captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, june 5: a ruling against an assault weapons ban in califnia. the h.i.v./aids pandemic 40 years later. and a story of survival, recovery and healing. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

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

thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. a federal judge ruled late yesterday that california's 32-year-old assault weapons ban is uncstitutional, but he granted a temporary stay, allowing the state's attorney general to appeal. in 1989, california passed the“ assault weapons control act” in the wake of a mass shooting at a stockton elementary school that killed five children and wounded 32 other people. the law, which was amended in 1999, banned dozens of semi- automatic rifle models, including many ar-15 style rifles. in his ring, u.s. district judge roger benitez said the california ban was a “failed experiment.” the judge compared the a15 to a swiss army knife, calling it "a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment,” and said the guns are not assault weapons but "fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles.” california governor gavin newsom called the ruling “a direct

threat to public safety” and the swiss army knife comparison a "disgusting slap in the face to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence.” the state's attorney general rob bonta said in a statement“ today's decision is fundamentally flawed and we will be appealing it.” in london today, representatives from the seven wealthiest democracies-- the g-7 nations-- endorsed a global corpore tax rate. the finance ministerfor all seven nations agreed to support a minimum 15% tax rate to deter tax avoidance by multinational companies-- including u.s. tech giants-- that store their profits in low tax countries. >> that global minimum tax would end the race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation, and ensure fairness for the middle class and working people in the u.s. and around the world. >> whether it's people operating in tax havens or as digital companies, we're going to level the playing field and inject that principle of fairness into our global tax system. >> sreenivasan: that new tax rate must still be approved by

the governments of all seven countries. >> sreenivasan: it's been 40 years since the centers for disease control and prevention published case reports on five men who had contracted an unusual lung infection. it was the first report documenting what would become known as aids and the start of a decades long battle against h.i.v. president biden recognized the 40th year of the epidemic in a statement today, acknowledging the more than 32 million lives lost to aids-related illness and the more than 38 million globally living with h.i.v. today. i spoke with doctor chris beyrer, professor at johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health, who has been on the front lines of both h.i.v. and covid. >> when h.i.v. was first discovered in june 5, 1981, report from the c.d.c., people often don't remember that it took 15 years before we had effective antiviral therapy. it was 1996. and those were just incredibly tough years when so many people

lost their lives. fast forward to covid, you know, the sequence was put online in early january of 2020. i got involved in the covid vaccine trials in april, and, you know, here we are less than two years later, we have three effective vaccines with emergency use authorization. we're seeing our way forward out of this. h.i.v., we've been at it for 40 years, we still don't have a vaccine. we don't have a cure. it is, of course, now a completely different disease because we have effective therapy and it's manageable. life expectancy has gone from when i was a medical student it was six months, to now it's 72 years. so that's just a huge change. we've gotten it down to one pill once a day for most parties. but nevertheless, we're still in the h.i.v./aids pandemic, and there are still parts of the

world where the virus is in expansion mode. eastern europe and central asia, the middle east and north ferk. and in our own country, you know, we still have an ongoing epidemic that is now very concentrated in south and southeast among racial and ethnic minorities, particularly african americans, latinx americans, and in sexual and gender minorities. two-thirds of our infections are in gay and bisexual men, including primarily in men of color, the most affected groups. >> sreenivasan: that is stunning that there are still parts of the world where h.i.v. is on the rise, which also helps people see that here we are, 40 years later, and there are still significant health disparities and access disparities when it comes to any of these three wonderful vaccines that we have available. they're not available to everyone by a long shot. >> they're not available to the great majority of humanity, not just everyone. you know, this-- this also is similar to the period in '96,

when we finally had triple therapt was absolutely amazing. we cald it the lazarus effect. people rose up off their death beds, went back to work and went back to school, to parent parenting. bu that period then followed where we just didn't have access in most of the world, and certainly not africa and asia, which were the most affected regions. and it wasn't until the pep-far program, it wasn't until the presidency of george bush, 2003, which was, you know, something like seven years, eight years later that we finally started to see global access to antivirals. we can't wait that long with covid. this virus is mutating quickly. it's spreading very quickly, as i'm sure you know. we're actually at the worst point globally. asia right now, there are many countries in asia-- vietnam, thailand, cambodia-- they're having their first major surges right now, having been spared in the early years. and the variants that are emerging are really of concern,

of course. that is a part ofhat is ravaging india right now. >> sreenivasan: do you see-- are you optimistic about the technogies and how these vaccines were developed, the kind of information sharing that happened, the speed at which these vaccines were developed. are you optimistic that any of that can be transferred in the fight against h.i.v.? >> yeah, absolutely. so, you know, the investments that we have de in the last 10, 15 years in biotech have really paid f. so there has been optimism in the vaccine feld about messenger r.n.a. technology for some years, and they've been used for some other emerging infections, like ebola in africa. but we've never really gone to scale. we've never gotten anything to the point where we had an approved vaccine. messenger r.n.a.s are here to stay. they're going to have application in many other diseases, in cancer potentially.

anemarkably enough, there is already a candidate h.i.v. vaccine in early testing based on this messenger r.n.a. technology. that's the technology in the pfizer and in the moderna vaccines. and that is really incredibly exciting and encouraging. so i think-- i think that's something we all take heart in. it's also true that the h.i.v. research infrastructure, the clinical trials infrastructure that we've built in this country, was usedly for the covid vaccine trials. and proved to be an incredibly important time-saving investment. so the american taxpayers really have earned this vaccine. they've supported this research effort for many years. >> sreenivasan: so what do we do to try to reach those populations that have still been marginalized from access to basic medine, like vaccines, that are still here in the ited states today? >> yeah, yeah. well, i think what you're going to see is we have learned

painfully with covid all over again how quickly the health disparities emerged. how little-- we've invested so much more in our biomedical research infrastructure, which delivered these vaccines, than we have in our public health infrastructure, which is really meant to implement them and provide them. i think the biden administration is committed to public health, public health departments and stes and municipalities have been underfunded for 20 yers. so that is definitely going to have to change. we also have to invest in scientific literacy. when you look at where vaccine uptake and use in the states varies, it's significantly higher in the northeast than it is, for example, in the deep south. the state that's doing the worst with vaccine coverage is mississippi. d there are reasons for that. and, certainly, you know, we still haven't extended the health care franchise to all americans. we still have so many states

that did not agree to expand medicaid through the affordable care act. that means there are still millions of americans who are either under-insured or uninsured, and most of those people fit into the working poor category. they don't have health insurance through work, and they're not low enough income to qualify for medicaid. we have to fix that. we can't be in a country where we have this reality that we haven't agreed to extend health care access to everyone in this country. i think that that's very fundamental going forward. >> sreenivasan: dr. chris beyrer, professor of epidemiology at johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. thanks so much. >> thank you, hari. it's been a please being with you. >> sreenivas: for more national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour.

>> sreenivasan: tens of millions of americans received checks as part of the covid-19 relief bill, oviding emergency financial d to individuals and families facing financial insecurity due to the pandemic. while there is ongoing debate over safety net policy; new analysis of u.s. census bureau“ household pulse” surveys offers a look at how the stimulus aid benefited americans. i spoke with h. luke shaefer who co-authored e study. he's a professor of public policy and director of poverty solutions at the university of michigan. professor schaefer, what were you able to look at in the context of the money that the government gave and what kind of impact it had on people? >> wl, after covid hit the federal government, the census bureau started a monthly survey where they'd just ask americans how they're doing with things like putting food on the table and paying their essential expenses. and so, we were curiouafter we had the covid relief bill and

the end of december and then the american rescue plan that included the stimulus payments included provisions around food assistance and unemployment insurance. what happened on these hardship numbers? so, when we look at the share of americans reporting that they don't have enough food in the last week between december of 2020 and the end of april 2021 that falls by 40%. were you able to cover your usual household bills? that also fell by 45%. are you behind on your rent? that also fell by about the same amount. and then some of the questions on mental health really improved too, reduced levels of anxiety, reduced levels of depression, that follow sort of the same trend line of dropping as soon as these cash transfers go out. >> sreenivasan: do we have any data from this period to try to make any policy prescriptions or suggestions that says that government can have a positive impact if it was to add money to

people's wallets? >> so, what we did have done during the covid era has been in many ways different from the safety net response of previous generations. so, we did more with cash transfers, and cash transfers had the impact of allowing families the flexibility to meet the needs that they find most pressing in their lives. and another big difference, it was also much more broad based. so, the stimulus payments went out to middle class families and low income families, and you see the biggest change in food hardship among the lowest income families, but you see a lot of action among middle class families too. it really points to the fact that they were struggling with a lot of these sort of core necessities as well. so, i think we can know now that the government can act right in a cash transfer policy that can make an immense difference in the lives of families who are struggling to make ends meet. >> sreenivasan: one of the critiques to interventions like

this has always been that it would serve as a disincentive for people to find employment again. >> yeah, i think a lot more research is needed on this particular question. there's a lot of reasons why businesses that have jobs that put people into direct contact with lots of other people, why they might have trouble finding workers. and, in fact, many of the industries that are having a lot of trole right now, were having trouble before the recession struck as well, i would say. and this is a place where we need more research, but a lot of the reason why the economy has come back so strong, right, and that employers are looking for folks for jobs is because of this intervention to begin with, that we, we put money into the economy when things were going bad. we were, we were headed off a cliff last spring, and the government acted, and acted fairly quickly, and things improved. and now we're back to a place

where we wt to see more jobs. people are going back to work. it's going to take a little bit of time, but i think totally understanding how all of these factors play together is going to be really important for us going forward. what i can say for sure is that our results are, are very strong in terms of understanding that people's lives are made better off when they receive these cash benefits. >> sreenivasan: what about the >> sreenivasan: luke shaefer, a professor of public policy from the university of michigan. >> thanks so much. my pleasure. thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: canadians are demanding answers after unmarked graves of indigenous children were discovered last week on the grounds of a former residential boarding school in british columbia. similar schools existed across canada and the united states, with the intent of helping assimilate native americans by removing them from their culture

and language. children from local tribes were often forcibly removed from their homes. some never returned. we've been bringing you a series of stories from yellowknife in canada's northwest territories called "turning points," personal accounts from members of the community on addiction and recovery. the stories were recorded over time in partnership with the global reporting center. one of those stories is from muriel betsina who, before her death in 2019, told her story of survival and healing after a harrowing childhood spent in a residential boarding school. a caution: some of the subject matter may be disturbing. >> once you learn to sew any kind of material, you have no hardship. it gives you harmony of peace, joy.

one stitch is like one day at a time. ( laughs ) with my parents... oh, my, it was a gold mine. they were so, so kind, and i always see my dad feeding other people. and all go hunting. we all share our meat. my mother was like that, too. my mother always sewed for other people like this, what i have on the table here. she just puts it together and just gave. that's how i was brought up, and i always want my children to know that kind of life. ♪ ♪ ♪ this is where i do all my dry fish and dry meat. my mom taughus everything: scraping caribou hide, moose

hide. we lived this kind of life for many, many years. i really want the people to know, because so many people don't know who we are. when i was young i got kidnapped from home. a plane came around, gave a letter to my dad. my dad said, "i don't know how to read. i never went to school." but my uncle maloo went to school. he said, "they come for muriel and alice." "what for?" my dad said. "i don't know. they have to go to residential school." i am doing a little bit of sewing. i thought i was going to do some sewing, but i'd rather tell my story, because i really feel there has to be healing somewhere. we were left in school for nine

years. yeahthat's when lots of tragedy happened to me. i just turned 14. i talk about it. i was so hurt. my fingers are all broken. they hit my finger ruler down because... i got rape... and, uh... by a priest. that's where i learned to be who i was 40 years ago. i was no good. i was so mean to my children. i had dry drunk attitude. do you know what dry drunk attitude is? you appear sober, yet you carry garbage addiction, like residential school addiction. boy, i tell you, i had to go through so much mistakes, you

know? but i found out who i was. i'm not an army commander mom. i started questioning myself. you're not a mean mother. we have to clean this garbage of residential school. through my story there is a lot of healing, and i'm so happy about that. people listen. people have ears now. people have eyes now. they don't see garbage anymore. they only see positive. i want to have a family like my parents had. i want to have children, happy- go-lucky, laugh all the time. in my sobriety life i try to do that. but they say it takes five generations to get healed. i've got four generations. this one is really good, my great grandchildren.

they don't know nothing about any negative things. i know my fifth generation grandchildren, i know they're going to be very healthy. yeah. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of “pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. we try to liven the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for

public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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