration has announced a
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new plan to substantially expand offshore wind power along the east coast. the president has called for far bigger changes to tackle what many scientists say is a climate crisis, but some are suggesting even more revolutionary ways of dealing with these problems. a new book explores these proposals and historical efforts to combat environmental exploitation and ecological troubles. william brangham has the latest installment of newshour bookshelf. >> brangha in our remarkable success as humans, we have altered the natural world in so many ways, but many of those changes now threaten life on earth. a new book asks, “can we change nature again in order to save it?” elizabeth kolbert's last book, the pulitzer pze winning “the sixth extinction” detailed how humanity's deep footprint has altered life on earth like no other species has. her new book, “under a white sky, the nature of the future,”
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looks at some striking ways we might address that footprint. it's a portrait of, “people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.” elizabeth kolbert, very, very good to have you on the newshour. >> thanks for having me. >> brangham: so, as i mentioned, the focus of this book is on the scientists and researchers who are trying to fix these ecological problems that we've caused by trying to address other problems. you start with the example of the asian carp that were originally introduced into the midwest of the u.s. as a way to address a biological invasive species itself. but then that whole thing got way out of hand. could you give us a just tell us that story? >> sure. so asian carp were introduced purposefully into the sort of southeast in the '60s. this was after rachel carson had published silent spring, sort of ironically, and people were trying to cut down on the use of
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chemicals. one was brought in to fight aquatic weeds because they're voracious weed eaters and a couple others were brought in to deal with the problems that arise from not entirely treated sewage effluent. all four species got loose and are really wreaking havoc throughout the mississippi watershed. >> brangham: the last part of your book addresses ways in which we might address climate change, and most people when they think about dealing with climate change, think about cutting emissions, electric vehicles and things like that, you're talking with researchers who are who are planning a very different kind of intervention. can you tell us a bit about that? >> one of the real difficulties with the challenges with addressing climate change is that carbon dioxide hangs around in the atmosphere for a long time and it will continue to heat the world for a long time, even once we do, and we absolutely have to stop emitting into the atmosphere. so one group of scientists that
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i talked to for the book are trying to come up with ways to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. so that's a very, very active area of research. and then another group of researchers i spoke to at harvard are looking at this idea that you could counter climate change by pouring reflective particles into the stratosphere. and this is what happens when we get a volcanic eruption. we get a lot of sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere that reflects sunlight back to space and we get temporary cooling. so, if we could mimic volcanoes, we could theoretically potentially counteract one form of intervention in the atmosphere with another. >> brangham: i mean, the scale and audacity of some of these interventions really underscores just how severe this crisis is that we're that we are literally talking about putting a particulate umbrella over the earth. >> well, i think it gets back to this idea, which is really central in discussions of
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climate ange. and it's why climate scientists have been warning for so many decades now that we need to get our act together, because once you get the climate that you don't like, there's no going back. >> brangham: it's too late at that point. >> exactly. it's a supertanker. there's a lot of inertia in the system. and as i said, co2 hangs around for a long time. so it's not like a lot of other environmental problems where you stop doing what you were doing and it dissipates after a few years. climate change will continue. we will have an altered climate even after we stop emitting co2, unfortunately. >> brangham: i mean, i know you talked with the researchers about this, but what do they say about the concern that if we focus on what seem like these hail mary interventions, that we may, governments may take their eyes off the very real, practical, tangible way to address climate change, which is cutting emissions today? >> it's a huge concern.
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it's a huge concern for the scientists who are working on these projects that there's what's called the moral hazard problem, that people will, just, as you say, take their eye off the obvious things that we know we need to do in the hopes or with the idea that “oh someone someday is going to solve this with some almost magical technology,” which, in the case of solar geoengineering, as it's called, is completely untested and unproved. so that's certainly a risky thing to bank a planet on to bet a planet on. there's a huge debate and it's going to play out over the coming decades about whether we should even allow experimentation, even tiny little experiments in this field, because will it be a distraction or are we in a pretty bad situation where if something potentially could aid humanity and aid ecosystems like coral reefs, we have to think about it. and that's really the question
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at the heart of the book. >> brangham: the book is "under a white sky, the nature of the future." elizabeth kolbert, so good to have you on the newshour. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: the military prison at guantanamo bay, cuba, took its first 20 detainees in 2002. despite various calls to shutter it, almost 20 years later, it still stands. a new movie now tells the story of a man who spent more than ten years within its walls. amna nawaz takes a look at "the mauritanian," playing in select theaters and now available to rent on demand. it's part of our arts and culture series, canvas. >> nawaz: in 2016, mohamedou slahi was allowed to return home
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to mauritania after being held for 14 years at the u.s. military prison at guantanamo bay. he was never charged. his book, comprised of letters to his lawyer, was read by millions worldwide. >> i am innocent! i am innocent! okay? >> nawaz: now millions more can watch his story, in the movie“ the mauritanian.” >> not in my wildest dreams have i ever dreams have i ever dreamed that my story, after so much silence, after so much stifling, would not only be known in a book, but also that book is turned into a major motion picture. >> nawaz: slahi, played by actor tahar rahim, was picked up by mauritanian police two months after 9/11. in august 2002, he was moved to guantanamo bay. one of hundreds detained by the u.s. as enemy combatants. >> i think there were some people who were hungering for the message "we got them." and i think that for those who think about guantanamo and see
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it as men in orange jumpsuits on their knees, the message that "we got them" was very raw at the time. >> nawaz: the "new york times'" carol rosenberg has covered the prison for years. >> guantanamo is more than a place, in some ways. it is the idea that you can pick people up and move them halfway around the globe, and hold them as indefinite detainees in this war on terror, in this war that hanobody on the other side to >> nawaz: the u.s. accused slahi of recruiting the 9/11 hijackers and supporting al qaida. they cited a phone call he once received from osama bin laden's spiritual advisor, a relative of slahi's. slahi, who fought with the u.s.- backed rebels in afghanistan in the 1990's, says he never supported al qaida, and he didn't know that phone call was from bin laden's satellite phone. >> i always told myself, at the end of the day, i didn't do wrong to anyone. >> nawaz: he was tortured by his american interrogators. subjected to solitary confinement, physical beatings,
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and sexual humiliation. they threatened to kidnap, rape, and kill his family. for actor, tahar rahim, playing slahi came with extraordinary pressure. >> i was scared because i knew he was watching the movie. and of course, he was the first audience member i wanted to please. >> nawaz: but the role, which has earned him golden globe and british academy award nominations, also meant a chance to challenge stereotypes. >> it's very rare to read a script, so to see a movie, with a muslim sympathetic character at the center of a hollywood movie. i don't want to be typecast and i don't want to be an instrument to tell those type of stories >> nawaz: to prepare, rahim lost 20 pounds. he learned two new arabic dialects. he had the set temperature turned down to the freezing cold slahi endured, and insisted on real shackles. why go to such lengths?
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>> to convey authenticity to the director, to the audience, and especially to mohamedou. out of rpect to him. >> nawaz: inside guantanamo, slahi endured months of brutal interrogations. eventually, he broke. signing a false confession. the government used it as evidence, but slahi never saw the case against him. in 2005, with the help of lawyer nancy hollander, played by jodie foster, he filed a writ of habeas corpus. >> there was no case. but it took us a long time to show that there was nothing. >> nawaz: to help his defense, hollander says she urged slahi to write down his story. >> you're asking me to set fire to this place but i'm still sitting here. >> then write it down! that's what the pages are for. write it down. you need to tell me. >> i don't need to tell you nothing! whatever i say, it doesn't
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matter. this ( bleep ) island, i'll die here! outside, my family, my brother, their lives go on. but me here, i'm like a statue. >> i was so scared and so afraid and i didn't feel like my lawyer appreciated how much fear i was in. >> nawaz: despite the fear, he ote. trusting hollander with hs story, and with his life. over years, their bond grew. >> what do you want me to sign, nancy? who am i suing today god? >> no one today. >> why are you here? >> no reason in particular. i just didn't want you to be alone. >> we loved each other. we cared about each other. we had become family.
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>> nawaz: in 2010, a judge ruled the government had no grounds to hold slahi. he was ordered released. but an appeals process kept him at guantanamo another six years. >> there was a time when mahamadou said to me, "if this is what allah has for me, i can do it, as long as they're not torturing me." and i said to him, "i'll be here. i'll be here until we get you out." >> nawaz: why did you make that promise to him? how did you know you could keep it? >> i knew that i would never give up with him. >> nawaz: slahi was released in october 20. today, he says he holds no ill will towards his captors. >> i set them free to set myself i expected to meet someone maybe with resentment, anger. and none of that. he goes like, when you come to realize the forgiving people who did bad things to you as a treat you give yourself, you set your mind free.
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>> nawaz: some, like hollander, hope the power of thistory helps propel change long overdue. >> we want this film to make a change. we want it to be part of what closes guantanamo. that brings us back to the rule of law. we cannot have indefinite detention anywhere, any time in the united states. >> nawaz: despite pledges by presidents obama and now biden to close it, guantanamo bay remains open. 40 men are held there today. in what's become the world' most expensive prison, at an annual cost of $13 million per prisoner. >> guantanamo bay is a complete insult to the dignity not only of those in guantanamo bay, but american people, because the american people, by and large, are good people and they deserve better than guantanamo bay. >> nawaz: for the pbnewshour, i'm amna nawaz.
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>> woodruff: and tonight on the pbs newshour online, what is safe to do once you've gotten a vaccine? as access to the shots expands, it is becoming a more pressing question for millions of americans. we talked to we talked to epidemiologists and public health experts about what they recommend as the weather gets warmer, keeping vaccination status, setting and the people you're with in mind. read more on our website, that's status and the type of setting where you are gathering in order to stay safe. you can find that and more on our website pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon.
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>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, docratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.
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[upbeat music] - hello everyone and welcome tomanpour & co. we're looking back at some great shows and compelling conversations. in early february protesters were on thstreets of myanmar, making their voices heard against the military coup. the crackdown had not yet started, but the world was watching events unfold. at the same time on the other side of the world, donald trump's second impeachment trial was underway. we learn more about the rioters who stormed the capitol on january 6. and rising music star phoebe bridgers told me about her path to fame and smashing up her guitar on stage. that's all coming up. [upbeat music] - [female narrator] amanpour & company is made possible by the anderson family fund, sue and edgar wachenheim iii,
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