captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a deadly shooting-- at least eight people are killed at a rail yard in san jose california in the latest episode of mass gun violence in america. then, race matters-- the passage of landmark hate crimes legislation marks a culmination of decades of solidarity between black and asian american communities. and, the future of flight-- a new wave of innovative electric airplanes is poised to reduce aviation carbon emissions and change air travel forever. >> this is the third revolution of aviation. the first revolution, of course, was powered flight. the second revolution was jets. electric propulsion is the third revolution. >> woodruff: all that and more

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>> woodruff: a rail facility that serves silicon valley is now the scene of the nation's newest mass shooting investigation. authorities say an employee killed eight co-workers then killed himself. around 6:30 a.m., shots erupted at a railyard north of downtown san jose, and sent sheriff's deputies and police scrambling. the attack is the latest in a series of mass shootings this year. san jose mayor sam liccardo called it a tragic day. >> now is a moment for us to collect ourselves, to understand what happened, to mourn and to help those who have suffered to heal. >> woodruff: police said victims were employees of the valley transportation authority, a public transit system in santa clara county. authorities said the gunman took

his own life. he was identified as sam cassidy, who also worked at v.t.a. police said this morning they were searching the complex for possible explosives. >> the biggest thing we want to ensure is public safety for our community out there and right now public safety is assured at this point. we do have investigators on scene, pretty much doing our investigation to see exactly what happened and transpired. >> woodruff: federal law enforcement is assisting with the investigation. authorities also responded to a fire at cassidy's house. v.t.a. light rail service was suspended at noon today and replaced with bus service. >> it's just very difficult for everyone to be able to try to wrap their heads around and understand what has happened. >> woodruff: california govern gavin newsom visited the scene later in the day. >> to the victims, to those who lost their lives and the families who lost their loved ones, yes our hearts go out, but we are resolved not to make this meaningless, but to bring meaning to this tragic moment in

our state and our nation's history. >> woodruff: authorities have also set up a reification center for the affected families. late today, president biden urged congress to take action on gun violence. he said, "every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation." congressman ro khanna represents part of san jose and he joins me now. representative khanna, thank you so much for joining us and, of course, our hearts go out to everyone who's lost a family member, loved one today. what more can you tell us about what happened? thank you, judy. there's just deep hurt in the community. i mean, eight lives senselessly lost, a sense of deep tragedy at the v.t.a. these are people who go every day to keep the public transportation running. i mean, when people talk about my district, they talk about appland google. they forget that there are a lot of workers that make the infrastructure and

transportation work. and they had horrific violence, and there's anger and there's unanswered questions. >> woodruff: and among the unanswered questions, of course, is motive. we know the shooter was an employee, so he presumably knew at least some of the people who are now dead or injured. do we know any more about that, about the shooter's house being on fire today? >> judy, we don't know his motive, but there are reports coming out that he had reportedly incidents of domestic violence, that his former girlfriends were concerned that he could pose a threat to others. and i guess the question people are asking is how does someone like that get access to a gun that literally, in a few seconds, can kill numerous people, change a community's life, change amily's life? it is appalling and, you know, i have been in congress for five years, and we still have not

passed meaningful gun legislation, and people really are frustrated. they want to see action. >> woodruff: and in that vein, congressman, we looked today and the associated press is reporting t this is the 15 15th mass killing just this year in 2021. 86 people have died in these mass events, all of them shootings, and this compares to 106 people who died in all of 2020. as you say, it just keeps happening. what are the american people to take away from this? >> judy, i'm hopeful the president can break through. he is someone who has deep empathy. he speaks to the broad range of americans. he served, as you know, in the senate for over 30 years. we've passed in the house some very common sense legislation. it simply says, have a background check. if you're alaw abiding citizen,

you can use your guns, but don't put a gun in the hands of someone who has allegedly committed domestic violence. don't put a gun in the hands of someone who will go and kill people at a workplace. i don't understand why this is so complicated. 80% of the american people support it. i think what's changed now is we have a president who is capable of getting the senate to move, and i really hope that will happen. >> woodruff: and what do you know, congressman, about the gun laws in california that might have made a difference in this incident? >> well, judy, we have some of the strictest gun laws, but i think one of the unanswered questions is why were the red flag laws not invoked in this case, and we need to get more details. did the domestic violence charges rise to the level that red flag laws should have been involved? why was there not more intervention? why was there not more intervention in terms of mental

health counseling and intervention in this person's life who clearly had issues. i mean, someone doesn't just get up one day and snap and decide to kill dozens of people or try to kill dozenof people. this is something that has been building up and there was not intervention and we have to understand why. woodruff: i heard governor gavin newsom who was there speaking at the news conference just an hour ago say we don't want this event to be just another shooting, and they just keep happening and keep happening, we want it to mean something, but how does that happen? because these events just keep repeating themselves. >> well, i think we have to look at the specifics in this case and then see what california can do. so are there areas we need to strengthen red flag laws so there could have been intervention to take this person's weapon away when there were warning signs? the second thing is, is there enough in terms of mental health

counseling, and what resources were available to the v.t.a.? and finally, need to honor, i think, the families and the v.t.a. workers in silicon valley. too often they're invisible, their contribution isn't recognized. today they're really grieving. it was supposed to be a day of celebration. they finally had offrides returning to normal after the pandemic and now it's one of the worst days in their life. this is not politics. i've reached out to people. they're shocked, they're devastated, they're never going to forget this, and it's just sad this is happening in workplaces in this country. >> woodruff: terrible and sad and, as you say, it was supposed to be a very different kind of a day. congressman ro khanna, thank you very much again and, again, our condolences to the entire community. >> thank you, judy.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, president biden ordered u.s. intelligence agencies to redouble efforts aimed at pinpointing covid-19's origins. he asked for findings in 90 days, and pressed china to cooperate, amid fresh reports that the virus might have escaped from a chinese lab. at a white house briefing, spokeswoman karine jean-pierre said it's vital to get answers. >> we need to get to the bottom of this. as we all know, we've lost almost 600,000 americans to covid-19 and we have to get a better sense of the origin of covid-19 and also how do we prevent the next pandemic. >> woodruff: jean-pierre also made a bit of history at that session. she is the first openly gay woman and the first black person in 30 years to deliver the daily white house briefing. a tropical cyclone roared ashore today in eastern india, forcing

more than a million people to flee and killing at least six. the storm made landfall in odisha state with winds gusting near 100 miles an hour. huge waves battered the coastline as heavy rains flooded streets. another storm struck india's west coast less than two weeks ago. a court in t netherlands has issued a landmark climate ruling. it ordered royal dutch shell to cut carbon essions by a net 45%, by 2030. the court found shell's current emissions plans are not enough. climate change activists cheered the outcome, outside the court in the hague. they said it will have a ripple effect, worldwide. >> we're very, very happy that we now have this groundbreaking ruling where the court is crystal clear in the fact that corporations should indeed contribute to solving the climate crisis based on human

rights law. >> woodruff: also today, exxon mobil shareholders voted to replace at least two board members over climate policy. the dissidents argued the company has failed to commit to greater use of clean energy over fossil fuels. the company had defended its efforts. e-commerce giant amazon made it official today: it's buying mgm for nearly $8.5 billion. the deal adds thousands of mgm's feature films and tv programs to amazon's streaming service. it's the latest major move in the media industry as other services try to gain ground on netflix and disney-plus. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 10 points to close at 34,323. e nasdaq rose 80 points, and the s&p 500 added seven. people across the pacific region got to see a so-called "super

blood moon" overnight. new zealand, australia, hawaii and western north america had the best views. a timelapse of stills showed a total lunar eclipse that gave off a reddish-orange color. the full moon was also closer to earth than usual, making it brighter. and, former long-time republican senator john warner of virginia died of heart failure last night, at his alexandria home. john yang takes a look at his life. >> hearing no objection, so ordered. >> yang: john warner represented virginia in the senate for 30 years, respected on both sides of the aisle for h independence and efforts at consensus-building. a former navy secretary and veteran of both world war ii and the korean war, he was an important voice on military affairs. >> america has always led in the calls of freedom. >> yang: as armed services committee chairman, warner

backed president george w. bush on the iraq war, but split with the commander-in-chief over his later troop build-up. >> wake up! we're paying a heavy price. >> yang: his independent streak was also on display when he opposed president reagan's bid to put robert bork on the supreme court, defied the n.r.a. on gun issues and refused to back fellow virginia republican oliver north's 1994 senate campaign. warner was first elected in 1978, often campaigning with his then-wife, actress elizabeth taylor. she would introduce herself as“ a housewife from a small town in virginia.” after retiring from the senate in 2009, he endorsed democrats, including hillary clinton for president in 2016 and virginia's current senators, tim kaine and mark warner, no relation, who narrowly lost a 1996 bid to unseat john warner. in the senate today, republican

leader mitch mcconnell remembered his former colleague. >> today, my predecessor as chairman of the rules committee was a principled patriot across the board. he was also a truly old school virginia gentleman. >> yang: in 2009, the navy named a submarine for warner-- an uncommon honor for a living person. its homeport: norfolk, virginia. warner died with his wife and family at his side. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: john warner was 94 years old. still to come on the newshour: the new push for infrastructure investment looks to correct past mistreatment of minority communities. the military coup in myanmar uses the bodies of its victims to intimidate the democracy movement. hate crimes legislation highlights decades of solidarity between black and asian american communities. plus, much more.

>> woodruff: over the past 14 months, the u.s. government has allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to help small businesses survive the pandemic's economic hurdles. all that funding has been managed by the small business administration, whose head was on capitol hill today giving an update. and our own lisa desjardins has been following the money as well and joins me now. hello to you, lisa. so, lisa, we know several of these programs are ending, and we learned today that at least one of them is far short of the money that these businesses need. so tell us where all this stands. >> that's right. there is so much good news these daysbout opening increased vaccinations, people's lives moving forward, but it's

important to talk about small businesses. according to the national federation of independent business, at the beginning of this month, about a third of america's small businesses were still struggling to get back to 2019 levels. now, to help them, of course, what we have been talking about all this time, is eight different bills passed the u.s. congress to help these small businesses, some of them extensions, some of them new programs, and i want to look at where those programs are right now, those kind of life bloods for these businesses through this pandemic. first of all, theaycheck protection program has actually run out of funding at this point and it's given out about $795 billion. technically, it's still open to applications but, again, that money has now run out. another one to talk about is a relatively new one called the restaurant relief funding program, that program closed for applications just a couple of days ago on monday, a much smaller program, $28.6 billion,

and that is the one that is far short of the money that it looks like restaurants need. again $28.6 billion. we learned today that restaurants across the country have applied for $76 billion. that's almost $50 billion more than the program has on hand. one more i mentioned very quickly, a program called shutter venues, where theaters, concert venues, museums, other nonprofit large group activity centers, that program does still have money left and will be open until that money is gone. that seems to be the one area where there is still so give right now. >> woodruff: and lisa, let's go back to what you were saying about restaurants and the massive shortfall they are facing. you have been talking to restaurant owners. what are you learning about what this shortfall could mean? >> it's hard to think of any industry, and we don't know of any industry that can prove it was harder hit during the pandemic than the restaurant

industry. 1 million restaurants operate i this country in norl times. according to the national restaurant foundion, they say -- association, they say 90,000 restaurants closed either permanently or long term during this pandemic, and the issue is that many of these restaurants have thin margins in even the best of times, 5% to 6% they're making over what they charge. so let's look at this program designed to help them. this program is called the restaurant relief fund. it is intended to cover sales, the drop in sales between 2019 and 2020. now, if a restaurant got a paycheck protection money, that money will come out as well. they can do both, but they can't double dip. again, the funding for this program, $28.6 billion, and, so far, restaurants have applied for $76 billion. and the small business administration was very clear today in saying they are going to have to make choices, they will not be able to give out

this money to every restaurant that applies. that could mean 100,000 restaurants that have applied for this money will not get it. how will they decide? congress, when thain passed the restaurant program said that the small business administration must give it out first to priority groups. that includes the following -- restaurants owned by women, by veterans and by social or economically disadvantaged groups, that includes racial minorities and other minorities. so what we have now is a situation of different business owners, different restaurant owners getting different things from this program. our producer matt loofman was ableo reach out and talk to some of them about their experiences. roberta owns a milan catering business in southwest florida and she believes she will get some of this relief money. >> a big sigh of relief, we think we're okay and then i look at my summer bookings and recognize i've got another big

hole in the company and, so, the restaurant grant is filling that hole, and it's just -- i can't imagine -- well, i wouldn't be here without it, the company would have been long gone. >> now a very different experience in maryland. i want to take you to blue ridge restaurant group owner, his name is david jones. it's a chain of restaurants, most are reopening but not all fully reopened, three of his restaurants are in areas that have limitations. now, he thinks he may not be able to get this money, simply because he doesn't fit any of the priority groups. here's what he had to say. >> we fully expect the fund to run out before it gets to us, and by all the communications come out from s.b.a. and that's unfortunate. it would have done a tremendous benefit to us and our employees because i certainly would like to get some of our capitol

police back up to where they probably should. we have people that are still behind on car paymts and things like that. >> reporter: i talked to members of congress today, democrats are going to push to add more fundsr but republicans don't seem like they're on board with that, judy. >> woodruff: this isn't the only set of issues before the congress and the president right now. there are big deadlines coming up in terms of what is congress going to do about policing reform, about the january 6 commission, what do you know about where those stand? >> reporter: that's right, i spoke to south carolina congressman tim scott today, he's one to have the lead negotiators on that, republican from south carolina, he told me that, in his mind, it's june or bust, meaning he's setting a deadline to figure out policing reform over the next month. meanwhile, just an idea of the pressure going on this at this time and sort of where we are

with this, one of the moms, the parents of one of the police officers involved in january 6, officer brian sicknick, who died after defending the capitol, he died of a heart attack, she put out this statement today about wanting a january 6 commission on that issue. she said not having a january 6 commission is -- not having a january commission to look into exactly what happened is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day. and meanwhile, on that issue, it's coming kind of -- it's in the air at the same time. here's where we are with that, the senate could possibly vote on a january offoffcommission as soon as tomorrow. not for sure yet, but it's possible. meanwhile, some republican commissioners like collins and romney are trying to work out a deal but most republicans oppose it, some say they think it's political, democrats want to use it against them, others say

january 6 is something they don't think can be repeated. judy. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, so much to follow and we will keep on asking you these kinds of questions. lisa desjardins, thank you. >> woodruff: president biden has proposed using some of the $2 trillion in his infrastructure plan to repair the harm done to many minority communities, when highways wer originally built through them. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro has the story of one such example, from minnesota's capital, st. paul. it's pt of our "race matters" series. >> reporter: for most drivers, this is just i 94, the freeway in and out of downtown st paul. but for 73-year-old bill finney, a former st paul police chief, this is more hallowed ground >> we are now parked on the spot

where my house was. >> reporter: the finney home in this spot was taken away by the freeway, six decades ago, one of 700 families displaced from st paul's once-thriving and tightly knit black neighborhood. so this is like going down memory lane for you? >> oh god yes! >> reporter: those families are memorialized at a plaza commemorating the rondo community's evisceration dismantling by i-94, shaded yellow on the map. >> so that disrupted whole lot of people i see present in these pictures, you know, and in some cases, some of the folks even moved out of state. >> reporter: and community was never quite the same? >> never, no, no, >> reporter: it was one of thousands of communities where land was taken by eminent domain to build the interstate highway system, approved in 1956 and by far the largest infrastructure project in u.s. history.

and finney, who in retirement serves as a county undersheriff- says rondo fit a pattern. >> i ride motorcycles, and i ride from coast to coast, north to south and i notice that where the freeway is very, very straight for as far as you can see, you know one of two things: they're either going through a rural area, or they're going through a poor area. now all of a sudden, the freeway makes rights and left turns and sometimes switchbacks and stuff like that. and you understand that they're going around people that have money, or businesses. i don't think that's right, but people that didn't historically have a large voice had little to say. >> reporter: the path of least political resistance. >> absolutely. >> reporter: the displaced rondo families were paid less than their homes were worth and they struggled to find new housing in a city where many areas didn't allow blacks to settle. they were displaced not just from rondo but from the middle

class, says civil rights attorney artika tyner, a fifth generation daughter of rondo. >> they lost that hope, that sense of building intergenerational wealth of being able to pass down homes and businesses to sometimes we just talk about the homes but at its peak, rondo had over 300 businesses that were black owned. we still feel a ripple effect today. not only does minnesota have one of the lowest rates of home ownership of african americans in the nation, we also have some of the greatest disparities and poverty rates between blacks and whites. >> today we acknowledge the sins of our past. today we ask for forgiveness from those who lived through those days when our community was at its worst and for those who continue to rebuild the shattered pieces of rondo. >> reporter: in 2015, the city of st paul held a ceremony to apologize to the rondo community. >> the apology is a starting point, not a resting place. i can't cash an apology at the bank. >> reporter: rondo community

leaders say one thing that could really put neighborhood back together is an idea that would do so, quite literally, and with concrete. it's called reconnect rondo, a land bridge that would cover a five block strch of i-94. >> it's simply creating an afcan american cultural enterprise district that's connected to a land bridge, a structure. and on top of that structure, you can put elements that improve quality of life like housing. >> reporter: executive director keith baker says the project envisions affordable housing, business incubators, gathering spaces and cultural amenities aimed at the black community-all managed by a trust to insure that benefits stay in the community. >> we just want to use the same systems, processes, tools and resources that benefit business to be used to benefit community >> reporter: such as? >>ell, let's just think about the target field just as an

example. >> reporter: this is the baseball field for the minnesota twins. >> right, that sits over an infrastructure project, a highway, very familiar, has been done, but leveraged in the interest of business, the same thing can happen in my mind, in the interest of community. >> reporter: just as states and cities subsidize the construction of major league stadiums to stimulate economic development, he says the reconnect rondo project will create jobs. the cost-in state, private, philanthropic and, critically, federal infrastructure dollars- is projected to approach half a billion dollars. >> i'm an optimist by nature, but i'm a realist as well, okay? i know that this is not an easy proposition. >> reporter: among prominent st paul residents making a very personal case to minnesota lawmakers for transportation dollars is the city's first black mayor, melvin carter. >> reporter: also promising: pledges from the biden administration to address

inequality and racism. transportation secretary pete buttigieg discussed how infrastructure projects could figure into that push. he spoke to the news website“ the grio”: >> there is racism physically built into some of our highways, and that's why the jobs plan has specifically committed to reconnect some of the communities that were divided. >> nothing is ever guaranteed. but i think there is alignment that's taking place right now. and we must seize that. >> reporter: reconnect rondo will not bring back what was lost 60 years ago. but artika tyner says it offers a chance to sew back a community like the one she was raised in- and writes about in children's books about elders children can look up to. >> the highlight of living and growing up in rondo were the small businesses, the inspiration, the role models, like looking at the mcgee law office to inspire me to become an attorney myself is that old notion of you can't be what yo cannot see.

>> reporter: f now, a $6 million request to conduct feasibility and environmental assessments of the reconnect project is part of budget negotiatns just a couple of miles from rondo at the state capital. they'll know in mid june. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in st. paul. >> woodruff: fred'report is in partnership with the "under-told stories project" at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. >> woodruff: since the myanmar military overthrew the government and staged a up eight weeks ago, activists say security forces have killed more than 800 people. now an open source investigation released today from a human rights organization and the associated press, reveals how

the myanmar military has sought to use those killings, to terrorize the country. nick schifrin reports. >> schifrin: thanks to brave local journalists and activists, the world has witnessed the horror, of the crackdown in myanmar. much of it is so violent, we cn't show it to you without blurring the video. activists, shot, their bodies taken away. soldiers, beating demonstrators. security forces, killing demonstrators, and then dragging their bodies through the street. and now the human rights center investigative lab at berkeley and the ap found the myanmar military used dead bodies, corpses, who were killed indiscriminately, as a tool of war to try and control an entire population. alexa koenig is the center's executive director. she is also a professor at berkeley school of law, and she joins me now.

myanmar what was happening on the ground coming social media combing through bubbled up to ghe surface dragged into the backs of trucks many bodies were returned

so they maybe told for example watching these horrific videos, it often seemed like the killings were random. but were they, in fact, not random at all, and instead designed to terrorize? >> i think it really spends on what you mean by random. a lot of times when you see these indiscriminate killings, the very randomness of that can be an act of psychological war fair designed to create a sense of widespread vulnerability among populations, a widespread sense of fear. i think it certainly raises the possibility that you or your loved one could be killed at anytime in broad daylight with potential impunity and, so, you know, i think there's a lot of attention brought to physical acts of war fair, the droppings of bombs, mass killings, et cetera, but less so about the ways that psychology can be utilized to really terrorize populations. >> reporter: i want to high

light a particular video from your investigation that unfortunately we've actually aired on the "newshour" befo. security forces in a pickup truck stop as a white motorbike drives by. a member of the security forces fires from just a few feet away, two men escape, but one has been shot through the neck. we now know that man was kiamin lot and his family says he was not a demonstrator, she was only 14. the cause of death was, "fall from motor cycle." how do you confirm this incident? >> certainly satellite imagery tried to pinpoint the location where the particular incident occurred and to verify the surrounding context behind it. i believe the associated press did additional reporting to ascertain more information and details. the family as you know has also said that what they were told around this particular incident was that their loved one died from falling off the bike. i think that is obviously in

direct tension with what we see which is the shooting and the particular individual or at least the shots ringing out and him falling to the ground while the two others run off. >> reporter: you also highlighted this video from the report, a demonstrator's dead body being loaded on to the military truck. what did the military do with the bodies of the people it killed? >> another pattern that seems to have come to light from this investigation is the frequent cremation of many of the people who have been taken by the military off the streets in myanmar. for many families and households that would not be the cultural practice that they would engage in and means, of course, they don't have a chance to see their loved ones bodies and to say goodbye. some people disappeared and never were heard fr again. then we have the third cluster of individuals who were returned to their loved ones but with stories that didn't match about what they were seeing about what had likely transpired about when their loved one was in custody around the time of death. >> reporter: the minimum mar

military cracked down before in 2008 and 2007, killed thousands the difference this time,f course, is that we have video. will that help those seeking justice against this regime? >> we certainly hope so. i think one trend we're seeing in international criminal justice, national war crimes tribunals is an increasing use of social media to help prove the facts from a particular case. a couple of instances in the international criminal court where videos pulled from facebook have been used in international ail rest warrants and increasing lig we're seeing tools like the berkeley protocol with i is a tool just released to help war crimes tribunals understand how to use this kind of content as a foundation of evidence to shore up what survivors are saying is happening in their communities. >> reporter: alexa koenig, thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: the recent attacks against asian americans have been met with condemnation across the political spectrum and support from other communities of color, including black americans. stephanie sy looks at the state and history of those relationships. >> sy: judy, the recent show of solidarity among black and asian american activists belies a fraught history between these groups. for example, during the 1992 riots in los angeles, racial tensions exploded-- with armed korean-american shopkeepers facing off against rioters. a year before the brutal police beating of rodney king which set off the uprising, a korean shop owner had fatally shot a 15 year-old black girl, latasha harlins, for allegedly trying to steal a bottle of juice. then, more recently, a hmong- american minneapolis police officer tou thao was one of four officers accused of standing by while derek chauvin knelt on george floyd's neck.

both communities are now working urgently toward greater racial and social justice. the question is: how might they work side by side? i'm joined by tamara nopper, a sociologist and fellow at new york university's center for critical race and digital studies; and brenda stevenson, a professor of history and african american studies at the university of california los angeles. ladies, thank you so much for joining the "newshour" for this important conversation, and professor stephenson, i want to start with you because the las time i interviewed you we talked about how a broad racial coalition had emerged after the killing of george floyd, and the black lives matter movement growing. as we started to see the increased attacks on asian-americans, i wonder, do you feel that solidarity held or are there still those fractures among communities of color that we saw in los angeles nearly three decades ago? >> well, i think that the answer to that question is both things have occurred. i think the solidarity is certainly holding. many people who are in the

african-american community including my family have been very much supportive of the stop hate asian movement and i know many people who are and many people who have not been, indeed some to have the people who have been accused of being a part of the attack or this increased attack on asian-americans have been african-american. so both things are happening. we're seeing that the solidarity is not only holding but growing, but there are also other problems, other kinds overtensions and conflicts that are there that are still being maintained as well. >> reporter: professor stephenson brings up the fact that the small number of perpetrators of attacks on asian-americans have been other people of color, including african-americans, although the data shows the vast majority of those attacks have been white perpetrators. but tamara nopper, i wonder how you see the dynamics between the asian and black communities in the u.s. in this moment.

>> thank you. well, on one hand, i think that there is this kind of increased call for coalition, and i think that more asian-americans as individuals, activists, asian-american organizatins are starting to kind of publicly talk about anti-black racism and about asian-americans confronting anti-blackness. i think one to have the ongoing tensions, though, is that a lot of solidarity discourse and solidarity discourse that non-black people color of communities, not onlyñi asian-americans but you see this with other nonblack people of color groups, there is often a disciplinary gesture involved in solidarity discourse meaning there's often a lot of antiack aggression, often a lot of assumptions people need to learn to be in coalition with other groups or that black people are supposedlyçó politically selfish and helping perpetrate harm orb

nviolence against people who are not black on solidarity. even though we're seeing this, i think there's a lieutenant of changes of anti-blackness in the solidarity approaches from nonblack people of color that still being perpetrated. >> professor stephenson, you're a professor of history. i wonder from that lens what forces you see at work could that have sometimes pitted blacks and asians against each other in this country. >> well, i think part of it is that a lot of people don't know the history of african-americans or of asian-americans within this community, within our country, and, so, you know, african-americans sometimes don't understand that asian-americans have had the same kinds of very similar kinds of discriminations against them and abuses against them pause of their race. as well, sometimes asian-americans do not

understand that african-americans have been, from day one, racialized and criminalized and victimized in this country and, so, there's -- there are miscues with regard to what we have in common and what we share, and this common relationship to white supremacist, a come on relationship to marginalization culturally and racially and all of that within the country and, so, without this history, without knowing the kind of histories in which we actually absolutely connect and have parallel -- connect or have parallel lies in a nation that is partly defined by otherring people who are not white american, the difficulties are maintained. but that is changing, and more and more people are taking the time to understand that there is a connection absolutely with the plight of african-americans and the abuse of asian-americans and

wwhite supremacy. >> reporter: what are your thoughts on the phrase white supremacy, tamara, and how the system and the world we all live in, a society where racial discrimination has shaped all of us, where asian-americans fit in, in that equation. >> thank you. well, i think there's -- you know, there's always been this ongoing debate in asian-american spaces whether asian-american studies or activist spaces, you know, about this kind of idea that asian-americans are perceived as either honorary whites or so-called model minorities or are we really kind of embraced as part of a people of color coalition. so there's also this question about what makes kind of a race a race -- is it just our politics, is it the way we're socially and politically structured in relationship to the state. so i think the question about asian-americans' relationship to

whiteness is something that i think is a deep anxiety in asian-american discourse and politics, and i think that part of the issue is that we can think about what is our relationship to whiteness, but we also have to think about what is our relationship to blackness. social scientists talk about this idea of a black-nonblack divide and it's not just peoples' relationship to whiteness that makes a difientive factor in their life chances but also their relationship to blackness and how far they can be distanced from blackness. so it's not only thinking about white supremacy but asian-americans relationship to antiblack americans and anti-blackness. >> reporter: professor stephenson you brought upgain the anti-asian attacks and the person freighters of sometimes people of color, i wonder how do we talk about violence within communities of color and between communities of colo without

reinforcing extremely damaging stereotypes. i mean, you wrote the book on latasha harlins, the 15-year-old killed in los angeles all those years back. how far have we really come? >> well, i think, again, it's a strange dance that we have with race in america. you know, we come forward with many steps, twirl around, and we're going in the opposite direction. so, you know, this continues to happen. but i think everyone has to own up to the fact that we live in a racialized society, the ways in which we find ourselves or define ourselves as being american, in part, is to have digested some of that racism. so no group does not have it, no group does not act on it, and we have to understand that and we have to have some real hard discussions with ourselves, our families, our communities and with other communities about,

you know, how we fit into this dynamic of race within our society. do we perpetuate racism, stereotypes, et cetera, or are we actively trying to recognize that we hold some of that within ourselves and that we act on it and we need to eliminate it or at least get it to a level where we can all act towards one another with respect, dignity and equality. but it's very, very difficult. it is bound in the roots of american society, and once you, you know, eat of the tree of america, it becomes part of you. >> reporter: and the uprooting of all that, i think, begins with conversations just like this. professor brenda stephenson is u.c.l.a. and tamara nopper with new york university, thank you for joining the "newshour". >> thank you.

>>oodruff: on a day when exxon and royal dutch shell took some hits in court and among their shareholders, it's clear there is increasing pressure to address climate change. fuel for transportation is a big part of the problem and airplanes are especially difficult. miles o'brien looks at efforts to create electric planes of the future. it is part of a special "nova" documentary tonight. >> reporter: chandler airport in fresno, california has been in operation since the wright brothers era. aviation 1.0. today the art deco gry has faded. but joseph oldham is using this old underutilized place to help launch a new age of flight. aviation 3.0.

>> this is the third revolution of aviation, the first revolution of course, was powered flight. second revolution was jets in the 1940s, early 1950s. electric propulsion is the third revolution. >> reporter: these are pipistrel alpha electros. the first certified all electric airplanes in the world. and he was gracious enough to give a fellow pilot the right seat. all right, let's do it. contact. >> yeah, clear. >> reporter: it was as simple as flipping a switch. it was weirdly quiet as we taxied to the runway. >> the noisiest thing on this airplane are the brakes. >> reporter: and watch what happened, when we stopped to wait for traffic. >> you just sit here just like an electric car. >> reporter: that's just cracks me up. >> electric propulsion systems are so simple that really there's just nothing that you really need to be that concerned

about. >> reporter: are we flying the future right now? >> we absolutely are. >> reporter: it was a hazy day, the result of some raging wildfires nearby, a reminder of the climate emergency which makes the decarbonization of aviation so urgent. how important do you think that is to think about taking fossil fuels out of aviation over the long run? >> well, it's huge it's the only mode of transportation that really has not moved aggressively towards zero emission. >> reporter: globally, about 15% of the human carbon footprint comes from transportation. we see some signs of progress: electric car sales are rising as prices drop. but aviation? it one of the hardest transportation problems to solve. pound for pound, liquid fuel contains 16 times more eney

than the best batteries. so while short hops on smaller planes may be possible, the batteries needed to fly big airliners on long flights would make the plane way too heavy. yet all over the world, engineers, entrepreneurs and aviators are trying to meet the challenge. they are experimenting, starting small, creating some flying machines like never seen before. >> maybe we should step over and see how it is to sit in the aircraft. >> reporter: joeben bevirt founded joby aviation in 2009. the aircraft he and his team designed, is now in flight testing for f.a.a. certification. it's the current leader in the race to fill the world with electric air taxis. it carries a pilot a four passengers under six tilting motors. >> it provides us an aircraft which is incredibly good at hovering and incredibly good at

cruising. that efficiency and cruise is what gets us our range and gets us our speed. >> reporter: he says it can fly 200 miles per hour and has a range of 150 miles. >> in order to have the impact that we want to have in order to transform the way everyone moves every day, we will need to make millions of these. our mission is to save a billion people an hour a day. >> reporter: a billion people flying air taxis? how could that be safe? at nasa's ames research center in silicon valley, they're tackling the air traffic control challenge. sady lozito is chief of the aviation systems division. >> we do not necessarily expect a centralized air traffic control tower to do it with individual directives telling the pilots how to come in and out of the vertiport. and so, that's a very different operation. othe

e pilots and the individual operators as they move in and out of these areas. >> reporter: we live in times that demand action to address the climate emergency. but proponents of electric aviation say their business models do not rely on altruism. they believe they can win in the free market. >> we want to be comparable in the cost to the price of a taxi at launch and bring that cost down to the cost of personal car ownership over t coming years. >> reporter: those competing in the great electric airplane race are nvinced a revolutionary moment like that is in the air. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien. >> woodruff: you can watch miles' full special, "the great electric airplane race" on nova tonight on your pbs station. and a sad news update: eric carle, the beloved children's author of classics like "the

very hungry caterpillar" and "brown bear, brown bear what do you see?" has died at the age of 91. d that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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