captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a deadly surge-- india suffers hundreds of thousands of new infections of covid 19, overwhelming hospitals and burial groundscross the country. then, making it count-- the results of the latest census are released, potentially altering the future balance of power in washington. and, major changes-- questions remain as the biden administration ends the "remain in mexico" policy for refugees seeking legal asylum at the southern border. >> none of these families have actually won their asylum claim.

all of them are in immigration proceedings and a good number of them are going to face deportation at some date in the future. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: investments-- what's new? >> well, audrey's expecting... >> twins! >> grandparents. >> we want to put money aside for them, so, change in plans. >> all right, let's see what we can adjust. >> we'd be closer to the twins. >> change in plans. >> okay. >> mom, are you painting again? you could sell these. >> let me guess, change in plans? >> at fidelity, changing plans is always part of the plan.

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>> 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: india is in crisis tonight as covid-19 infections pass 350,000 a day, with more than 2,800 deaths. the biden administration says it will send a range of help to india and will share up to 60 million doses of astrazeneca vaccine with other nations. we'll return to india after the news summary. the u.s. supreme court agreed today to new arguments on the right to carry a gun in public. it will be the first such case since justice amy coney barrett gave conservatives a 6 to 3 majority. at issue is whether new york's gun permit law violates the second andment. the u.s. justice department is

launching a full-scale review of police tactics in louisville, kentucky. it comes a year after police shot and killed breonna taylor during a raid at her home. chief erika shields said today her force welcomes the investigation. >> they want to get it right. they want the community to be proud of them. and so i look at this as an opportunity to quicken the pace in which we can make those changes essential so that the community trusts us and believes in us. >> woodruff: the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis prompted a similar justice department announcement last week. such investigations were sharply curtailed during the trump years. in turkey, more than 100 people associated with a pro-kurdish party went on trial today over mass protests in 2014. prosecutors claim the defendants organized and incited violence.

the kurds say it is the latest step in an ongoing crackdown on them. the president of turkey today rejected president biden's decision to label the killings of armenians during world war i as genocide. recep tayyip erdogan called the move unfounded. but, he said he hopes the two nato allies can still work together. >> ( translated ): we now need to put aside the issues that poison the relations between the two countries and look at what steps we can take from now on, otherwise we will have no choice but to do what is required by the level our ties have fallen to. >> woodruff: all told, an estimated 1.5 million armenians died in deportations and massacres, starting in 1915. they were living in the ottoman empire, the precursor to what is now turkey. a leaked interview with iran's top diplomat caused a stir today. among other things, mohammad javad zarif said russia had wanted to stop iran's 2015

nuclear deal. he also criticized qassem soleimani, the late revolutionary guard commander for pressing military gains over diplomacy. soleimani was killed in a u.s. drone strike in 2020. back in this country, the census bureau announced the u.s. population topped 331 million in the 2020 count. that's up 7.4% from the 2010 census, the second lowest increase ever. the numbers also show republican-run states in the south and west gaining more congressional seats. we'll have a detailed look, later in the program. and, on wall street, blue chips slipped, but the rest of the market hit new highs. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 62 points to close at 33,981. the nasdaq rose 122 points to a record close, and, the s&p 500 added just seven points, but

also finished at a high. still to come on the newshour: india suffers hundreds of thousands of new infections of covid 19. the biden administrationnds the "remain in mexico" policy for refugees seeking asylum. what we learn from the latest critical census results. plus much more. >> woodruff: india is in a dire covid crisis. while the biden administration pledged to share tens of millions of doses of the astrazeneca vaccine with india and other countries, that vaccine still must be approved by the food and drug administration, and those doses will not arrive in india for

me time. the country is breaking new records daily today, india reported more than 350,000 new cases and 2800-plus deaths. many experts believe those numbers are ghastly undercounts, and do not reflect the true impact. william brangham talks with one of those experts in a moment. but let's begin with a report from john ray of independent television news. >> death and grief, in aroundia both are now on heart-breaking public display. >> where a son begs for his father's body to be taken to the creme torium for his last rites. where the virus has returned at such speed it has far outpaced this country's ability to cope. sunita mourns for her brother, just 45 years old. covid is claiming every younger

victims. he was a hospital worker, where patients lie in make shift ward, where every life hangs by the slender thread of an oxygen tube in a land where oxygen is just one more fatal shortage. it brings panic and fuels soaring black market prices. we met a family of sanjit. is he struggling to breathe in the back of this car. they finally secured oxygen for him but it proves to be too late. we have driven here and there and everywhere to find help, said his brother. their mother cannot be consoled. if we had oxygen in time, he would have survived, he says. but the hospital couldn't get him any. >> the health-care system is in crisis, i will say that. we are short of oxygen.

we are short of normal based ventilators, medicine, there is a. >> and in the country that is home to the world's biggest manufacturer of vaccine, too often there is none. in mum buy today crowd-- mumbai crowd queueed for without regard to social distance. aid from overseas, ventilators and machines to make oxygen will arrive tomorrow it can't come too soon for this young woman, denied a bed at a hospital in delhi and left instead to the care of her family on the pavement outside. to t a nation in shock. crying out for help. >> that report >> brangham: that was john ray, of independent television news. now, let's focus more let's talk a little bit more

about india's crisis and what the u.s. might do to help. i'm joined by dr. ashische j what. dr. jha always great to you have back on the newshour, we heard a young doctor in that report describe how the system, the overall deterioration in every sector of india's public health system. you've said that the medical system there is on the brink of collapse. what might that look like if that were to happen? >> yeah, william, this is a very difficult situation that india finds itself in. there has been chronic underinvestment both in the alth care and public health system of india. it was not ready to cope with a crisis of this size. and what that means is that hospital beds are running out, doctors and nurses are getting infected at alarming rates and obviously that means that for people who have covithere is no place to get car. but it is also a tragedy for everybody else who needs health care, if you have a heart attack or a stroke or get into a car accident.

there really isn't a recourse. it is a system that is on the brink of collapsing and it will have huge health affects and over types of effects for long periods of time. >> and if as you and others have argued that india's already astronomically high number of infections is an undercount, those stressed out hospitals haven't even seen the worst of it yet. >> that's what i am worried about. i think that there is not yet a realization, certainly among indian policy makers that this is now turning around quickly. one of the things we learned from the surges in the united states is you see infections rise and hospitalizations follow 7 to 10 days later and death follows a couple of weeks after that. india is still seeing increasing numbers of infection. hospitalizations are going to continue rising and the problem is there are no hospital beds. and the wave of patients will continue and unless we expand capacity substantially, those patients will have no place to

go. >> brangham: we have spent a long time dissecting what went wrong with the u.s. response and what cost so many lives here. do you have a good sense of how india got to today? meaning could this have been prevented? >> it absolutely could have been prevented. it's frustrating to watch what happened because in so many ways the government of india made exactly the same mistakes that other countries including others made last year. you know, numbers of infections had come way down, by january or early february, and it was a sense that india had show bateen covid but when the infections started raising again, partly because things opened up, the government had large political rallies, there was the major religious festival where millions of people came together in one city. and infection numbers were rising and there was denial. and it was only when it was no longer possible to deny the flood of very, very sick patients that the government has

come to acknowledge that this really is a crisis. but many of us have been watching this for months, the last two months and trying to sound the alarm. but unfortunate leigh it has not been met with an effective response. >> so the u.s. in the last two days have announced it is going to try to help out. it is going to release some of its astrazeneca vaccine we have been sitting on, that may take months to get to india. help with oxygen supplies, therapeutics, personal protective gear. these are all things you argue the u.s. should have been doing. do you think this steps will help in a substantial way? >> i do. i do. of course the size of the problem is enormous. and no one country, not even the united states alone can do it. but the united kingdom, germany, the saudis, others have also stepped up to offer help. india has a lot of internal capacity that it can also start mobilizing. all of this put together, i really do think it makes a

substantial difference. but everybody needs to be pitching in. the size of india's problem is really astronomical and no one person, no one country alone is going to be able to solve this. >> there is obviously a moral case to be made for why we should help a country in such dire straits, but there is also, given the way these variants are spreading, there is also a public health case to be made that we need to help everyone get a handle on this. >> yeah, absolutely. one of the things to remember, this is a global pandemic. and things that happen in one place spread quickly. if you think about the variants that have arisen out of south africa or brazil or the u.k., they're all here in the united states. then we have seen new variants out of india also in the united states. and this is the reality of a dplobballized world. so there are many, many reasons to help india, certainly a moral one, a certain geo political one. but also the simple fact that

you have got a lot of opportunity for infections in india, a lot of opportunity for more var yanses mu taitions, thattic mass the world less safe. so whatever your reason foreign gaging, the key is we all have to engage and bring i feks numbers way down. >> lastly, the ten democratic senators have urged the biden administration to waive temporarily the intellectual property rites for certain vaccines. know that the prime minister mentioned that president biden today, do you think that would help if we osened those restrictions to allow other people to make more vaccine? would that help india today? >> you know, i think the intellectual property issue is important, it certainly is part of it. but i worry that we're getting distracted by this. this is not the biggest constraint. if we relax all it rights i don't think it would add much to vaccine to the global supply. we need to build out capacity.

vaccines are hard things to make. and the intellectual property is not the biggest thing holding us back. there is a lot of other work. but i think the biden administration should be taking on and expanding capacity. so i want to relax those it standards but i don't want to think that that is show going to solve these issues. >> all right, dr. ashische rha, always good to sigh, thank you. >> woodruff: in february, president biden announced plans to wind down ¡remain in mexico,' the name given to the trump administration policy that forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in mexico while immigration courts considered their cases. but thousands of asylum seekers are still waiting in mexico and

even those who've been allowed into the u.s. have an uncertain future. amna nawaz has our report from el paso, texas. >> nawaz: after years of waiting in mexico, these asylum seekers' first stop in the u.s. is here, in el paso, texas. among them, 40 year old h, from guatemala. we're using just her first initial to protect her. she told me how difficult her journey had been. h was among the thousands of people stuck in m.p.p.-- the migrant protection protocol program. launched by former president trump, it forced people seeking asylum to remain in mexico, while their court cases unfolded in the u.s. those cases ground to a halt in the pandemic, leaving h and her teenage son, who fled gang violence, stranded in ciudad juarez. did you have any idea when you'd be allowed to come to the u.s.? >> ( translated ): not really. they only told us that if we wanted to enter, we'd be going to court, they'd give us the date on when to be there and return. that was the expectation of us.

>> nawaz: but in february, president biden prioritized 25,000 active m.p.p. cases for processing, trying to wind down his predecessor's policy. >> i make no apologies for ending programs that did not exist before trump became president that have an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity. >> nawaz: h was among those cases. she was screened by u.s. officials, tested for covid, and brought to this shelter in texas. but she arrived alone. a year earlier, she tells us, her teenage son decided he couldn't wait in limbo anymore, and decided to cross the border on his own, without telling her. how long was it before you knew that he'd safely made it into the u.s? >> ( translated ): for three days, i didn't know anything. he was alone, all on his own, only 17, just a kid. >> nawaz: ruben garcia is the director here at ane, a volunter network that offers support to

refugees and migrants. he's done this work for 40 years, and met recently with homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas on his visit to el paso. garcia says he welcomes biden's unwinding of m.p.p., which he calls so far very orderly. every day, he receives about 120 people with m.p.p. cases at his shelter. >> when they first arrived there, they're desperate to get to their families and to say this part is now over. and for many of them, it's been a nightmare because they've had to learn to survive in a foreign environment, in an environment where there is a certain level of risk and danger. >> nawaz: but he warns there is a long, uncertain road ahead. >> none of these families have actually won their asylum claim. all of them are in immigration proceedings and a good nber of them are not going to win their asylum claim and are going to face deportation at some date in

the future. >> nawaz: the biden administration is now moving people with m.p.p. cases through multiple ports of entry-- brownsville, el paso, laredo, hidalgo, and san diego. eagle pass, texas last week became the sixth port of entry processing m.p.p. cases. so far, they've processed more than 7,000 cases. meaning many thousands more still remain in mexico. among them, diosmany. he's been waiting in nogales for two years. >> ( translated ): the government doesn't give you an exact date of when you would be able to enter or when your next court appearance would be or when you have to enter the u.s. to stand in front of a judge. nothing. >> nawaz: diosmany and his wife lidsay say they fled political persecution and threats in cuba and asked for asylum after crossing the u.s. border. forced to wait in mexico, he says they faced new threats. >> ( translated ): there's organized crime, the mafia,

people who assault you, people who rape women. everything. i am fearful day in and day out. i hardly ever leave my house. >> nawaz: fearful of staying, the couple tried again to enter the u.s. this time, osmany's wife was allowed to stay in the u.s. but he was sent back to mexico. >> ( translated ): in separating me from my wife, allowing her into the u.s. and deporting me, the u.s. doesn't realize that i'm in the same grave danger as she is. >> nawaz: while diosmany waits in mexico, and the border is officially “closed,” u.s. officials are seeing record numbers of border crossings. according to customs and border protection, that number has been growing rapidly this year to more than 170,000 in march, a 15-year high. recidivism is high, most people crossing are single adults, and most are immediately turned back across the border under a pandemic-related rule, but some,

like diosmany's wife, are being allowed to stay in the u.s. and pursue asylum claims. >> whether you enter irregularly between ports or whether you wait and present at a port of entry, you're supposed to have access to asylum. and for the past two years, that that really hasn't been true. >> nawaz: alex miller is managing attorney of the border action team at the florence project, a legal services organization based in arizona. she's working on diosmany's case, among others. >> the ports of entry are closed to the vast majority of asylum seekers in danger in mexico. what that means then is they see this increase in individuals who are actually succeeding, that are deciding to cross through the desert or over a wall or through rivers and that are actually entering the united states. and they think, okay, well, maybe i should just try. that could be me, o. >> nawaz: but the data shows, even though more people in total have been granted asylum in recent years, denial rates have also soared, from around 54% in 2016, to a record-high 71% by

the end of 2020. numbers reveal the odds of winning an asylum case depend heavily on having a lawyer and country of origin, with those from honduras, guatemala, and mexico having the least success. even as asylum rules have narrowed, the forces causing people to emigrate have only gotten worse. >> things are not going to change until we address them at the root cause. >> nawaz: democratic congresswoman veronica escobar represents texas's 16th district, which includes el paso. >> we've got to address the root causes in terms of climate, the climate crisis, drugs, criminal activity in neighboring countries, crushing poverty. the more that you close off legal avenues for people to try to get in through legal processes, you're going to see an increase in irregular crossing or undocumented crossing. >> nawaz: those who make it into the u.s. face another part of the broken system. with so many cases and so few people to process them, it can take years to stand before a judge. >> that is part of the brokenness of the system. >> nawaz: doris meissner is a

senior fellow at the migration policy institute and a former commissioner of the immigration and naturalization service and acknowledges why people apply for asylum, but says most claims don't meet the standard. >> those are real reasons for leaving their countries. but for most of them, they are not reasons that ultimately qualify for asylum under u.s. law, under the international definitions. thbig need on the u.s. side is an asylum system that is fixed in a way that actually makes it possible to make those decisions, but make them in a way that is not only fair but timely, which means months, not years. >> nawaz: h is now headed to kansas, to stay with her sister. her son is already there and they'll be reunited soon. after that, she doesn't know what will happen. >> ( translated ): i hope i will eventually find work. i am praying to god that i win my asylum case. i have faith that god will help

me. >> nawaz: she and her son have made it to the u.s. whether or not they can stay, remains to be seen. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz in el paso, texas. >> woodruff: the first batch of results from the 2020 census count are in. the bureau released state population numbers today and revealed how the balance of power in the u.s. house of representatives has been reset for the next decade. lisa desjardins has the story. >> good afternoon. >> desjardins: rarely is a sedate zoom call this politically dramatic. >> the south grew the fastest over the last decade, with a 10.2% increase in population, >> desjardins: with jewel-toned backgrounds, u.s. census staff

announced population shifts that could change the red and blue balance in congress. >> let's get to the results you've all been waiting for. >> desjardins: the bureau showed three states in the south have gained enough population to add seats in congress; texas, gaining two seats. and north carolina and florida, one a piece. the other three states adding one each are west-- colorado, montana and oregon. in turn seven states will lose one seat each: california and then a cluster of rust belt states: west virginia, pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, illinois and new york. for new york, some sting to the loss, officials said the state needed to count just 89 more people to keep all of its congressional seats. reporters triple checked that. >> wow. that's a big loss for just 89 people. >> i can just confirm that the number, when you calculate it, is 89. >> desjardins: this after the census and its army of workers faced a plague of challenges. coinciding with a once-a-century pandemic was just one.

the count is as critical a ever. it determines how many seats each state gets in the house of representatives. and it guides at least a trillion dollars to state and local governments for programs like medicaid, medicare, school lunches, and more. hansi lo wang covers the census for npr. how big a deal is the announcement today? >> this is a very big deal. this is a culmination of nearly a decade's worth of planning and execution last year, and this is a once a decade reset of the national political map. >> desjardins: hence the massive drive for responses. >> counting everyone in your home helps support your neighborhood for the next ten years, by funding things like schools, hospitals and busses. >> desjardins: but like so much in 2020, the census was hit with unprecedented acts of god and man. march 2018: the trump administration adds a question asking if people are u.s. citizens.

ultimately the supreme court blocks the idea, but it raises confusion and fear in some immigrant communities. january 2019: the partial government shutdown furloughs some census staff during a critical preparation time. march 2020: the coronavirus hits, precisely as census forms are mailed out. the agency delays its field operations for almost two months. september 2020: hurricanes and wildfires across the country hit, causing thousands to flee their homes, causing thousands to flee their homes during the crucial final full month of counting. >> the 2020 census was just a mess. >> desjardins: wang says the layers of issues add to regular questions about undercounted groups: people of color, immigrants and rural americans. >> and for the 2020 census, all of these groups face a higher risk of being undercounted because the census bureau was really strapped to try to get doorknockers out to communities while there were lockdowns in place, while there were major public health concerns, as well

as the trump administration cutting short the cutting short, the amount of time a doorknockers had to reach these households. >> desjardins: census officials today stood by their count. >> we feel very confident that we did a good job of collecting data in spite of the covid-19 outbreak. >> desjardins: even so, states that lost, like new york, are sure to be unhappy. along with some states that gained, like florida, which expected two new seats, not just one. it's too late to add more population, but states do have one option: to appeal these numbers in court. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: to dive deeper into the political ramifications of the census data released today, i'm joined by amy walter of the cook political report. so hello amy, take that deeper dive and tell us a little more about how democrats, republicans are affected at the congressional level and then nationally. >> sure. well, let's start with the winners. on the map we saw that texas was

the biggest winner picking up two seats. but you also notice something lse here. republicans have to be happy with the fact that texas, florida and north carolina all gaining seats, not only are these states that president trump then president trump won in the 2020 election and the 2016 election but they also are three states that are controlled completely by republicans. so republicans control the entire redistricting process in those states that are tbing to pick up four congressional seats. democrats, you know, oregon, colorado, are two states that biden carried. president biden carried in 2020. that is helpful to them. and let's go to the losers. we have more states here, seven states that are losing one congressional district. for democrats, you know, you look at some of those big dark blue state, the ones that are

the pilars for the electoral college or platform, for democrats to build on. new york, illinois, california, all the states losing seats, not great for democrats. republicans losing a seat in west virginia, that has become now the most republican state in the country after wyoming. and ohio, a state that used to be a swing state is now much more republican leaning. overall we are looking at the national picture right now. if we put this map into play in the 2020 election, all right, so everything else remains the same, it would shift just three electoral votes. three electoral votes away if biden toward trump. so instead of having 306 electoral votes in the vict re, it would be 303 electoral votes. it doesn't seem like much but when these races are decided by such a narrow margin, even one electoral vote can be critical.

>> ef resingle one. and one can matter. and amy, tell us what about in terms of drawing congressional district line, what are we learning about that? >> that's right. this is a portion so this is the part where the state's learn did you gain or did you lose a seat but the real nitty gritty is going to come later this summer when the details-- detailed data is released and you start drawing those lines. that is when you hear words like gerrymander. even states that aren't maining or losing unless you are a state that only has one congressional district, you have to redraw your line. population shifted. think about a place like georgia where the atlanta suburbs have been booming, not so much in the other parts in the state. you have to readjust those congressional lines am you can gain or lose a seat as a party just because, even if you are not gaining or losing a congressional district, right. the good news for democrats, they have more control over the

process than they did in 2010, the last time the lines were drawn. the bad news for democrats, the good news for republicans is that republicans still control more than twice as many congressal district lines in terms of, they have total control for drawing that many more lines. that is likely to help, as i said, especially in places that are fast growing, texas, north carolina, but also in a place like georgia where democrats have made really big gains in these last two years, but republicans control the entire line drawing process. and so what you may see there is democrats actually winning two senate seats but in the next upcoming election they may lose a congressional district. >> so much depends on who controls these states, the state legislature. amy walter, stay with us. we will now bring in someone you know very well, npr's tamara keith joining the conversation for politics monday. hello tam. so let's pivot, tam.

from talking about what is coming down the line so what is going on right now. and that is two nights from now, wednesday night, president biden making his joint address to congress as he approaches 100 days in office. i know you have been talking to a lot of people. what are you hearing that people expect him to say wednesday. >> yeah, and this one is coming a little bit later than these joint addresses traditionally are. which means that president biden has more accomplishments to talk about, and really his administration held off on scheduling these until they were able to pitch the next thing. so this address is certainly going to talk about what has happened, 200 million covid vaccine shots in arms by a ndred days. president biden will inevitably say that people wouldn't think it was possible. and you know, there is still the argument that there was a bit of underpromising and overdeliverring. but then they are using this

speech and the very big audience that traditionally comes comes a joint address to push for the next phase of the infrastructure plan which isn't really about infrastructure. it's about child care and families, they're calling it the american family plan. so he is going to take advantage of this very big audience to talk about the thing that he and his administration would probably be talking about for the rest of the summer. >> and meantime, amy, the speech comes as we're seeing some new polls about how the president is being seen by the american people, the consensus seams to be a little more than half approve of the job he's doing. tell us por about what you see in those numbers. >> yeah, so you know, president biden coming into this address with pretty decent approval rating numbers, averaging right now about 54 percent approval rating. that is a big improvement from

say where president trump was at is stage in his presidency. in fact, during the entirety of president trump's presidency, he never once hit a 50% job approval rating. but it's much lower than previous presidents had seen in the so called honeymoon phase of the presidency where you saw folks like george w. bush after a very contentious 2,000 election, is looking at approval ratings in the '60s, as was president obama, at this point. so i think what this tells us is that you know, this is president biden won the election with 51, a little over 51 percent of the vote, his approval rating, somewhere around 54 percent. so basically he is holding on to everybody that he won in the election and bringing some new folks over, probably those are not republicans, republicans are pretty united in their dislike of the president but getting independence over to your side, in these races that are going to be so critical, 2022, 2024,

winning over independents is what brings you from, into the w colume. >> and tam, were you telling us, this is a reminder of how we really are in a different political environment right now. >> yeah, absolutely. as amy eluded to, former president trump stayed in a fairly narrowed band. he maintained the support of his base. while president biden is, you know, we don't have a lot of data to go for. we are only a hundred days in. but he is in a fairly narrow band too. so far. he is very near where he was when he won. and it may really truly just be a function of how polarized our politics are now that even though there is pretty good approval for president biden's handling of the pandemic, overall how do you feel about the president, it's pretty locked in. and it's unclear what could

change that because people have really just gone into their corners. >> so given that, amy, what is the space for republicans to make their case. we know senator kim scott, of south carolina is going to be giving the republican, official republican response on wednesday night. what kind of thicks can they talk about, can they say to make their case? >> i think what you will hear a lot about from republicans, we'll see if senator scott make this case as well is on the issue of immigration t is the one place when you look at the polling with president biden is deeply underwater. as tam said, he's getting really high, marks for his handling of the coronavirus in the '60s, that is not translate tok yefer all suppt, support on the shoof immigration, really low, that hasn't dragged his numbers down either. but it's clearly a place of weakness for this administration.

and i expect to see republicans talk about that. and then the price tag for all of the spending, i think we will hear a lot more about budget deficits, we'll hear a lot more about, y k reigning in federal spending at a time when democrats believe that the public is hungry for more investment. and so what republicans do need to do to make their case for less funding is to suggest that spending more is both going to raise the deficit and it also could come at a cost to individuals. the president says no one who is making over $400,000 is going to get taxed, this is all going to come from corporation. i think what you will hear from republicans is yeah, but at some point that is going to come down to you. tax cuts or tax increases, to businesses, end up being increases, at whatever you are buying from that place eventually, goes to the consumer. >> and tam, just quickly, this is something the white house is prepared for, bracing themselves

for? >> well, if you watch the white house press briefing they brought in the economic advisor to explain why this really isn't a tax increase on regular people or small businesses, that this is really just targeted-- but even less than the top 1 percent. so they are aware that this is coming. the other arment that they are prepared for is the argument that hey, you guys are tucking about a lot of things that aren't really infrastructure. which is where this house has been trying to sort of push the idea that this isn't about infrastructure, but is more about the undergirding of the u.s. economy and things that are needed to create jobs or more fairness. and a lot of these policies are fairly popular in the abstract. and democrats and the white house are going to have to work to keep them popular, while republicans work to make them less popular or to make people

care more about immigration than some of these other things. >> so when is infrastructure really infrastructure and when is if really something else. all right. tamara keith, amy walter, so great to have both of you tonight. thank you. 7. >> you're welcome. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: tonight's brief but spectacular features linda maduwura. raised in zimbabwe, she came to the u.s. in 2006, where she studied to become an accountant. she now has her own practice that creates new opportunities for her fellow zimbabweans back home. >> one. things i have always understood coming to the united states was that africans have generally been portrayed as basket weaver, coffee bean farmers. but we're more than that. when you look at the grand spectrum of what africans have been able to do within the

united states, they're everything. they're doctors, they're engineers. they're venture capitalist, they're mathematicians and i really wanted to do my part to change that narrative. i was born and raised in a small mining town in zimbabwe. i am the only girl in a family of five. the expectation my parents had for me were very different than for my brother. their expectations of me were that i would become a good african housewife. i would cook andlean for my family. and i remember the yearning for the books that my brother would get from the library, that he never read. in my heart i knew i wanted to be an accountant. and when i got to school i snuck away from the fabrics class and into the accounting class. somewhere along e line my parents had realized i was probably just as smart as the boys and wanted to give me the same opportunity as the boys. i am a cpa, by profession. and when i first moved to the

u.s. i recall taking weekend classes. i drove every weekend to take extra classes so that i could qualify to sit for the exam. i had a young child, my family was young, we just moved to a new city. but within about two or three years i had done enough to sit for the exam. and i recall the very long and late hours that my husband, who when i first met, hi told him the most important thing to me in a man is he his ability to do laundry. can i not tell you how valuable that was in those years. my practice, is a solution for venture capital and high net worth individuals. five after partners was formed in 2017. it is named after a street in the capitol hurari, that street has so many memories for me. i met my husband there. i walked down the street on five avenue to my very first job. zimbabwe has a very high i little rassee rate so one of the critical things i wanted to make sure was that whatever we did,

the solution we brought to our clients was a cloud baisessed solution that allowed folks in zimbabwe to work for us, and make an honest living. currently folks have to ork in the middle of the night because that is when reliable-- is available. the thg that eck abouts my heart the most, is the lack of opportunity. there is plenty of women, plenty of young girls out there who are smart who are driven, who have ambition, but they lack the opportunity. what i would say to any girl who feels like maybe their dreams are not heard, maybe no one is listening, ask yourself, what breaks your heart, because when you can answer that question, i really believe that you will harness everything within you to be able to push yourself to do beyond what you could ever, ever imagine that you could possibly do. as a girl who made it out of a small village of 8,500 people, there is a reason i'm here. and i have got to make sure that i use the opportunities awarded

to to me to help somebody else who otherwise would never be able to dream of such an opportunity. my name is linda madawura, and this is my brief but spectacular take on creating opportunity. >> woodruff: just wonderful. and you can find all of our and you can find all of our brief but spectacular segments online at: pbs.org/newshour/brief. this was no traditional year for the movies, or the oscar awards. audiences ratings last night were down nearly 60%. but there were excellent films, performances and more diversity in the nominations. daniel kaluuya won best supporting actor for his portrayal of black panther leader fred hampton in "judas and the black messiah" yuh jung youn won best supporting actress for "minari." and chloe zhao became the first woman of color to win best

director for "nomadland". that film won best picture and best actress for frances mcdormand as well. it focuses on how some americans are having to scale back and live a minimalist lifestyle on the road. our economics correspondent paul solman reported last fall on what that life is like and spent time with one of the nomads in the movie. here's a second look, part of his series, "unfinhed business." a note: portions of this story were shot before the pandemic. >> this whole entire industry is just exploding right now. >> reporter: at“ nomadikcustoms,” marc vroman and his crew retrofit vehicles to live in. >> i think with the combination of just how things are in the world right w, people are really wanting to jump into vans and busses and just alternative housing situations. >> reporter: these days the hashtag vanlife business is booming. vroman's hired eight new workers, but still can't keep up. >> at last count, i think i had

something like 180 estimates to write, probably another 400 emails to return. and probably i think yesterday alone, we we received 37 phone calls. i feel like i hopped on to a rocket ship and i have just been doing everything i can to hold on! >> reporter: the last half year of lost jobs has spurred a desire to escape. cheap mobile living enables it. but lots of folks, many older, were on the road before the vanlife hashtag, inspired by this 65-year-old. >> wouldn't you like to be out here and see and live like this? i love my life. >> reporter: youtube celeb bob wells moved into a van 25 years ago when divorce left him unable to meet the rent in anchorage, alaska. >> i knew i could live comfortably in a van on 1400 a month, because no house payment, no utility payments. i had solar, i was my own utility company. i enjoyed it. that was the amazing thing. >> reporter: enjoyed it so much, in fact, he created a website,“ heaprvliving.com,” and then a

youtube channel to teach others to downsize and thrive on wheels. >> finding heat in your van is a really important issue for a lot of us. everything you need to stay clean is right here. the topic of today is poop. >> reporter: wells' videos, viewed over 80 million times, preach the simple life, especially appealing right now to those ages 55-70, some three million of whom have been shoved out of the workforce. >> 25% of americans don't have a penny saved towards retirement. so in 10 years, 5, 10, 20 years that 25% are going to be living on social security. and social security won't be enough for them to live on. >> thanks for all you do. >> reporter: every winter in quartzsite, arizona, wells' devotees convene at the “r.t.r”" -- the “rubber tramp rendezvous,” for seminars and community. >> i feel like i'm a disciple. you're moses and i'm the disciple. you're spreading the word. >> reporter: wells, a self- described introvert, is their

celebrity guru. >> there's a lot of us here who are on social security, they're and their social security is anywhere from 600 to 1000 a month. and so you can see they couldn't rent a home on that. but when they move into their van. what most of them slowly have to start dipping into their savings, their emergency fund, and so most of them will have to work some time to replenish it. >> reporter: so, the topic of one r.t.r. huddle: earning on the web. >> if you're not monetizing it, you're not making money through your website or social media then you're kind of missing out. >> reporter: inspired by wells' success, most people here seemed to have a youtube channel of their own. >> we're camper size living. >> and where can we find you? >> youtube, instagram and facebook. >> reporter: youtuber linda mastromonaco lives in her s.u.v., sleeps in the front seat. >> i usually sleep on my side. i curl up, i stretch out this way, i stretch out this way. >> reporter: two years ago mastromonaco gave up her apartment, quit the last of her

low-paying, no-benefits jobs. >> target, kroger's, chico's, all the retail. i have waitressing background. just all kinds of things where you're on the treadmill. just trying to really literally make ends meet. >> reporter: she now lives on the road, hawks inspirational cards online, has posted hundreds of videos to her youtube channel, up to nearly 30,000 subscribers. >> i'm thinking more people are feeling stuck right now and making a plan when they can that leave the traditional lifestyle. >> reporter: how's your youtube channel doing in terms of income? >> income has has really, it has exploded over the last couple months. i was averaging you know, $600 a month and i'm over two grand for this month. >> reporter: steve turtle gives his youtube followers the down and dirty on “workamping”-- working seasonal jobs while camping, that is. >> i'm gonna show you how i clean toilets.

that's how you clean a south carolina toilet right there! >> reporter: turtle's been hamming it up for over two years. >> and youtube rewards you for people watching your videos and the commercial. >> reporter: carol meeks has a youtube cooking channel for nomads on a tight budget. >> some people are living on five to $600 a month. so i mean, we're not going to be having salmon and crab legs. you can do a lot of things for a dollar a serving if you know how to shop. and if you're creative in how you're cooking. i'm planning on becoming the anthony bourdain of van life. okay? >> reporter: but how many itinerants can support themselves on youtube earnings, like bob wells? >> for most people it's not realistic. the idea of making thousands, very few do that. >> reporter: consider steve turtle's youtube take. i was somewhere around 150 a month. and then in march, it sort of fell apart. there was just not a lot going

on. >> reporter: turtle stopped live streaming when covid hit. he's back at it, but hasn't reached youtube's pay threshold. >> i don't think i'm going to try to survive off of youtube. >> reporter: but if you, like bob wells, manage to go viral, pardon the expression... you make 75 grand a year from youtube? that's what i read anyway. >> i make an amazing amount of money from youtube >> reporter: more than 75,000 i take it. >> an amazing amount of money. you wouldn't, i wouldn't believe it. >> reporter: what do you do with the money? >> i give it away. what do i need money for? i live in a van! >> reporter: indeed, wells has started a nonprofit to provide homes on wheels for folks in need, in tune with his youtube channel's stated goal: to lend a helping hand. >> i've been devastated in life. in 2011, i have two sons and one of my sons took his life. that's the only reaction possible.

there's nothing like it. it's just, how do you express it? and well every morning you wake up and say, "how can i be alive on a planet on which he's not here?" and so the adequate answer is i have something to give. >> reporter: he gives; his followers receive. carol meeks' youtube channel has grown since we met in the winter. >> and i actually think that that's been impacted because of covid, because so many people are looking for entertainment and engagement and they're doing it online. >> reporter: in january she was forming friendships with fellow nomads in the flesh. since the pandemic: virtual bonds. >> i have met so many people online and so many other people who have channels who are in this type of lifestyle. so, i feel like i have that community. >> reporter: meeks, like so many older americans, seems to have found a new tribe, on the road, online. for the pbs newshour, this is

paul solman. 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 newsho, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> architect. bee-keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas.

more at kendedafund.org. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. we in the senate are going to stand with our aapi community and, indeed, any community that is discriminated against. >> as the senate passes a bill to combat anti-asian discrimination, i speak with senator mazie hirono about stopping the hate and her own incredible journey. then another tale of two worlds. the huge social movement of our time that simmer beneath her abstract murals. you shouldn't have to choose between having a