captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, may 15: tensions rise as fighting escalates in the middle east. the colonial pipeline shutdown and vulnerabilities to cyberattacks. and in our signature segment: canada's border shutdown and hopes for reopening. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard d denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. w.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. president joe biden spoke with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and palestinian leader mahmoud abbas today as israelis and palestinans attacked each her for the sixth day. abbas heads the palestinian authority in the west bank where there were protests and street violence today. hamas controls the gaza strip and the conflict there between israeli forces and hamas militants is now the worst escalation of violence since 2014. in summaries from phone calls, the white house said the president “reaffirmed his strong support for israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks from hamas and other terrorist groups in gaza.” israel hit gaza with air strikes again today with one attack killing more than ten palestinians, the deadliest single strike this week. the militant group, hamas, continued its rocket attacks targeting tel aviv and other israeli cities, damaging homes and buildings. one israeli airstrike on gaza destroyed a building that housed the associated press and al

jazeera. therre no reported injuries. it was mr. biden's first call with mahmoud abbas. the white house summary said the president “underscored his strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best path to reach a just and lasting resolution of the israeli-palestinian conflict.” as of this afternoon, israel has reported at least seven deaths since the start of the conflic in gaza, the death toll is now reported to be at least 126. for more on the conflict, i spoke with npr correspondent daniel estrin who joined us from jerusalem earlier today. so, daniel, let's start with the latest. what have you been experiencing in the past few hours? >> well, the latest news is that the associated press bureau in gaza city was flattened in an israeli attack. the ap bureau was located in a high rise building along with al jazeera and other offices, and the owner of the building received a call from the israeli military notifying him that the

building would be attacked and evacuate now. it attacked the building with airstrikes and demolished it. and then later israel announced that it had done so because hamas militant intelligence was using the building. now, no one s reported injured in the attack. israel has also not provided any evidence to support the claim of hamas using the building. i asked mark regev, who is israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's senior adviser, about this, and he said that giving the building one hour's notice was ample warning to get people out. it also gave hamas a tip, but that it was balancing the need to protect innocent lives with the need to strike military targets. white house spokesman jen psaki has said that the white house has spoken directly with israel, saying that it should ensure the safety and security of journalists. and my former colleague, farah sankaram, just yesterday, his

own farmhouse was bombed by an israeli strike. and he wrote that the only place that he felt safe was the associated press building, which is now destroyed. >> sreenivasan: yesterday, there was a strange back and forth if you looked at american headlines about whether or not israel had sent ground forces into gaza. what happened? >> well, early friday morning, it appeared at a ground incursion was happening because not only did we hear, my colleagues in gaza, heard heavy shelling, artillery fire on the border area, but an israeli security source told me on the phone th ground troops had entered gaza. and so, npr reported that news, along with a lot of other major international news organizations. however,sraeli media widely reported that, actually, that infoation was fed to the

foreign media as part of a ruse to try to trick hamas militants into thinking that a ground invasionas happening in order to send them underground into underground tunnels, which then israel bombed. there are still many questions, despite the army's insistence that it was a mistake, still a lot of questions about whether the foreign media was used in a ploy to trick hamas. >> sreenivasan: what is the situation like on the ground there in the sense that what happens when you walk out onto the street or if you do to buy groceries? >> in gaza, nearly every person i speak to, in fact, every person i speak to, does not feel safe where they are. they don't know if a rocket is being launched from behind their home, that their area would be targeted. people are talking about organizing their mother, their father, their family to go to a place where they might feel safer, even if they don't know if that is true. in israel, i was in tel aviv the

other night where the streets, usually busy, totally emptie it was an eerie quiet, because people had rushed to supermarkets to buy groceries and to run back home because hamas had announced an imminent rocket attack. not only is there a fear of rockets, a fear of israeli bombardment, but inside israel, on the streets of israel, between neighbors, there is civil unrest and ethnic strife that we have not seen in this country in more than two decades. neighbors fighting each other the street. we're talking about mob violence, vandalism to stores, even live fire starts. and it is not the anonymous violence of rockets and airstrikes from warplanes and rocket launchers, we're talking about a very personal street violence between neighbors. and i think that has really shocked people in this country.

>> sreenivasan: are there any efforts to try to de-escalate? are there any even talks about talking? >> well, first, i should say that despite the civil unrest between neighbors, there are efforts between neighbors and innocent people to reach out to each other and to say we support you, arabs and jews together. on the greatercale of a fighting and an international mediation, yes, there are intensive, intensive efforts. the state department's hady amr, a senior envoy, has arrived in the region. the united nations security council is meeting on sunday. and we'll look to that to see if there's any resolution or any resolution to the conflict. but at the moment, both sides are indicating that they still arfighting and they are pushing ahead. >> sreenivasan: npr's daniel estrin joining us from jerusalem. thanks so much. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: the response to

the c.d.c. announcement that masks are no longer required for vaccinated americans in most places continues to vary by state. while governors in michigan, kentucky and oregon announced an end to their mask mandates for the vaccinated, new york, new jersey and california have kept theirs in place. the c.d.c.'s announcement came more than a year after many mask mandates were put into place vaccination rates continue to rise nationally particularly among older people. according to c.d.c. data, more than 70% of americans 65 and older are now fully vaccinated, and 84% have received at least one dose. that rate surpasses president biden's goal to at least partially vaccinate 70% of older americans by july 4. for the latest national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: nearly a week after ransomware attack forced colonial pipeline to shut down

operations, the company announced on thursday that it had restored service to its entire pipeline system. the shutdown disrupted gas supplies along the east coast and caused panic buying, leaving some gas stations without fuel. a full recovery may still take several ys. the attack also highlighted the vulnerability of the country's infrastructure to similar attacks. for more on the pipeline hack, i spoke with cynthia quarterman, a distinguished fellow with the atlantic council's global energy center and former administrator of the u.s. department of transportation's pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration during the obama administration. ms. quarterman, what does this >> we have a very large infrastructure problem with respect to cybersecurity and being prepared for ransomware and other attacks, whether it be from nation state or from, you know, private criminal network.

>> sreenivasan: what's to prevent someone who actually wants to do harm to the united stes from creating software, given that they would probably have more resources than a collective group of hackers? >> nothing prevents it. we need to be much better prepared. i think the administration in their executive order is moving forward to help the government agencies themselves improve what they're doing, but, you know, the free market economy, we have set up this system, we've t thousands of pipeline operators out there and not just pipeline operators, but electric utilities and others who need a lot of help. >> sreenivasan: so, how do we harden this infrastructure? should this be the kind of spending that we should be engaged in to say, hey, guess what, protecting from cyberattacks should just be just like protecting from the weather. >> oh, it is absolutely the same. i agree with you wholeheartedly. we have a huge conundrum here. there is no silver bullet to fix this. there are only a series of steps that we can take to try to

prevent this from happening again in the future and to, if it does happen, to be prepared as my former partner, stewart baker said, "to fail gracefully." >> sreenivas: what are the ramifications if, if someone decided to hold colonial or any other pipeline hostage, so to speak, for their information? what happens in america? >> if colonial were not able to come back online immediately, it would take obviously weeks for us to get oil from other sources. if you remember superstorm sandy, we had a very similar incident happened that was all also colonial pipeline is a big juggernaut. >> sreenivasan: most of these operators, if they're in the public markets, they're interested in maximizing their profits and returns to shareholders. what's the case that you would make for them, to them i suppose, and to all of us to sort of think a little bit bigger? >> you know, we have this great free market economy where we

have companies thinking of all these fascinating, creative, innovative things to do. we need to think about the failure. what happens if there's a failure? we have a failure of the imagination about our failures. and what are the repercussions if something goes wrong? >> sreenivasan: so is this likely to be something that needs a regulatory intervention or a legislative one? how do we make sure this doesn't happen again? >> probably all of the above. i think it will happen again, unfortunately, but you need to be prepared. right now there are guidelines for pipeline companies that are not required. and part of the problem is that it's difficult to make those requirements because you have mom and pop pipeline companies and you have colonial pipeline company. where do you create a regulatory system between those two? >> sreenivasan: beyond just the infrastructure we're talking about in pipelines, were talking about hospitals, we are talking about education systems, police departments.

all of these have been held up, so to speak, by cybercriminals. >> and depending on what the industry is, the amount of investment available varies. the hospital, for example, may not have the kinds of money necessary, which means the government needs to help them. that is a role for government to serve. >> sreenivasan: cynthia quarterman, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: the united states and canada have one of the largest economic partnerships in the world, with trade in a typical year worth $2 billion a day. they also share the world's longest international border. but in early 2020, as rt of the covid-19 pandemic response, that border was closed to all nonessential traffic and remains closed to personal travel to this day. but with more people getting vaccinated on both sides of the border, some are calling for it to re-open.

newshour weekend special correspondent benedict moran reports. >> reporter: jonathan azzopardi is the c.e.o. of laval, a canadian manufacturer based near windsor, ontario. >> how is it running, abe? is it running okay? >> reporter: laval makes parts for hospital beds and components for self-driving cars, but mostly, they make molds. >> that means taking a 25,000 pound piece of steel like this and turning it into a mold, like this, which can sell for more than a million dollars. this part here is a side of a truck, but it could be anything. this part takes about six months to make. about 6,000 hours to make. >> reporter: it's a painstaking process that requires a constant back-and-forth between azzopardi's factory in canada, and engineers from american car manufacturers across the river in detroit. but since march last year, the border has been partially closed, a decision taken by both american and canadian governments to fight the

covid-19 pandemic. aside from essential workers like truck drivers, medical workers, and others who regularly cross the border, canada is off limits to temporary visits. so, while truck traffic is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, travel considered non- essential is down more than 90%, blocking many people azzopardi says are crucial to his supply- chain. >> the movement of goods necessitates the movement of people. americans coming here to sign off on the product. but also canadians going there to commission the product. with all the restrictions, it's basically stopped people from crossing the border, it's made it almost impossible. >> reporter: azzopardi says more people should be allowed to cross. >> i'm very worried. we have actually lost about 30% of our business already. my clients are from the u.s. for them to be able to sign off on a product, if they can't do that, they're not going to give us the business. they're going to source that in the united states.

or worse, they'll source it to china. >> reporter: with vaccinations in the u.s. progressing at a record pace, many are calling for the border to partially re- open. >> we have to find a way to safely, safely open the border asap. >> reporter: but leaders in canada don't see eye-to-eye on when that should happen. canada is in the midst of a third wave. infection rates are nearly double that of the u.s. >> reporter: according to an april poll, most canadians support a total ban on international travel. that may be because last year, the u.s. was slow to respond to the pandemic, and infections there at first, soared. bill anderson of the cross- border institute at the university of windsor. >> i think early in this pandemic, there was a public perception that canada was being very responsible and the united states was not being responsible at all. now, of course, we're well into this thing, and the infection rates right here are very high

right now in canada. >> reporter: now, despite the border closure, infection rates in canada are higher than the u.s. and the country has lagged behind with vaccinations. 34% of canadians have received one dose, but only 3% are fully vaccinated. so while the u.s. is reopening, lockdowns in canada have gotten even stricter. last month, the government of ontario also prohibited non- essential travel, setting up checkpoints at the borders with neighboring quebec and manitoba. so, talk of re-opening canada's international borders has taken a backseat. the border closure has also impacted friends and families. the u.s. and canada share the world's longest international border. much of it is unguarded, and looks like this. but it also runs right through many communities. derby line, vermont, and stanstead, quebec, are effectively one town. the border is only marked by stones.

it traverses lawns, this home's chimney, and even goes right through the town library. this is canusa road, for "canada-u.s.a." on this side of the road is canada, and on the other, is the united states. there are no checkpoints dividing thewo areas. and it shows that in these communities, the border is more of an idea, than a physical barrier. with the border closed, stanstead and derby line have been ripped in half. >> i have not seen you in... >> reporter: robin smith is visiting a friend she hasn't seen in more than a year. smith stays in quebec, socially distanced from scott wheeler, who is standing six feet away in vermont. >> they should let me go. >> reporter: historically, there was no physical border here. that changed after 9/11, when security upgrades required residents to cross at official border crossings about a mile away. typically, many residents still

regularly crossed, relying on the other respective side for shopping, entertainment, or seeing friends and family. since covid-19, that's no longer possible. smith used to live in the u.s., while her family was in canada. >> before covid? i drove over once or twice a day. i made supper for my parents. my sister lives with my parents. she is handicapped. so, it's like a close family. my other sister helps. we do things together. and, you know, we were totally cut off. >> reporter: when the border closed, she moved to canada to be with her parents, but she's eager to get her old life back in the u.s. >> i want it to open again. i mean, that's all i want to go. i can't really do my job properly, i can't go over and work. i can't go and get my mail. i can't go see my friends. >> reporter: what many are advocating is a system that allows vaccinated americans and canadians to cross the border.

with infection rates in parts of canada on par or surpassing americans pose less of a risk than canadians, traveling from hotspots within their own country. one proposal is to use a digital vaccine passport or an already- existing trusted traveler programs like nexus, to verify vaccine coverage, ideas welcomed by niagara falls mayor jim diodati. >> it's been devastating and eerie to come down to this area and to see no people. >> reporter: niagara falls, ontario, normally welcomes some 13-million visitors a year, and the town relies heavily on tourism revenue. today, the streets are empty. while tourist attractions like ferries are operating on the u.s. side, canada's boats are mothballed. >> this has been for over a year. it's been devastating. you know, we're going to open. we just don't know exactly when. so, let's come up with our phased in plan for opening the border. and if it means you have to have a vaccine passport, be it.

>> reporter: north dakota is now offering free vaccines for truck drivers who transport goods across their border from canada. alaska is also sharing. some are pushing for that aid to be even more widespread. within the first few days in office, president biden signed an executive order directing the u.s. to collaborate with the canadian government to develop health and safety measures needed to re-open. canadian finance minister chrystia freeland also announced more than $400 million for a plan to reopen the border. but still, no plan, and no timeline, has been announced. back at laval's factory floor, azzopardi hopes for an announcement that border restrictions will ease. >> windsor lives and dies by the u.s. economy. and right now, the u.s. economy is doing very good. covid has put a halt on a lot of things but americans are still buying. windsor depends on that. not just windsor, southern ontario depends on that. and right now, we are being left

out. >> sreenivasan: finally, tonight we wanted to provide you a quick update on a story that we brought you earlier this spring. it's on the fate of a proposed offshore wind energy project off the coast of massachusetts. newshour weekend's ivette feliciano has more >> reporter: this week, federal regulators made it official: vineyard wind will be the first large-scale offshore wind energy project in the united states. as we reported in late march, this nearly $3 billion project off the coast of martha's vineyard and nancket will generate enough electricity for about 400,000 homes. the c.e.o. of vineyard wind, lars pedersen, says this new project will kickstart the industry. >> this is not about a single project; this is about an industry, an industry that is going to revitalize waterfronts

up and down the eastern seaboard, create well-paying jobs, and delivering clean, affordable energy to households while the states are transitioning from fossiand nuclear power plants to a green future. >> reporter: the united states currently has only two small projects, seven turbines in total, in operation. vineyard will be the first to use a new turbine made by g.e. that stands more than 850 feet tall, with each of its three blades stretching more than the length of a football field. >> every time the blade spins twice, you can power a home for a day. so, it's-- it's really impressive hardware. so, we have been able to shrink the footprint of the project from 108 positions down to 62 while still producing the power we have promised to massachusetts. >> reporter: with the approval earlier this week, pedersen says the project is on track to start construction later this year, and start producing power for the grid by 2023.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of “pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl andhilip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation.

the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. we try to liven the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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