to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, the ongoing crisis-- calls for a cease fire are ignored and destruction spreads as palestinian rocket fire and israeli artillery attacks continue. then, combating hate crimes-- a new law heads to the president's desk to stop a spike in attacks against asian americans and others. plus, race and medicine-- the american medical association issues a call to fight systemic racism in health care, and begins to reckon with its own troubling past. >> we're not valuing all lives the same way. everybody doesn't have the opportunity, everybody doesn't have the power, the resources, or the conditions in order to achieve optimal health. >> nawaz: all that and more on

tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engag communities. more at kf.org. >> 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. >> nawaz: day nine of the battle between israel and militants in gaza has come and gone with no let-up.

the two sides report than 200 palestinians and a dozen israelis killed to date. and, at least one person died today in the west bank. john yang has our report. >> yang: in israel and the wt bank, streets normally bustling with activity were empty today, as palestinians went on a general strike, an unusual joint action to show solidarity with gaza and to protest their own treatment by israel. >> ( translated ): the strike is a must on all of us, as youth, to take part in this strike, to stop working for at least a day, to create some change in jerusalem and the country. >> yang: hundreds of thousands gathered in central squares, waving palestinian flags. >> this is reflecting the common struggle of palestinians not only against apartheid, but it is also a voice of solidarity with our people who are being bombarded now in gaza. >> yang: tensions flared when israeli soldiers moved disperse

crowds. on the wt bank they fired tear gas canisters at protestors who had been burning tires. in east jerusalem's sheikh jarrah neighborhood, police fired stun grenades and deployed a water cannon. this, as the israeli military operations against hamas militants in gaza maintained their steady pace. this morning, desks, chairs and books from a flattened gaza city university building lay scattered over a pile of rubble. next door, jamal herzallah and his family cleaned up the damage to their home. israeli forces had given them five minutes notice of the attack-- just enough time to escape. >> ( translated ): what's this at the hour of 5:30 in the morning? the people are still sleeping. the planes struck the street, our lives, we had no idea where we wanted to go, where to run. >> yang: residents said an israeli tankhell started a massive fire at a paint factory. two million palestinians in gaza

have been caught in a crossfire that broke out last week when hamas, which controls the territory, began firing rockets into israel. israeli officials say they are acting to protect israelis. >> that's the focus. to degrade the capabilities of hamas and islamic jihad so that in the future they will pose less of a threat against israeli civilians. there's still a lot of work to do in terms of their underground infrastructure and in terms of the capacity to fire rockets. at this stage, still, unfortunately, if hamas decides to fire rockets at tel aviv, unfortunately, they still have the capacity to do so. >> yang: explosions in gaza city roared through the night, as flashes, from hamas' rockets fired toward israel, illuminated the sky. israel said they tallied up to 90, though 20 of them fell short into gaza and many more were intercepted by israel's anti-

missile defense system. rockets that did get through this afternoon struck a farm in southern israel. police said two thai workers were killed. and, a building in the coastal city of ashdod also suffered a hit. more violence as international efforts to broker peace stalled again. while traveling in denmark, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken said diplomatic efforts behind the scenes are ongoing. >> our goal remains to bring the current cycle of violence to an end as quickly as possible and then bring the parties back to the work of building lasting stability. >> yang: a gl that doesn't appear to be in sight, as israeli military officials say they expect operations in gaza to continue for days to come. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang.

>> nawaz: in the day's other news, u.s. public health officials stepped up appeals for younger americans to get vaccinated. more than four million eligible adolescents, aged 12 to 17, have been given shots so far. the head of the c.d.c. said getting young people immunized could accelerate downward trends. >> we should all have cautious optimism. cases have continued to decrease and have not been this low since spring of last year, hospital admissions are down, deaths are down and we are vaccinating between 1.5 million and two million people per day. >> nawaz: meanwhile, in hard-hit india, deaths from covid hit a record 4,300 in 24 hours, even as daily infections fell again, to 260,000. western india's death toll from a tropical cyclone has risen to 29. the storm weakened after making landfall in gujarat state last night with winds up to 130 miles an hour. first responders rescued aut

180 people from an oil barge that sank off mumbai, and the indian navy searched for 81 others. southern louisiana braced today for more downpours, and more flooding this week. at least a foot of rain fell monday in lake charles, with drivers struggling in flooded streets, and officials saying hundreds of homes had been damaged. >> parts of the city received upwards of 15 inches of rain ov a six hour period, this absolutely meets the threshold of a 100-year rain event. the events of yesterday was more impactful as far as flooding than even the hurricanes of 2020. >> nawaz: the storm also dumped heavy rain on baton rouge and on parts of texas and arkansas. a north carolina prosecutor now says he will not charge three sheriff's deputies who shot and killed andrew brown jr. last month, in elizabeth city. district attorney andrew womble showed body camera footage today, and he said it shows brown using his car as a deadly

weap, forcing the officers to shoot. >> my review of the incident indicates there is no idence that the deputies who fired the fatal shots acted in any manner that is inconsistent with the threat they perceived and certainly no evidence the deputies acted contrary to or in violation of north carolina law. >> nawaz: lawyers for the brown family have said the footage actually shows he was trying to drive away from the deputies. the f.b.i. is conducting a separate, civil rights investigation of the killing. a sheriff in south carolina has fired two deputies over the death of jamal sutherland, a black inmate ata charleston county jail. body camera footage from january, released last week, showed the deputies using stun guns and pepper spray and kneeling on sutherland. he had refused to leave his cell for a bail hearing. sutherland had previously been in a mental health facility. a bipartisan deal to investigate the attack on the u.s. capitol by a pro-trump mob lost key

republican support today. house minority leader kevin mccarthy came out against establishing an outside commission, unless it also investigates other violence, including dung black lives matter protests. top democrats and republicans had sharply different reactions. >> it's my hope that mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy will do right thing and as has been the case with other traumatic attacks on the united states we will have a bipartisan commission. >> i am not saying that we have decided that this should not go forward but if it's going to go forward it needs to be clearly balanced and not tilted one way or the other so we have an objective evaluation. >> nawaz: mcconnell said for now, he's pushing the pause tton, leaving the bill's fate in the evenly divided senate, uncertain. house speaker nancy pelosi accused mccarthy of cowardice, but she has the votes to pass the commission bill tomorrow,

even with no g.o.p. support. spain has deployed troops to its border with morocco after at least 8,000 migrants entered a spanish enclave in north africa. they arrived in the coastal city of ceuta, from morocco, over the last two days. people began swimming in or climbing fences to reach spanish territory, amid a diplomatic dispute. spain sent back at least 4,000 people. the international energy agency called today for aggressive action to slash carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. that includes halting investments in new coal mines and oil and gas wells and phasing out gas-powered vehicles. the paris-based agency is considered close to the fossil fuel industry. the u.s. state department issued a new rule on citizenship today in a victory for same-sex couples. now, children born abroad to married parents will be american citizens, if there's a blood tie to one parent and one parent is

already a citizen. on wall street, a late-afternoon slide by big tech stocks led the broader stock market lower. the dow jones industrial average lost 267 points to close at 34,060. the nasdaq fell 75 points. the s&p 500 slipped 35. and, comedic actor charles grodin died today at his home in connecticut, from bone marrow cancer. he rose to stardom in the 1970's, with films including "the heartbreak kid," "midnight run" and "beethove. he also penned plays and tv scripts, and later, became a radio and tv commentator. charles grodin was 86 years old. still to come on the newshour: republican opposition grows to the baseless g.o.p. election review in arizona. trinidad reaches a tipping point in an epidemic of violence against women. the american medical association begins to reckon with its history of racism.

plus much more. >> naz: earlier this evening, congress passed and sent to president biden's desk a bill to combat the recent rise in hate crimes, including against asian americans and people of pacific islander descent. it's a rare moment of bipartisanship in a capitol increasingly gdlocked on major issues. how we got here and what it means? i'm joined by our lisa desjardins. lisa, good to see you. so let's talk about this bill. it is now with president bush. what exactly does the bill do? >> this bill is only 24 pages long, but it does change a lot, especially about what we will know on hate crimes. let's take a look at some key factors in this. first, the bill would create a

new position at the department of justice that would expedite the process of, reporting of and just the handling of cases involving hate crimes. also, this bill will hand out grants to police and sheriffs departments across the country to help train them and help them report hate crime data in a more able way than they are right now. finally, in terms of grants, this bill will also offer grants to states and others across the country to put up new hate crimes hotlines to help people report. fundamentally a lot of what this pill is trying to do is to understand the problem itself. for years, there is a sense by many in the community, including academics, that hate crimes are underreported in this country, that people don't talk about them, and also that police may not recognize or report them in large degree. this bill does a lot of that. but, you know, i have to say, this also is a bill that is not just about asian-american hate crimes, it is wider, it is about all hate crimes, but it does

have specific language recognizing asian-americans have been targeted especially during the covid pandemic and, of course, it's bipartisan. critics on both sides. critics on the left say this bill doesn't go far enough, that the data is not enough, they want more on underlying causes. >> nawaz: as you mentioned, it is bipartisan, that is a word we don't seem to hear very often anymore on capitol hill. we use the word rare, we use the word gridlock over and over again. what is it about this particular bill that got it where it is? >> this is such an important facet of this bill. what ppened in the senate, negotiations in that 50/50 body between two senators, mazie hirono of hawaii and susan collins of maine, they ended up coming up with an agreement where democrats dropped some covid-specific language, the bill was broadened to include all hate crimes and then itas able to pass through the senate and now the house. all of that said, there are

other reasons this is significant. one of them is there have been very few notable hate crimes bill in recent times. this is the first one really in a decade to make it through congress. also, very few bills at all re making it through congress. by my count, just about ten this entire year have passed both chambers, these are bills that are not just rec eke nice ago holiday or something like that. so it's significant it pass odd an bipartisan means and significant in the asian-american community following the six women in slant and asian-americansassaulted and harassed. he's grace who co-authored the original bill. >> for too long asian minister have been seen as invisible and silent, we are often viewed as foreigners and outsiders. but today we are at a galvanizing moment where we say loud and clear that we are as american as anyone else in this country, and that we will be

en as invisible no more. >> now, again, this was bipartisan and a majority of republicans, notust a few, but a majority of republicans in the senate and the house voted for this bill, but that said, there are, of course, still very deep issues on this topic, particularly of the idea of what is a hate crime. this bill was not address that definition. some republicans have concerns about the definition of hate crimes stepping into free speech territory and some democrats say maybe police are not paying enough attention to hate crimes as is. >> nawaz: when we look at what the bill bu do, it's more about tracking and reporting and data gathering around hate crimes which may surprise people to know we don't have comprehensive data around that. there is some data though. walk walk us through what we know aboutate crimes now. >> that's right. with that caveat, we don't think the numbers are comprehensive.

let's look at what we know about where we are now. if you look at numbers from project stop aapiic hate, they say they themselves have gotten over 600 reports of airntion american hate incidents between march of last year and this year in that one pandemic year and all of those about asn-american hate crimes. compare that with 2019. wi all of the hate crimes the f.b.i. was able to gather data on, 7,100. so what you see is just asian-american hate crimes reported to this one outside grp were somethe same as all the hate crimes the f.b.i. was tracking the previous year. we don't know the degreeto which reporting has increased to the degree the actual prevalence of hate crimes increased. so the authors of the bill say it's critical we get our hands on the data. a cup other notes agreed upon across the board especially with

asian-american hate crimes, it seems women are more targeted and during the pandemic there was more targeting of asian-americans in public spaces versus businesses. >> nawaz: as we know, lawmakers blind the bill e it as a first step. what else do they want to do? >> i think that's always the important question for congress. talking to representative grace mang, she says two things are important, one, mental health. she pointed out recent data from the city of new york shows half of the asian-american hate crimes in that city this year had to do with suspects who have histories of mental health problems. so she wants to address that as a root cause. then i think the other issue is education. that is a very hot debate in state legislatures across the country but ships -- she wants to do more about curricula to talk about diverse diand these issues in life. >> nawaz: a rare moment of

bipartisanship. lisa desjardins, thank you very much always good to see you. >> nawaz: it's been six months since joe biden defeated donald trump in the state of arizona. but officials in one county are still defending the integrity of the vote against an audit ordered by the republican- controlled state senate. stephanie sy has the story. >> sy: amna, nearly two-thirds of arizona's voters live in maricopa county, which includes phoenix. and for the first time in more than 50 years, a democrat won the presidential race here. the state senate's audit has been going on for nearly a month. and now, even republican election officials are saying enough is enough. in a 13-page letr, several members of the county board of

supervisors argue the process has turned the state into a "laughingstock" and they say it's time to accept the results and move on. bill gates is the vice chair of the maricopa county board of supervisors and is one of the signers of that letter. >> mr. gates, thank you for joining us on the "newshour". it is a scathing letter addressed to the senate president kern fan, a fellow republican and you accuse her of renting out the good name of arizona senate to drifters and con artists. sthad who has america's ballots in hand now, con artists, and do you think this is an attempt to swindle voters and change the results of the 20 election? >> well, thanks for haing me. lo, the way this worked out was the arizona senate went to court to get the authority to get these ballots and machines from maricopa county, were holding them after the votes were all counted, and they

indicated ey wanted to review all these materials to come up with potentially new election laws. instead of doing what, what they've done is they've turned over all these ballots, they've turned over these election machines to companies, one, that don't have expertise in dealing with elections audits, and, two, companies that pedal in copiracy theories and, unrtunately, their the ones that now have their hands on the ballots of maricopa county's 2.1 million voters who voted in the november 2020 election. >> reporter: senator fan said this afternoon this process has never been about overturning or decertifying the election and she said your board of supervisors has done nothing through throw up road blocks to their request. bill gates, what's your response to that? >> yeah, i don't think that's a fair statement at all. again, we went to court to termine whether these parking lots should be turned over, when

the court said that we needed to do it. we did that. now, we never agreed, though, to be a part of this so-called dit. maricopa county did two audits earlier this year where we brought in companies that were voti system laboratories to examine things like we the machines connected to the internet, was there any malware connected to the machines. we had these professionals come in, and they deterned that there were no issues. what we're getting to now is essentially a recount that they're doing at the veterans memorial coliseum, and under arizona law, recounts are only allowed in certain instances where e votes are very very close. but we're not obstructing this. we have watched them go through this so-called audit, and then, last week, they sent a letter to the board of supervisors alleging our good elections professionals of numerous improprieties including some that could be criminal

violations. so we said enough is enough, and we went through and w responded in that letter to each one of these allegations. there's simply no basis to this and, instead of asking us these questions, they pu these loaded questions out, these accusations out, both in their letter and on a twitter account called the arizona audit twitter, which, by the way, the senate claims they have no control over. >> reporter: i want to talk about that tweet because you do take specific issue with it in the letter that i have here. it came from the organizers of the audit claiming maricopa county election officials deleted voter data bases. president trump en issued a statement supporting that theory. bill gates, why did the auditors of firm cyber ninjas believe data bases have been deleted and

is there any truth to that? >> i think the reason they believe that is, frankly, they didn't know what they were doing. yesterday we made it clear tho databases are still there. in a so-called hearing president fan had with their auditors, they admitted now they could find those. they're saying they recovered them. the reality is they were never gone, but they now have found them. interestingly, there was no apology issued by those contractors or pi the arizona senate -- or by the arizona senate for baseless allegations of fraud by the employees of the maricopa county elections department. >> reporter: they have also not deleted that tweet. i just checked. you have in this letter demonstrable facts you're presenting that proved there was no deleted deleted data base.

>> as long as i have been a republican, i've known us as the party to have the rule of law, right, the party of facts and evidence, not the party of emotion, but, unfortunately, somewhere along the way, some members of our party have gotten away from those facts, and now they're simply pedaling these conspiracy these are and, you know what? i don't blame any of our citizens out there who are buying into these conspiracy theories because they're hearing it from our leaders. that's why my colleagues and i and other elected offiials at macare standing up now, saying enough is enough, and that we have to talk about facts and evidence and, mo importantly, we need to move on from the big lie. as republicans, if we're going to be successful in the 2022 elections, we need to end this, and then we need to make a

strong case for why we should be governorring and not the democrats. >> reporter: other republicans, as you know, including recently congresswoman licheney condemned mr. trump and his perpetuation of the election fraud lie and have suffered politically. bill gates, what process did you ve to go through to get to this point where you were willing to take such a strong stance on this? >> well, again, in my position as a meber of the board of supervisors, we have had to stand up several times since november of 2020. first of all, we had to vote as a board to unanimously certify the election results in maricopa county, and we took a lot of heat from tht. then we were demanded these ballots and election machines in december. we stood up again. we said we need to go to court because we were concerned that that would be a violation of arizona law. then, in february, the arizona

senate, despite the fact our lawsuit was pending in court at the, the arizona senate was only one vote away from holding us in contempt and throwing us in jail because of our failure to turn over these ballots, and, now, finally, we're getting accused again of criminal acts and our employees are being accused of criminal acts. so, quite franklyit's been six months of us standing up for the rule of law, standing up for facts and evidence, and i have problem doing it, because if you didn't run for offers to do what was right, to stand up for democracy, then why did (indiscernible) in the first place? >> reporter: bill gates, vice chair of the maricopa county board of supervisors, thanks for joining the "newshour". >> thank you.

>> nawaz: a new movement has sprung up in the island nation of trinidad and tobago, demanding an end to what is being called a plague of violence against women. bu the government of the twin island state, just off the coast of venezuela in the southern caribbean, has been accused of ignoring a major study's recommendations aimed at reducing the rate of murder and domestic abuse. trinidad's borders are currently closed because of the pandemic. so, special correspondent malcolm brabant reported from in britain,nd cameraman dylan quesnel filmed in trinidad. and a warning: accounts in this story will upset some viewers. >> reporter: women are marching to reclaim trinidad's streets from sexual predators, kidnappers and murderers. >> we want to walk free not brave! we want to walk free not brave! >> reporter: after this

demonstration i got a message about yet another femicide. a seven year old boy cried for help as his mother was attacked by his machete wielding father. they found 36 year old adeina alleyne hacked to death. her husband hanged himself. adeina posted this picture on facebook a month before her murder. melissa cassim runs a group called i won't be silenced. >> being a woman in trinidad is terrifying. it's beyond scary. because we're now afraid to walk our streets, we're afraid to go down the street to get a newspaper. we're afraid to walk to the gas station or the nearest shop. >> reporter: two recent funerals have galvanized women to demand an end to a culture of violence on the streets and in the home. 22 year old court clerk andrea bharratt disappeared after taking a taxi in late january. her battered body was discovered

six days later. andrea's murder followed the kidnapping of 18 year old ashanti riley. she was also last seen getting into a taxi. ashanti was found in a stream five days later. she'd been raped stabbed and beaten. while politicians sit on their hands, church leaders are speaking out. >> she is our mother. she is our daughter. she was our aunt, she's our niece, she's our cousin. she's our sister. she is not our enemy. women's lives matter. >> reporter: this is ashanti riley's grave her mother candace is waiting for the earth to settle before erecting a tombstone. >> they say that's how, you know, give it time. time will heal. but to me, time will never heal. >> reporter: is there anything you'd like to say to the rest of the world about what is happening in trinidad? >> what's happening in trinidad? it's a very sad thing that our

country has come to this women who are living in ar of man, because if it's not, gun violence is by domestic violence. and it hurts me to know i'm livingn a country that these things is happening. >> reporter: in defiance of lockdown rules, candlelight protests have become a regular fixture. on the day of this demonstration, news broke of a 53 year old woman beaten to death by a relative. and a 76 year old woman robbed and raped in her own home. >> we are here in a war, aar for a tter trinidad and tobago. whene are saying to the powers that be, we have had jusabout enough. >> reporter: 2020 was a brutal year in this nation of 1.4 million. 47 women and girls were murdered. in contrast, 49 women were murdered in philadelphia last

year. philly has a similar population to trinidad and had 500 murders, it's worst record for 60 years. trinidad had 100 fewer homicides. but the percentage of women killed in trinidad was slightly higher. although the real death toll may be even worse. more than 400 women were rerted missing. some were found, but its feared others were trafficked into prostitution, or killed and their bodies hidden. one common complaint is that politicians only talk tough at election time. >> successive governments would come in and they just try to outdo each other in terms of fines, in terms of the prison sentences. but by now, they should have figured out that bitself isn't going to work. >> reporter: randy seepersad heads the a criminology program at the university of the west indies. he's critical of the government for ignoring a study by the inter american development bank. among its recommendations greater help for women needing to escape from violent

situations major improvements in police procedures, including more sensitivity and swifter action better public information campaigns and education about violence against women. >> i don't really see some of the more progressive types of initiatives in the criminal justice system and in society at large. certainly from the side of the public, there is a lot of willingness and victimization but the politicians don't seem to want to engage with some of the more advanced types of thinking and approaches to dealing with the problem. >> reporter: requests to discuss the women's movement with prime minister keith rowley, went unanswered. in what some see as an abrogation of responsibility the island's police chief gary griffith has urged women to do more to save themselves. >> there's nothing against a woman having a firearm. a firearm is something that can be an asset to you. >> reporter: legal experts warn that women using guns could find

themselves in trouble because the right to self protection has not been properly enshrined in law. but they approve of pepper spray, which is currently illegal. >> i am recommending that this year can be a regulated item which is registered for each and every person who wants to get pepper spray. >> reporter: another area crying out for reform is the registration of taxi drivers, so they can be tracked and traced. activists want the police to become more interventionist in domestic violence by overcoming a cultural acceptance that what takes place in a person's home stays within the family. another key change proposed by the study ignored by the government was about educating young people to become intolerant of violence against women. >> parents need to train their boys. especially to respect young girls, to respect woman on a whole, because athe end of the day, you come from a woman and then you have sisters of

cousins. >> you wouldn't want somebody do your mother, your sister, these things. >> reporter: nicole herbert and steven edwards have joined forces to implement some of the changes recommended in the inter american study. the recent murders have resurrected dreadful memories for nicole herbert who was gang raped 30 years ago. back then she kept quiet about her ordeal. but now she's gone public in an attempt to sensitize men, and to encourage other women to speak out. >> they were like deaf to your pleas and your cries, because i didn't want this to be done to me. and they overpowered me and they took turns and raped me. when i look back at that night and i myself, i could have been ad because they didn't know what to do with me.

>> reporter: this short film by steven edwards about an aggressive husband is an effort to encourage men to take a stand against abuse. >> just go inside, go inside, >> for those potential abusers, what we want to do with the campiness kind of, you know, identify ways to prevent it from happening or even if it is, you are a perpetrator and you see yourself, we are trying to find, you know, avenues that men can come forward and say, look, i need help. >> reporter: trinidad and tobago, famous for carnival is currently sealed off from the rest of the world, the tourist industry it as idyllic. but, for women there, it's nothing of the sort. >> in spite of the fact that we're literally begging to be valued, i am terrified that it's just goingo continue, that it will all be in vain. >> reporter: what puzzles crime experts is that politicians have nothing to lose by acceding to

the women's demands. if violence wins, the twin island state risks being damned as a paradise lost. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant. >> nawaz: the national cls to action and protests over racial justice have brought new awareness of past injustices in many parts of our society. that's true in the fields of science and medicine, which are starting to look more carefully at their own history. yamiche alcindor focuses tonight on questions over race and medicine. >> alcindor: the amerin medical associatiois one of thcountry's oldest, largest and best known associationof doctors, its voice has long been influential, but now the a.m.a. is finally beginning to come to terms with racism in its own past. it recently issued an 83 page

report that found that the organization is, "rooted in white patriarchy and affluent supremacy." the report outlines a number of examples, including the group's past support of excluding physicians of color. and it notes that in the 19th century, a president of the group once practiced vaginal surgeries on enslaved black women without anesthesia. the a.m.a. is vowing to take action on racial justice and health equity. dr. aletha maybank is the a.m.a.'s chief health equity officer. she started work on the report two years ago. thank you so much for joining us, dr. maybank. i want to start by saying you did work on this report. tell me a little bit about what was most troubling to yowhen you look at what was uncovered and what the report says? >> you know, when you start to dig into the history, you're not sure, you know, what you're going to find. and most of the history and some of the points you've already mentioned, you know, many of us knew, or at least those who are connected to this work had an understanding of the exclusion of black physicians, and the

consequences of shutting down five of the seven black med schools and all the women med schools, which has a direct connection on the lack of diversity today. so to uncover that, you know, and i n't feel we actually have done it to its fullness yet. this was just really more so kind of a more of a taste for us to get to that point and start demonstrating the importance of naming the harms and being an example to start doing that. >> alcindor: and dr. manning, there's james marion sims. he practiced surgery on enslaved black women. talk to me about the harm that was done then, but also the contuing harm, the consequences of that in present day. >> yes as you mentioned, he did slaves without anesthesia on enslaved wen. and so it's a representation of how bodies literally were used, were experimented upon, were not valued, without any consent, and how that still even translates to some level till today. and so the reality is, is that women's bodies, black women's

bodies, bodies of other people of color and those who have been historically marginalized are still not fully valued. and that's really what our data and evidence is really showing up. if we look at the covid-19 pandemic, the data is really telling us that we're not valuing all lives the same way. everybody doesn't have the power or the resources or the conditions in order to achieve optimal health, and that still is pervasive through our health care and our medical system. and so we really wanted to make sure that we were very explicit about that in this report, that we didn't tiptoe around the edges, as i kind of say, sometimes do soft equity work. but we really named the root causes of oppression in this in this country and really even speaking to and starting to name the impacts of colonization as well as capitalism as just an introduction. and as you can imagine, many these terms are not-- are new to the people in the health care profession and make people very uncomfortable. and so we're trying to find ways

to bring folks along while at the same time being very direct and instructive that this is where we really need to go if we really, really are committed to advancing equity and really committed to racial justice, work and health care. >> alcindor: there's also this idea that there were physicians of color that were excluded. there was also the closing of those of those medical schools catering specifically to black people and women. how is that showing up in present day diversity issues in medicine? >> there's just a tremendous still lack of diversity of having black physicians and latinx physicians, awell as native american physicians who have been completely, really excluded still from the medical profession we're the ones as a.m.a. who commissioned abraham flexner, we valued this model of johns hopkins, of significant scientific rigor and really evaluated schools across the

country in the early 1900s and said, if you didn't have that, if you didn't have those types of resources, we didn't think you were a good enough school to stay open, basically. at that time, a.m.a. was also excluding black physicians. and so back then, in order to so now you have black physicians who also can't find hospitals to ama, american medical to the national medical membership to an a.m.a. medical affiliate, you couldn't gain a license to work at the local hospital. so now you have black physicians who also can't find hospitals to work at, which impacts in our communities. so, you know, we have to take a look at that entirety of the history and its impacts. >> alcindor: there are some who look at this report and say it lacks teeth, timelines and targets.

what concretely does the a.m.a. plan to do, given now the history that is known? >> i'm very close to it and we've spent a lot of tim we've spent over a year and a half working together to pull this report together. and when you look at health care and how far they have not gone as it relates to talking about equity and injustice and using terms such as racism and white supremacy and capitalism, you don't see that in health care. and so we really, again, wanted to make sure that this rept did go far enough but we're going to need to have many types of partners in order to help propel this forward. and then more importantly, i think most importantly is the accountability piece. and i think that's the part where i do accept definitely, you know, criticism or just push, you know, at any institution, especially an institution that is historically known to embody discrimination and racism and perpetuate

institutional structural racism, hold us accountable. so i absolutely call upon others in the health care community to do that. but not only the health care community, all the all the folks who are impacted by the decisions that we make and contribute to and influence at the policy and advocacy level, but also at the system level of health care. >> alcindor: well, a critical conversation about equity and health care. thank you so much for joining us, dr. aletha maybank. >> thank you. >> nawaz: this year marks the 50th anniversary of npr. and a new book, "susan, linda, nina & cokie: the extraordinary story of the founding mothers of npr," explores the careers and friendships of trailblazing journalists susan stamberg, linda wertheimer, nina totenberg and cokie roberts.

judy woodruff recently spoke with lisa napoli, the author of that book, and susan stamberg about how those four women helped build national public radio into one of the country's most popular and respected media outlets. >> woodruff: susan stamberg, lisa napoli, so good to have both of you with us. and lisa, what a book. and it is npr's 50th anniversary this year. and these women you've chosen to write about, they're women we're familiar with them today but you remind us what an extraordinary uphill climb they had. >> these women needed a book together to celebrate their work with each other, but also how they helped npr launch bause, of course, it hadn't launched and it wouldn't have probably without em. >>oodruff: and lisa, what was it that drew you to them? because, again, i mean, so many people think they know them because we hear their voices and we've seen them somewhere. what drew you to this? >> that's exactly it

i knew their names. i've been following them for years, but i didn't really know where they'd come from. and judy, that's why i love writing books. i loved practicing journalism for so long. but writing books, you can dig deeper and find out the why. and what rlly surprised me is the troubles that women faced. i knew from my mother that the economics for women were not always equitable, but i certainly didn't realize that there was a time when women weren't allowed to be on the air or even have a byline in the newspaper. so as a researcher and a writer and an amateur historian, i just loved telling the story of this media outlet through the lens of these four women who were able to makinroads that they couldn't have just even a few years before. >> woodruff: and susan stamberg, you were the first. i mean, you were the pioneer arriving at what was to be npr in in the 1960s. but there you were. you were sue levitt from, what, the upper west side of new york

city and your great credential graduate from college was, you could type 90 words a minute. >> oh, better than that, 100. these days, 90 because you slow down. and totenberg tells a story about going for different jobs and being told we already have our woman and linda chose jobs, tell stories about having worked for a bit at the bbc in london, and the women would go out to record someone on tape, come back and they would edit out the woman's voice. so and then a man would come in and voice between the clips so that they were never heard. >> woodruff: and what is so remarkable about these stories is that each one of you made it to the end, of course, the successful placehat you are today. of course, we lost cokie, our beloved friend, a year and a half ago to cancer. but each one of you made enormous success, but through very different routes.

you came to washington, you then went overseas, you came back. what explains the fact that it all worked in the end, do you think? >> npr was a startup. so there weren't 1,000 people ahead of you in the job you were dying to get. that makes it tough for anybody, men or women, but particularly difficult for a woman. my theory is total luck and very persistent telephone calling. i would call and go after a job and drive the people crazy and i think they hired me just get me off the damn phone. excuse me. we don't speak that way on the newshour. forgive me. >> woouff: and lisa, from your perspective, what was it about these women that made them endure, that made them become who they were? >> oh, boy, i think it's kismet, isn't it? you know, you don't find four people like this very often,

their stories, like you say, were so different and their rises were so different. i mean, i don't think a lot of people remember that linda wertheimer was a consumer reporter before she knew congress in and out or that susan had been behind the scenes and had the life that she had or that cokie had to basically cry and beg to get a job. it was so difficult for her. so i think, you know, it is a staying power. it is. i don't mean to diminish anybody's talent, but a lot of it is luck. but really, they were there at the birth of a new medium. as linda said, it was a startup, but it was also fm radio exploding and public radio beginning. and so all those things, that's what i love about this story. 's all these little elements that came together. and it was a combustible moment. >> woodruff: but those little moments that you tell, i mean, as susan said, you did extraordinary research. i mean, the fact that cokie's husband steve roberts gave her resume to nina totenberg at npr because he really wanted his wife to have the job that she

wanted. but, susan, people look at npr and maybe they don't realize how different public radio is from commercial radio. how do you explain it to someone who isn't in the middle of it? >> well, it's not commercials, so we don't interrupt things constantly, much like yourself with various ads. we do a whole lot of underwriting, but that's a great strength. you can you can listen to it straight, get the information straight and also full and balance. much of news anywhere on television is a pub is kind of opinion nation. that is it's not there's no effort to make it balanced or objective. but npr does. it's our m.o. it's what we do. so i explain it that way. and i also explain it's full of very terrific women. >> woodruff: lisa napoli, what a

great gift this book is for all of us who've depended on npr and still depend on npr for all these years and to read in such fascinating detail about the lives of these four remarkable women. thank you and thanks, susan stamberg, for being there at the creation. we owe you a lot. thank you both so much. >> thank you, judy. >> thank you. >> nawaz: finally tonight, a sneak peek at a unique program premiering tonight on the newshour's website. "disrupted: how covid-19 changed education," was produced by our own student reporting labs program. it explores what this extremely challenging school year was like for teenagers through video diaries, student stories, conversations with experts and social media influencers, explainer videos, and even a q&a with the new secretary of

education. take a look... >> schools have be shuttered for weeks across the country >> concerns about coronavirus have led to school shutdowns in almost every state. >> i no longer have school for the rest of the year. >> disneyland, closed, n.b.a. postponed, schools, clos. >> it is extremely boring and time consuming. >> my school and homelife are basically one in the same. >> it's not just you, we're all exhausted. >> antonio? antonio? >> is anyone out there? >> hi. >> hi leo, how's it going? >> oh okay, all right. >> i never thought wouldver say this but i miss school, miss going to school. >> we're back to learning online, i think i've missed

every deadline. no i'm not coping with the >> my school year has been so weird sfar. lots of new rules, lots of new procedures, everybody has to follow them. >> when i went to school to become a teacher, there was no lesson on how to teach while also being sck behind a screen. >> we have three cameras on! oh my gosh it's a world record oh six! >> we don't need to recreate what we had. we need to create new magic. we need to go forward. >> we're all in it together. it's just a really weird time to grow up. >> for those of you who are still here with me, stay here with me. let's do this. >> nawaz: "disrupted" starts in a few minutes, on the newshour website, at 7:00 p.m. eastern

time. i'll see you there. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and thadvancement 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello. welcome to "amanpour & company." here's wt's coming up. >> israel has responded forcefully to these attacks and we will continue to respond forcefully. >> deaths mount as the israel/hamas conflict rages on. i ask dennis ross, special enjoy to the middle east under president clinton and khaled elgindy. then, a media building destroyed by an israel air strike. i get an onhe ground report for journalist safwat al-kahlo. and making sense