captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. onhe newshour tonight, forced landing-- belarus diverts an international flight to arrest a dissident journalist, prompting accusations of state piracy and terrorm. then, one year lat-- the father of michael brown, killed in ferguson, missouri, reflects on how the country has and has not changed in the year since george floyd's death. plus, desperate journey-- we follow one migrant's struggles to reach the u.s., escaping the violence and poverty of his home country. >> ( translated ): i've heard from friends what you make in honduras in one year you make in two months in the united states. there you can go grocery

shopping calmly. here they will assault you or can even kill you. life there is so much better there for economic and security reasons. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> before we talk about your 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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and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the nation's largest school system will return to fully in-person learning this fall. new york city mayor bill de blasio announced it today. he said remote options will not be offered for the system's one million students. meanwhile, los angeles schools also announced a return to full, in-person learning come fall. remote options there will be available in special cases. the world health organization warned today that unequal distribution of covid-19 vaccines is prolonging the pandemic. in geneva, the agency's head criticized what he called a "scandalous inequity." >> a small group of countries that make d buy the majority of the world's vaccines contro the fate of the rest of the

world. the number of those administered globally so far would have been engh to cover all health workers and older people if they had been distributed equitably. >> woodruff: that warning came as india surpassed 300,000 deaths, third most in the world. the total included more than 4,400 deaths in the last 24 hours. the country has been racing to accelerate vaccinations and testing. india is also bracing for its second tropical cyclone in just 10 days, this time btering the country's east coast. the storm is churning in the bay of bengal before an expected landfall on wednesday, with winds of 100 miles an hour. last week's storm killed at least 140 people on india's west coast. mo than 170 children are still missing in eastern congo two days after a volcano erupted near goma.

at least 22 people have died, and more than 500 homes were destroyed as lava blanketed villages. some 5,000 people were forced to flee. the city's volcano observatory says funding cuts prevented any advanced warning to the public. the deposed leader of myanmar, aung san suu kyi, appeared in court, in person, today for the first time since a military coup in february. state tv showed a still image. suu kyi's lawyers said she wanted followers to know that her political party stands by them. >> one thing she said is that the party grows out of the people and wherever the people is, there must be, there is necessarily be the party. e party may exist wherever the people is, she said. >> woodruff: suu kyi is charged with breaking a colonial-era

secrets law, among other crimes. her supporters say the proceedings are a sham and meant to discredit her. on wall street today, stocks started the week on the positive side, led by tech stocks. the dow jones industrial average gained 186 points to close at 34,394. the nasdaq rose 190 points, d the s&p 500 added 41. and, pl mickelson has etched a new entry in the annals of pro golf's history-- the oldest player to win a major tournament, at age 50. he tapped in on the 18th hole sundayo claim the p.g.a. championship at kiawah island, south carolina, by two strokes. it was mickelson's sixth major championship overall. still to come on the newshour: a string of anti-semitic attacks raises tensions in the wake of the israel-gaza war. we follow the journey of one migrant's struggles to escape

violence and reach the u.s. the father of michael brown reflects on what has changed sie george floyd's killing. how a houston museum is widening its lens to showcase latin american art. plus much more. one day after beo russan authorities order thwhat european leaders call a state >> woodruff: yesterday, the government of belarus forced a civilian aircraft that was flying over its airspace to land so that it could arrest one of its passengers, a belorussian blogger. nick schifrin has the story.

>> schifrin: when ryanair 4978 was forced to land in minsk, authorities didn't only remove the luggage. they also arrested 26-year-old belarusian activist raman pratasevich. he ran an online news service that helped organize mass protests against president alexander lukashenko. known as europe's last dictator, who's been in power one year longer than pratasevich's been alive. belarusian government, and said four belarusian security agents a confession to organizations protests but today rye ryanair chief executive blamed the bellorussian government and said four security agents were on board to ensure the hijacking succeeded. >> i think it is the first time it happened to a >> i think it's the first time it has happened to a european airline. but i mean this was a case of state-sponsored... it was a state-sponsored hijack. >> schifrin: the flight path shows the plane flying in a straight line to intended destination lithuania, when it did a u-turn, landing instead in minsk. state media said lukashenko ordered a fighter jet to escort the plane to belarus' capital.

a bomb squad official in a balaclava, explained how there might have been an explosive on board. but european commission president ursula von der leyen dismissed that claim, and accused the government of“ outrageous and illegal behavior” and a “hijacking”. and today at a e.u. summit, she warned of severe consequences. >> schifrin: lukasnko's been fighting for his political life since he arrested leading opposition figures last year ahead of what the international community called a stolen election. his regime arrested many protest leaders and reporters who covered the uprising, are in exile or jail. but the ryanair incident, is unprecedented. >> not just as the committee to prott journalists, but a lot of belarus watchers realized how far lukashenko can go. >> schifrin: gulnoza said is the europe and central asia program coordinator at the committee to protect journalists. pratasevich founded the nexta forum on the telegram app. it shares user-generated content

from protests, with millions of subscribers, and helped demonstrators avoid state censorship. >> the protests erupted and then the free and very timely, very quick information, practically live information and videos also that were being distributed on nexta became very, very important for belarussians as the authorities were trying to close down or to control other media outlets who were providing the same sort of information. >> schifrin: today, belarusian opposition leader sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, said she feared for pratasevich's safety. >> he could be interrogated by k.g.b., he may be tortured now as an enemy of lukashenko. we are dealing with the harshest regime in europe in decades. >> schifrin: for more on all of this we turno matthew rojansky, director of the kennan institute at the wilson center, a washington, d.c. think tank. matthew rojansky, welcome back to the newshour, why would the lukashenko regime consider a

rone protasevich a threat. >> he has been in exile, he has had a discuss pended sentence or a sentence in absentia for 12 years for alleged terrorism alleged against him, so this is not new but in the last several months in the aftermath of the stolen august presidential election which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people coming out in the streets of minsk, the telegram channel, the news service which protasevich cofounded and has been instrumental in reporting what is actually happening in belarus, this is viewed as a threat to the regime by the lukashenko government in minsk so the opportunity to snag this political opponent clear was too tempting for them. >>. >> a snag is what the europeans have called it today. and tonight we have seen the european union announce these sanctions including a ban on bela rurks usian flying over eu

countries and the use of them in eu airports what is the implication and how effect tiff is likely to be. >> it is interesting in a couple of respects. one, it is proportionae in the sense that it is responding in terms of commercial air travel which is where the violations with done. it is a violation of basic principles of commercial air travel, freedom of navigation, et cetera, that this plane was downed under false pretenses and the eu is responding in that dimension and st effectively isolating belarus because this say landlocked country surrounded by eu members and ukraine which of course is likely to go with the eu on this. and then only has an eastern border with russia. and so this in effect doubles down on the political position that lukashenko was in after his crackdown which was to become wholery dependent on vladimir putin and the kremlin. now terms of literal, physical access to the outside world via the belorussian national air care, they are in

that total dependency on russia. >> you depend h that further isolates belarus but what leverage do the europeans, do the americans have toctually get lukashenko to change his behavior. >> the dilemma of lukashenko's current position for the west is that he has osen sides. when lukashenko was bouncing back and forth between currying favor in the west, currying favor in moscow, playing one against the other, one could have argued that limited pressure could achieve limited ends. for example, a certain amount of economic sanctions pressure, certain amount of diplomatic pressure naming and shaming was able to get prisoners, political prisoners lief. at this point having signed up essentially fully for vladimir putin's protection and abandoning pretext of good relations with with the west it is hard to see how that leverage can be successful. that said, give it a little time because i don't think putin and lukashenko view one another at

reliable parter ins. they have had 20 years to move through that relationship and never reached to thaint it is likely in a few years when there is a falling out and a reason for lukashenko to change course again, they will speak to curry favor in the west by releasing these political prisoners including perhaps prot sech ich ho has a 12 year sentence happening over his head. >> i would not expect quick success. >> you and have i talked about authoritarianism increasing across the world, not only in minsk. i wonder, has this kind of thing, this hijacking as the europeans have put it, ever happened before. and what message does it send to the rest of the world if belorussia government believes it succeeded? >> this is being described across-the-board as unprecedented or frankly if there is a precedent for it is a hijacking by a state, it is a state-sponsored ak of terrorism. the russians of course are backing luke sheng blanca they

are-- lukashenko. claiming that this had been done in the west there was a case in 2013, ore allest was leaving russia and no european country would refuel his aircraft, he was forced down. i don't see a direct comparison there. this is an attempt to actually grab the snatch out of mid air, you know, someone who is viewed as an enemy of the regime. it really is an act of terrorism. >> and therefore could we see it repeated by other countries, perhaps even by moscow which to no surprise has backed this effort. >> i think the russians view their ter tor in terms of ablute sovereignty. at this int although they certainly take part in international civilian air travel agreement, you know, if they have reason enough to try to grab someone or target someone who is on an aircraft, think navalny, they provide sonned him intentionally just before he got on a civilian airliner, i think the russians view their airspace as totally

up for grabs, fair game for their political wargame. >> matt rojansky of the wilson center, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the cease fire in gaza is holding for now. but while the confrontation between israel and hamas was taking place, there were growing reports of anti-semitic attacks and slurs in several american cities. william brangham focuses on the disturbing questions this raises, once again, about hate in america. >> brangham: judy, the anti- defamation league tracked reports of online comments, verbal confrontations, and physical assaults in the u.s. during that 11-days of bombing in gaza and in israel, finding quote a "drastic surge" in anti- semitic language and attacks. that included an attack on a 29- year-old man in new york who was

punched, kicked and pepper- sprayed times square. in los angeles, five people suffered minor injuries after they were attacked by people waving palestinian flags while in tuscon, arizona, a synagogue was vandalized. the a.d.l. also reported ousands of tweets or rewteets that seemed to echoed the phrase"hitler was right." last week, five jewish organizations, including the a.d.l., wrote a letter to president biden about their concerns over the seeming rise in these hateful attacks, asking him to speak out more forcefully against them. for more on all of this, we turn to jonathan greenblatt, the c.e.o. of the anti-defamation league. jonathan, great to see you back on the newshour, in the past your organization has documented that when there is violence between israes and palestinians, that ti-semitic attas in the u.s. go up. compare now to then. are we seeing more now. >> yes. it is certainly true that in the

past conflagrations in the middle east, in israeli, the palestinians and its neighbors have created an uptick of anti-semitism in america. but what we are seeing now is more drastic and frankly more dangerous. the adl track between the two weeks of the conflict and the two weeks before, a 63 percent increase. and that surge is far greater than what we have seen in prior incidents like 2014, for example. but what i would also note t is not just the quantitative but the quawl tative. this span of these attacks, they spread like wildfire across the country. you mentioned a few. california, arizona, wisconsin, illinois, michigan, new york, new jersey, south carolina, florida. acts of harassment and vandalism and violence. so number one, the span is much breat greater than what we have seen, but secondly the tone, the brazenness, the audacity of

these assaults in broad daylight, you know. wee seen people basically say you know, if you are wearing a jewish star you must be a zionist and you should be killed. we have seen people hurling botd els and objects at homes with mizote on the door that were identififully jewish, we have seen people driving cars or mawr odding through jewish neighborhoods and yelling we're going to rape your women or yelling things like aluakabar and wrecking physical violence on people, one of the things captured was in broad daylight in time square, a group of people beatg and bloodying a jewish man whose only crime was he was wearing a kipa to the point where he was left unconscious in the street while people kicked him, you know, bloodied him with like crutches. it was really quite disgusting and to think this is happening

in america is really unconscionable. >> brangham: so what do you attribute this to. i remember back in the trump administration you were qing to point out instances where you thought political language that foamented anti-sem nism, do you see political leaders now who are exacerbating this? >> well, let's be clear, none of the people committing these crimes were in-- dsht reality is that i do believe that political language can have real world consequences but this is a different kind of political language. so yes, we called out the prior president and his kind of accolades, extremists from marching in charlottesville to mawr odding through capitol hill but in this place we have people waving palestinian flags and then beating jewish people inch this case wt i might really draw parallel to is the hate crime committed against asian americans. where unhinged, you know, fictionalized conspiracies about china first started by political leaders lead to real world

consequences as asian americans were attacked on the street. well, today we have unhinged fictionalized conspiracies about israel that show the jewish state is systemically slaughtering children or committing genocide and then that leads to real world attacks on jewish people in the streets of america. on our campuses, in our community. so although again the political tenor may be different, the real outcome is the same. and that's why we think people regardless of where you are on the spectrum need to speak out clearly and firmly and forcefully and say in an unambiguous way that anti anti-semitism is unacceptable because again, this isn't activism, it's hate. and it should be called out as such. >> in that letter that you sent to the white house, you specifically asked president joe biden to speak out more forcefully. have you heard from the white house since you sent them that letter? >> we have been in touch with the white house. look, and joe biden has been good on the issues his entire

career. from his time in the senate to vice president, to now as president. he announced his run for office, de crying the anti-semitism that he saw, you know, in full view as charlottesville. so just this morning he tweeted out a firm statement that. >> we think it is critical fo the administration to stand squarely in solidarity with the jewish community in this moment when so many of us are feeling frightened. i heard from jewish people across the country. and they are eling scared. they have extremists on the right. they have, if you might say radical voices from the left. and they are wondering if it is safe for me to go out wearing a kipop, is it safe for me to walk to synagogue on a saturday morning. again, this is in america i 2021. so we think leaders, not just president biden but members of congress need to speak out and clearly and consistently call it anti-semitism without making

equivalent or excuses for any other form of prejudice. you can have fierce debates about middle east policy. but that is not an excuse to assault and victimize jewish people, in america, in europe, anywhere. >> brangham: all right, jonathan green blat, c.e.o. of the anti-def place league, thank you very much-- defamation league, thai very much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: one way the biden administration is trying address the challenges posed by migrants crsing the border, focusing on where the journey for many begins. there are incentives for honduras, guatemala and mexico to militarize their borders to stem the flow. tania rashid and neil brandvold report. >> reporter: it's been eight days since johan guerra lost his job at a factory, operating

heavy textile machinery for the canadian apparel maker gildan. he was among 12 workers fired without severance after protesting for higher pay. he barely survived on 2 a day to support his wife, who also lost her job at the same factory, his sister, and his three-year-old daughter. after back-to-back devastating hurricanes that struck central america last year, the family lost their home and belongings and had to move in with an uncle. and a last brutality: shortly after that johan's father was murdered by gang members in an attempted robbery. at just the age of 23, johan is the sole breadwinner for a desperate family. >> ( translated ): it's really difficult since my dad died. he's been a father to us. since he was nine years old he's worked for all ous and our mother. he's the one who raised us. >> rorter: they live under constant risk in choloma, one of

the most dangerous cities in honduras, the murder capital of the world. two gangs operate here: ms-13 and 18th street, responsible for thousands of homicides this past year. johan fears anything can happen to him at a moment's notice. he says his only way out is to go to united states where a very different world awaits >> ( translated i've heard from friends what you make in honduras in one year you make in two nths in the united states. there you can go grocery shopping calmly. here they will assault you or can en kill you. life there is so much better there for economic and security reasons. everything is so much better. >> reporter: since february of this year tens of thousands of hondurans have organized on social media to join in caravans heading north. they're hastily-formed, and johan received information to meet at 6:00 a.m. he shares his last dinner with his family before he sets off on his trek. >> ( translated ): it's really difficult because people talk about how dangerous the road is.

but with the trust in god we know he will make it there okay. >> reporter: the next day several hundred people across the country took to the streets in the scorching sun making their way to the honduras- guatemala border. johan starts the first leg of his journey alone by walking, then hitching a ride on the back of a pickup truck where he meets a group of young men. for hours they take whatever vehicle they could find. along the journey johan hopes seemed high that he would make it to a more welcoming united states. >> what do you think of president biden? >> ( translated ): from what i hear in the news, he's a better president. he'll give asylum he will help. not like donald trump who didn't want anyone to enter. this president from what i've seen is much different than donald trump and he's different in a way for migrants. >> so you're confident you're going to get asylum? >> ( translated ): whatever happens either i'll get asylum or i'll cross illegally. whatever happens the mission is to make it up north. >> reporter: at the official border crossing at the honduras-

guatemala border hundreds of people arrive; many families including mothers with newly born babies. fights break out as several migrants are stopped by honduran authorities. >> ( translated ): we are not bothering anyone. i am paying with my own money. >> reporter: what are the police saying to you? >> ( translated ): that they want us to go back. we are migrants. they are saying here is the border. this is the problems with the guatemalen they don't want to let us in. >> ( translated ): we are hondurans. how can we be illegals in central america? >> reporter: do you have documentation? >> ( translated ): yes we have everything? >> reporter: but they are not letting you pass? >> ( translated ): they wont let me pass. >> reporter: frustrated families storm through and continue to walk. to avoid the military, n gran on an illegal th jungle g as they make their way, our team crossed offi borde where we arrived to a dramatic scene. we have arrived in guatemala and the army are armed and vigilant because the government has declared a state of emergency. they have been given permission

to use force on the migrants when they arrive. this deployment of security forces comes in the wake of a recent agreement made by the biden administration with central american governments to militarize the southern borders and of central american countries to make the journey more difficult for migrants in this particular caravan. >> so, mexico made the decision to maintain 10,000 troops at its southern border, resulting in twice as many daily migrant interdictions. guatemala surged 1,500 police and military personnel to its southern border with honduras honduras surged 7,000 police and military to disperse a large contingent of migrants. >> reporter: as we drive through guatemala, we see the biden administration policy in coordination, asarge groups of migrants are met with militarized checkpoints stopping and detaining migrants along the trek. we drove four to five hours into the guatemala-honduras border and the army has detained 45 migrants for illegally entering

guatemala. many have been without food or water for four to five hours and now they are about to be sent back to honduras in trucks. in just a matter of minutes they are taken away. later that night we hear from johan. so it's been a few hours since received video footage of him trekking in the dead of the night through the jungle. and he sounds out of breath and exhausted. and shortly after that he just now sent a text message after that video, saying that he is really scared. and half of the people he was with were kidnapped. so now we've tried to get in touch with him. we've called him several times and haven't heard anything back. as we continue to wait for news from johan we come across reports of other migrants kidnapped from the same caravan a common danger for many heading north. so we just got word that johan is nearby. and he made it after all, and

he'salking up right now. >> is that him? >> it is, and he tells us about his harrowing journey. >> ( translated ): i was afraid because it was dark and there were three people that i didn't know and i'm in a foreign country and it's definitely not a good reason they are waiting for me. it scared me even more because they kidnapped the other people. i was also really afraid when i crossed the river. and halfway across the river i was out of energy. but i prayed to god in the middle of the river that he would save me. the only thing that came to mind was the image of my daughter. and so that motivated me to make it to the edge of the river and that's how i got outf the river. >> reporter: johan tried to hitch a ride for the guatemala- mexico border with his group, but couldn't catch up to them on time. >> ( translated ): part of me is hay because nothing happened to me like other people who leave the house looking for the american dream and they lose a leg on the train. or when they are trying to cross a river what almost happened to me and they drowned. on one hand i'm happy and on the other hand i'm really sad because i didn't reach my goal.

like they say god knows what he does and why he does it. he has a purpose for everyone of us. so that is the mission to try it again. maybe right now wasn't my moment to pass. but if it is god's will that i make it to the usa. then i make it. >> reporter: afraid to continue the trek alone, he has decided to return to honduras, to rest, gather the strength and the courage to try again for the usa for a better life for them all. for the pbs newshour, i'm tania rashid with neil brandvold in guatemala. >> woodruff: this week, as we mark one year since the murder of george floyd, we look back to another police killing that changed the country. nearly seven years ago, 18-year-old michael brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in ferguson, missouri. his death led to weeks of

protests and sometimes violent clashes with law enforcement-- and gave birth to the black lives matter movement. earlier this month, yamiche alcindor spoke with brown's father, michael brown senior, about what has changed since his son's killing and george floyd's murder. >> alcindor: thank you so much for sitting down with us and talking. it's been nearly seven years since your son was killed. i wonder how you're doing, how you've navigated this time. >> well, every day still different. sadly, this thing with community and police is still continuing. so it definitely does bring back the old feelings, open wounds, you know, brings that anger, that madness or whatever back. >> alcindor: so much has changed and so much hasn't changed since the death of your son. i wonder if you can talk to me a bit about where you were, when you learned about george floyd, if you saw the video and what that moment was like for you as

a black man and as a father who had lost his son. >> i was at home when it was going live on the internet. we all went to minnesota to support and be down on the ground roots with the rest of the community. the energy, the energy reminded me of 2014. it was so much anger, pain. i met with the family. gave them words of encouragement and i told them, you know, any time you want to reach out, just reach out. my phone will be on, because is is this is this is something that's going to be hurting for years to come. and you want to try to understand why this happen to your family. sot's different stages with the trauma. you know, you get the denial, you got the anger, you got to ying to get past and then you get coping. >> alcindor: where are you in your in your stages?

>> definitely not at the point of forgiveness. i would say anger/coping. but i'm in a space where i don't have to, i'm not around negativity to open old flames back up. >> alcindor: where were you when derek chauvin was found guilty? and what went through your mind when you heard that that family was going to get justice? >> i was riding in the car and i heard it over the radio. and right then i was i was happy for the family, you know, but i know, it's not satisfying for that family because they still lost their loved one. people that lost that type of way, we're not satisfied. until we start to change the policies and different cities, some people will get justice, some people won't. you know, so that's what we're working on. changing some things here in missouri, so another family won't have to go through this.

i still got little, small children. you know, i don't want them to go through nothing like that; i don't even think i'd be able to take that again. so it's all about the community and families, trying to make better things for families, you know, to be able to walk down the street, drive their car without being harassed or killed. >> alcindor: thinking about your son, a teenager walking down the street. some people see that as a teenager walking down the street. some people see that as someone who's threatening. we know that in this country, black men in particular, black people in particular, have been criminalized. how does that change? >> well, definitely profiling. profiling has to stop. you have 16 to 18 year olds that look like grown men from the back. so i think interacting with those teenagers should be in a whole different, different tone, frame, whatever you want to call it. especially when they turn around and you see this baby face. there's no threat.

you know, it's procedures that you can do. what's your parents number? where you going? follow them home, talk to a person, you know, it shouldn't have to end in death. >> alcindor: do you think that what happened to your son, it ends up leading to the conviction of this officer in the murder of george floyd. do you think that momentum and where our country is played into that? >> of course, that's what i think. some people might not, but that's what i think. he opened up a lot of doors for a lot of families. so even the body cam, mike started that, you know, especially here in st. louis; it was other places that was half of the police force had them, and not all. but now it's almost everywhere. >> alcindor: what perspective could you share now that maybe you couldn't share in 2014, what perspective have the last seven years given you as you think about where our nation is now with the death of george floyd and the death of your son? >> well, i just say, if we don't unify, we're going to die.

i don't care what color we is. you know, we have you have white allies. we have all types of people to understand what's wrong, you know. and you support what you know is wrong, you the problem too. you know, this the only way this world can be better if we start understanding what the problem is. all of us is not the enemy. but we have been traumatized for so many years to where some people, you know, they don't know which way to go, so we have to have different conversations so we can try to work on, you know, doing some good or better for our community. >> woodruff: undoubtedly, there will be more of those conversations happening this week and particularly tomorrow on the anniversary of george floyd's death. members of the floyd family will meet privately tomorrow with president biden at the white house. 'll have much more on all of this tomorrow night.

>> woodruff: it is a jam-packed week for senators, considering everything from china to administration nominees, infrastructure and investigating january 6. a perfect time for politics monday with amy walter of the cook political report. and tamara keith of npr. it is so good to sigh both of you-- see both of you this monday. and tam, i want to start with you on maybe not so glamorous but very important subject of infrastructure. the president, the administration has been talking about it for weeks. the president signaled in the last few days that he is pleeped to accept a smaller amount of money from congress. where does it stand right now? >> well, and what was fascinating about the quownt counteroffer sent out late last week by the white house to

senate represent-- republicans who they are negotiating with, is they said we will come down $500 billion on our proposal. so from two and a quarter trillion to 1.7 trillion. but all of the items that they were willing to come down on were things where there actually is fairly broad bipartisan agreement that something needs to be done. so they took the areas of agreement and offered to come down on that, in a way almost seeming like the point was just to highlight the vast disagreements where congressional republicans. in the end they still don't agree on the definition of infrastructure, how big the package should be, or how it should be paid for. and it is not clear how they're going to get there or if they're ever going to get there. so the white house is still at least publicly insisting that they are having these conversations, the conversations are continuing. and that they haven't given up yet on something by part san.

>>-- bipartisan. >> what is really going on here, because i think a lot of people look at this, they say hey strks infrastructure. we know what infrastructure is and that the white house has packedn some things that they say is important in terms of the social infrastructure of the country. but what is the nub, what is holding this up? >> i mean, tomorrow laid it out really well. the definitions they don't agree on. the price tag, they don't agree on. they don't agree on how to pay for it and you know, other than that, they're really this close to getting bipartisan agreement. there is nothing they seem to agree on here. it seems like what the white house is doings right now is setting the ground work here to be a i believe it to say when democrats end up trying to pass something through a deocratic only proposal for something called reconciliation, they said we tried, we want to be bipartisan. i brought all of these republicans, i will list the names and the number of

republicans who aren't in leadership that he invited over to the white house. but you know, we just couldn't agree. in many ways this is about convincing some of the more■ moderate democrats, especially somebody like senator joe manchin who has said outloud for many months that he wants to see more bipartisan cooperation on an issue like this. his colleague is republican, colleague from the state of west virginia, also engaged in this process. so if they are able to convince manchin that they've been working on bipartisanship, it didn't work, needs to pass on democratic votes, then there we go. >> woodruff: so tam, in a word, do we know whether the white house really wants a bipartisan deal or not? >> oh, man. i mean they sure are putting on quite a, you know, a public effort to try to get something. i think that they would love to have a bipartisan agreement that

they could get through that was more strictly narrowly de fined as infrastructure. and then a much bigger package that they could push through reconciliation potentially. but they aren't there yet, on even the things that they sort of agree are infrastructure, that republicans largely would agree are infrastructure like rural broadband where they don't agree on the price tag. >> woodruff: gives us a headache just think being it but thank you both for trying. amy, let's talk about the january 6th commission. is is something the democrats very much want, a bipartisan commission. we know speaker pelosi reworked it, did finally, a proposal passedhe house. now in the senate. what does it look like? what are the pressures on republicans, especially those republicans who did vote to impeach former president trump over his role in the insurrection. >> well, it seems like what a

lot of republicans, especially on the senate side have made the choice that it's riskier to have the commission than to vote against a bipartisan commission. because the risk is that once again, as we've seen in these last two elections, 2018 and 2020, if the election is a referendum on donald trump, if donald trump is the center of the conversation shall the political conversation, that's not good tor republicans. you have heard foarks like susan colins this weekend say look, i'm all for having a commission. here's the thing. i want to make sure that the report comes out at the end of 2021. in other words, i don't want this used by democrats to hit us over the head in an election year. and even though there are republicans in the senate who had supported impeachment saying look, we have so many other avenues to investigate this attack. we know the justice department is looking at this. we know that other committees in congress are looking at this. i just don't think we need yet

one more commission. but it seems fundamentally, the worry is that democrats are going to use this, to once again remind voters about what they didn't like about donald trump in an election year. >> and tam, we know it's not the white house that is necessarily behind this, but a lot of interest there in seeing it happen. what about the thinking on the part of democrats broadly on this? >> i think that democrats do want this to happen. if they didn't want it to happen, then i'm pretty sure that speaker pelosi and the democrats in the house would not have compromised so much on the design of this commission. but the reality is that they could keep investigating. it just won't have sort of the good housekeeping seal of approval of a bipartisan nonpartisan commission. instead it could be a committee like that that investigating benghazi or i guess there were

like five investigations of benghazi much or it could be like, you know, various house committees doing the inveigations. but it just won't be by-- bipartisan. it won't have that same, that same approval. so you know, for republicans though, the other risk, it isn't just that trump could go after the republicans who voted for such a commission and exiled them like he is trying to exile anyone whoever votes against them but it is also just that the entire time that the commission is needing, the former president could be making knows about it and drawing attention to it even more. >> and in connection with all of this, amy, with the falsehood that the election, the november election was rigged and that joe biden didn't really win, you have these reor audits i should say going on in the mayor copea county in arizona-- mari copa

county in arizona, georgia, and other states, do we see republicans making headway in these efforts to overturn the election still? >> judy, what is worrisome about these is not that the election will be overturned. the election is over, the courts have weighed in. and the legal process has gone as, you know, has taken root. so it is done. the problem is that we know that many republican voters, the majority of republican voters don't believe that the election results were fair. and that even the process itself for adjudicating disagreement is not trusted. these two states, arizona and georgia, are going to be battlegrounds for the fore seeable future in 2022 they have senate races that could determine the majority in the senate. in 2024 we know there will be battleground presidential states for the electoral college and what you have going on here is a complete undermining of trust

not just in the way the campaign is prailted but in the local officials. and judy, we talked a lot about there in to 2020 about how the guard rail, our democracy really were these local elected officials, and the work they were doing. now even they are being undermined and that say very woreisome trend. >> never seen anything like it. amy walter, tamara keith, we thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> welcome. >> woodruff: now, widening the lens to see more of art history. in the midst of the pandemic, the museum of fine arts, houston opened a new building that highlights its growing collection of latin american and latino works. jeffrey brown visited recently for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> brown: wire sculptures from the 1970s and '8 by the

venezuelan artist known as“ gego”-- gertrud goldschmi. abstract paintings by several brazilian artists in the 1950s. a 2017 installation holding the belongings of deported migrant, titd “temporary storage”, by mexican artist camilo ontiveros. different shapes, styles, forms, all part of a 20-year project to expand the story of art history. now the museum of fine arts, houston, has a new showcase-- the “kinder building,” designed by architect steven holl, to house its collection of modern and contemporary art. and a quarter of it, everywhere you look, is by latin american or latino artists. curator mari carmen ramirez: >> it's a statement that very few museums in this country can make. >> brown: and why is that an important statement for this museum, for you? >> because of the ascendance of the latino population and other

groups here in the united states. these are the populations that are going to be defining the future of this country, in my view. and so it's important for the museum to position itself in that debate. >> brown: since coming to the museum in 2001, ramirez, who was born in puerto rico, has helped build an enormous collection of works little known to the american public and rarely seen in most u.s. museums. what did you want people coming to this museum and americans more generally to know about latin american art? >> i wanted them to know that latin americans were not just practitioners of 20th century art, they actively contributed new ideas and w apprches, because we in this field, we have been fighting from the very beginning against the notion that latin american art is

derivative of u.s. or european art, that everything that latin americans did was to follow picasso or mondrian or rauschenbe or many other artists. and that's a fallacy. >> brown: americans might know the great mexican muralists like diego rivera and the painter frida kahlo is a phenomenon unto herself. but beyond frida? the houston museum expands the picture dramatically, to brazilian abstractionists from the 1950s and 60s, like lygia clark. >> it is what she called a bicho, which is translated as critter. it is about the sensorial experience of manipulating the object. >> brown: and in a very different mode, to the argentinian antonio berni's painting with ¡found objects'-- including street trash, a commentary on the migration of the poor from the countryside to the city. >> the idea is that this is the reality that these people live. and so what better way to

represent their plight than to use the same garbage, the same trash they're exposed to every day. >> brown: the concern with cial issues has continued in more recent years, as in mexican artist teresa margolles' harrowg, “lote bravo” from 2005: 400 adobe bricks made from the earth where bodies of murdered women were found, the¡ femicides' in ciudad juarez. >> she picked up earth from those places and then working with an artisan, they produced these bricks. >> brown: each one represents a woman. >> each one represents a woman. you can think of it as a memorial, but you can also think of it as a cemetery. >> brown: a big focus for the collection now: art by american- born artists of latin american descent, already numbering more than 400 works by some 70 artists, like houston-based vincent valdez' painting of a young man suspended in the air, from his series titled “stranger

fruit”. ramirez sees a vibrant and growing latino art world, but one still in need of what she callan “infrastructure”. >> galleries, muses, collectors and institutionalized study programs. without these elements, the art cannot flourish-- i mean, it can flourish at the level the artists are producing in, but nobody's going to get to know what they're doing or to really understand its importance and its significance. >> brown: do you see that changing, though? >> yes, i see that changing. i think the change is coming. it's going to take a while still. but i'm hoping that in 20 years it will be in a different, at a different level. >> brownthe “kinder building” opened amid the pandemic, and amid a social justice movement that's led museums nationally to re-think their missions. the timing may have been serendipitous, but ramirez says the effort here fits that larger reckoning. >> latin american or latino art, or african-american art it's not

about a fad or a tendency or a trend or some fashionable movement that is in vogue right now. it's about the fact that museums really need to reinvent themlves. they need to really reflect the demographics and the profile of the audiences they are serving. this country is living a transformation and museums need to position themselves to addresthat transformation. >> brown: a new world -- just as artists like argentinian gyula kosice have long been dreaming of and creating, now, for all to see. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown from the museum of fine arts, houston. >> woodruff: this week marks one year since george floyd was killed. but what has changed in this year of protests and racial reckoning?

on tuesday night, we hope you'll join us for an hour-long special on pbs-- "race matters: america after george floyd." >> in a year of racial reckoning, violence, abuse and inequity persists. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty. >> the chauvin verdict hinted at a path to justice. yet much more is to be done. >> now is the time to act. >> how can we create lasting change? race matters. america after george floyd, a pbs newshour special report, tuesday, may 25th at 10 p.m., 9:00 central. >> woodruff: watch the special report here on your pbs station at 10:00 p.m. eastern, and join the conversation by following the newshour online. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay

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