captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, ju 4: independence day celebrations after a year of covid-19 shutdowns. guaranteed income programs expand. >> sreenivasan: and c.j. hunt on his documentary "the neutral ground." next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein

family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit

www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. this independence day is being celebrated both as the founding of the nation and-in many places-- as a moment orelief as the covid-19 pandemic subsides. but the virus remains and vaccination rates have slowed, a challenge the biden administration still faces. we will have more on all of that coming up, and wll update one of our stories on how some cities are trying a new approach to ease income inequality. first, here is newshour weekend's christopher booker with today's news. >> reporter: the united states is marking the 245th anniversary of the signing of the

declaration of independence today with some traditional celebrations returning to towns and cities across the country. the covid-19 pandemic that shut down last year's july 4th events is slowing, but so is the rate of vaccinations. the centers for disease control and prevention reports just under 55% of the total population has received one dose of a covid vaccine as of yesterday. 67% of those over 18 havhad one shot, just under president joe biden's goal of 70% by this 4th of july. today, west virginia governor jim justice, a republican, said it may take a catastrophe to get more people vaccinated. >> i hate to say this, but what would put them over the edge is if an awful lot of people die. >> reporter: at an event this morning at independence hall in philadelphia, first lady jill biden congratulated the city for reaching the administration's vaccination goal. >> this city has gone above and beyond to get people vaccinated.

and as of last week, 70% of adults here have had at least one dose. thank you fothat philadelphia! ( applause ) >> reporter: president biden spent today at his home in wilmington, attending church this morning and playing golf later. tonight he will host the largest in-person event at the white house since taking office: a barbecue on the south lawn for essential workers and military families. the president is expected to make a short speech, and you can see it live online at pbs.org/newshour at approximately 7:30 p.m. search and rescue efforts at the partially collapsed condominium building in surfside, florida, were on hold today as workers prepared to demolish the remaining structure. officials say the building is unsafe, and with tropical storm elsa approaching southern florida, they want to complete the demolition work before the storm's potentially heavy rain and wind. today, workers drilled holes into the building to insert explosives that will bring down

the structure. as of this morning 80% of that work was complete. >> bringing down this building in a controlled manner is critical to expanding our scope of the search and rescue effort and allowing us to explore the area closest to the building which has currently not been accessible to our first responders given the great risk from this building which is insecure. >> reporter: search and rescue is set to resume once demolition is complete. the death toll from the condo collapse remains at 24 people, with 121 people still unaccounted for. in the philippines today, at least people were killed and dozens injured following an air force plane crash. large billowing black smoke could be seen after the c-130 transport plane crashed into a coconut grove near jolo airport in the southern sulu province. initial eyewitness reports say the plane may have overshot the runway during landing. 96 people were reported to be on board. as of this afternoon, at least

42 soldiers on board the plane and three civilians on the ground died in the crash. 49 soldiers were rescued and five remaiunaccounted for. the lockheed c-130 hercules was one of two former u.s. air force planes given to the philippines this year to help its efforts to fight muslim militants. rescue efforts continue in japan, as more than 1,000 soldiers, firefighters and police join recovery efforts searching for survivors following yesterday's deadly mudslide. at least two people were killed and 20 remain missing after a river of mud flowed through atami, japan, a small seaside town about 60 miles southwest of tokyo. officials say 19 people have been rescued so far, and at least 130 buildings are damaged. the mudslide came after 48 hours of intense storms delivered heavy rains. the rain continued today, slowing the rescue and recovery efforts. >> sreenivasan: for the latest national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour.

>> sreenivasan: in recent years, the concept of universal, or guaranteed, basic income has been gaining interest. several cities have started to offer additional amounts of money, on top of regular income, to help address some basic needs for those who qualify. currently about 20 u.s. cities are piloting guaranteed income ograms, all with different approaches, from who qualifies to how much money is distributed monthly. back in march, newshour weekend's zachary green traveled to hudson, new york, to learn more about its pilot program. reporting on these new programs is part of our series "chasing the dream: poverty and opportunity in america." >> reporter: just two hours away >> reporter: just two hours away from new york city, hudson, new york, a small city of about 6,000 people, is a prime weekend getaway spot-- but it's also the site of one of the country's first citywide experiments in universal basic income, or u.b.i. last october, 25 hudson

residents began receiving $500 a month. joan hunt is the director of hudsonup, the city's guaranteed income pilot. it receives its funding from the spark of hudson foundation and former democratic presidential candidate andrew yang's nonprofit organization, humanity forward. >> the question is always, "so, why hudson?" and i think there was interest from both parties in, sort of, the size and scale of the community here in hudson, and the potential of a pilot like this, and defitely the need. >> reporter: lira campbel is a retired educator who has lived in hudson since 2002. she says that need became clear to her not long after moving here when she was speaking with a friend. >> she said, "yeah, i got to move. soone from the city came and bought the house. the new owners raised the rent. and i can't afford it." that was the first story of many. >> reporter: according to the real estate website, zillow, the average home value in hudson went up by nearly 60% in the past ten years. during that time, the median

household income for hudson residents stayed below $40,000 a year. and despite a relatively low unemployment rate, about 23% of hudson's population lives in poverty. since 1990, roughly 2,000 people have moved away. hudson's mayor, kamal johnson, says that gentrification is driving the exodus from the city. >> we see a lot of transplants from new york city and from other big cities that are now coming here. and that's tough on the people that grew up here. you see a lot less of the people you went to school with because they're forced to move to the outskirts of the city. >> reporter: even in the midst of the pandemic and the resulting financial crisis, hudson home values rose by 10% since last year. meanwhile, longtime residents are finding it difficult to stay in the city without government assistance. >> it's become really hard for families to find affordable spaces outside of subsidized housing. >> reporter: claire cousin grew

up in hudson and now sits on the city's housing authority. >> most people that have children are only looking to get on wait lists for subsidized housing because that's the only thing that is sustainable and affordable for them. i've known people that have contacted me for help as an advocate because they've been on the waitist for three years. and their only alternative is to squeeze their families into smaller apartments for higher rents. >> reporter: that's where joan hunt says the hudsonup pilot can fill in the gap. >> we see u.b.i. as a real opportunity for folks to stay in their community. to be able to maybe take on a little bit of an extra burden when it comes to rent. >> reporter: the concept is simple: for the next five years, 25 hudson residents will receive $500 a month, direct deposited either into an account at a local credit union or onto a prepaid debit card. the participants can then spend or save the money in any way they see fit. i can hear a lot of people being

like, "you're giving people $500 a month and they don't have to do anything for it? people are going to be spending their money on things that they don't need.” what do you say to somebody who has those objections? >> there's a history of judgment when it comes to people in poverty. and this misconception that people with limited resources don't know how to make decisions that are best for them and their families. when, in fact, they're the experts in their own experience and they do know what's best for th and their families. >> reporter: hudsonup put the word out about the program through local organizations and advocates, including claire cousin, who also heads up the board for the grassroots hudson/catskill housing coalition. >> it seemed really far-fetched. so, i spent most of my time explaining it to other folks and trying to get them to not be so skeptical, just to apply. >> reporter: hudsonup also won the support of mayor kamal johnson, who held a virtual town hall with andrew yang last september to explain the concept of universal basic income. >> if this trial demonstrates

that people live better as a result of something as straight- forward as getting $500 a month for five years, there is no reason that we as a country cannot make this happen for everyone. >> reporter: eventually, 488 eligible hudson residents entered the lottery for hudsonup. one of them was lira campbell. >> then i get this communication, "don't forget, tonight is the last night to put your name in for the lottery for u.b.i.” and i said, "i'm not doing that." and then my mind said, "why not?" >> reporter: campbell filled out and submitted a short questionnaire. five days later, she received a call telling her that she had been chosen as one of the first 25 hudsonup participants. >> when it happened, i was totally thrown over the moon. i think i screamed. and then i went and i said to my husband, "guess what, guess what, guess what?" because i felt like i was going to bust. >> reporter: campbell says that even though she and her husband can afford the home they rent in hudson, the extra $500 a month made a big impact in their lives

during a trying time. >> my husband had been diagnosed with cancer. so, when someone you love and care about is diagnosed, a family member, you want to do everything you can so they can be healthy and safe and get through it. and then the second thing you think about is how am i going to pay for this? because, you know, automatically it's radiation, it's chemo, it might be surgery. so, all these things pop into your head. so, when i found out that i won, i was like, "god, you are so amazing. d, you are so awesome." like, this ithe perfect time. >> reporter: campbell says that receiving a guaranteed income has also improved her peace of mind and her outlook on the future. >> i can go to bed at night and stop thinking, "how? how am i going to pay for this? how am i going to get this? how i'm going to do this?" so, it took away the how. and it took away the worries. it just allows me to do a little bit more and to save a lotore. >> reporter: is there anything

in particular that you're saving for? >> i want to buy a house. that's my goal. yeah, that's what i want to do. >> reporter: hudsonudirector joan hunt says that she's seen similar effects on other program participants. >> we've had participants use some of their u.b.i. funds to repair their car, for example. some folks are saving the funds. some folks were able to give their kids a very nice christmas for the first time in a long time. i've been working in the non-profit space since 2006, and i have never seen a program like guaranteed income that provides families with what their most basic need is, which is additional cash. >> sreenivasan: in an update since we first aired our segment, the team at hudsonup is planning to expand guaranteed basic income to an additional 25 participants this fall. last month, newark, new jersey, became the largest cy to embrace guaranteed income, launching a two-year pilot program for 400 low-income

residents. and while most of these programs are funded with private funding, in may, california governor gavin newsome proposed $35 million in the state budget to assist local governments in starting their own basic income programs. >> sreenivasan: confederate statues and monuments continue to come down across the country but thousands remain. tomorr a new p.o.v. documentary “the neutral groun”" will premiere on pbs stations. it follows the removal of four confederate statues in new orleans, and explores why some of these symbols hold so much power in america. the film is also a debut for first-time director, comedian and filmmaker c.j. hunt, who joined me to talk about the film as part of our ongoing series, "exploring hate: antisemitism racism and extremism." "the neutral ground," what's it

mean? >> number one, we wanted to pick a title that was not very helpful on google. number two, the grassy median between two streets is called the neutral ground so, in new orleans, that's where folks are standing at mardi gras, it's where you go to barbecue. this is meant and known in new orleans as a community space. it also happens to be where the confederacy built most of its monuments to slave owners and traders. so, for us, that is the film. what does it mean to have the common space for everyone also cupy to groups called the white league. >> sreenivasan: so, what's in a name? what's in a monument? even if a street name gets changed, even if a monument is taken down by a city, how do we change attitudes of the citizens that live there? >> i think it's not about attitudes. i think the way that we talk about race is always about how do we change attitudes? how do we get people to change their hearts to be less racist? i think monuments are helpful

because they make race concrete. they're a map of power. if you have a 60 foot tall pedestal to someone who was an enslaver, and it's the highest place of honor in your city, that's just a map of what power looks like in that city. so, it's not that the success is in getting the monument down, it's that the monument allows us to see things and call things out loud that we couldn't before, or that we were and no one was listening. and growing up black and filipino, i've always been deeply fascinated by the dynamics of race. >> no, there was a time in your life when you didn't even know you were black. >> okay, but basically, from that point on, i think i've been very interesd. >> no, no, not even that. >> i moved to new orleans in 2007 as a teacher, but most of my career by 2015 had become around creating satire, you know, trying to make comedy. and for me, comedy is always motivated by anger or, like,

what is driving me crazy. and in 2015, the thing driving me crazy was in the wake of the charleston massacre, all this in your face, whiteupremacist violence related to the confederacy. still, so many folks wanted to say this was never about slavery, this has nothing to do with race. >> one of the things i'm excited about in this film is what it might mean for teachers and students, because it's heavily, it's really based on documents. so i know not a lot of studes are like, who wants to get hyped for primary sources? but for this film, you know, we try to make those come to light. and in these documents that the confederacy wrote that founded the confederacy before the war, they're really out on front street saying, you know, we are firmly identified with the institution of slavery.

louisiana looks to the formation of a southern confederacy to preserve slavery and then they backtrack. all these weird arguments of it wasn't about slavery, it was about states' rights, slavery wasn't that bad. those come from somewhere, and those come from the most effective propaganda campaign that has ever been waged in american history. second to columbus discovered america. that's number one. it wasn't about slavery, number two. as a former theater boy, i love costumes and bonding with a cast of dedicated performers, which makes a civil war reenactment unexpectedly fun. until, of course, you start talking about anything besides the costumes. >> my bloodline, i could be the grand imperial cyclops, whatever the hell you want to say of the k.k.k. >> are you? you have to tell me if you are. >> i don't know. >> the whole thing about the civil war is, in a nutshell, is this: the war actually started, it wasn't because of slavery. >> sreenivasan: there's an

interesting conversation you have with elderly gentleman who basically says, you know what, you shouldn't be going out to give any legitimacy from an illegitimate point of view. and yet, as a journalist, as a documentarian, here you are, trying not necessarily to both sides of the situation, but you're trying to understand someone's point of view. >> i think we owe them that, and i think we owe ourselves that. it is different than, i think, in 2016, you know, as a journalist in 2016, journalists were wrapped up and i think maybe we don't talk enough to the other side and maybe we need to go into living rooms and maybe we need to eat a meal and we'll finally understand how we're unified. to me that's not the model. to me it is, when we talk about hate, we need to be very clear about how prevalent that is, it is rooted in how people view their history. so, to me, i don't think the

film is going to convince anyone who doesn't think that racism is real. i don't think they're going to come out and be like, i guess racism is real. i guess it was about slavery. but i was hoping for clarity and that the only way to get that clarity is to actually go and talk to those people and let their own arguments come to the surface. and you judge them by their argumes, not by me finger wagging. >> sreenasan: in this process, how did doing this work affect you? i mean, we kind of see your arc shift a little bit from when you approach this, about the monuments in new orleans to the charlottesville rally. >> trying to tell this story was clarifying about my own thoughts about white supremacy. you know, half of the time when i'm talking about white supremacy, i think that i'm doing it to try to convince white supremacists to not be bigots. you know, i think that's a thing that a lot of historical

documentarians come up with when we're digging up all these receipts. it's like, who are those receipts for? who needs to see documentary evidence to believe that this actually was about slavery? so, for me, the biggest change was realizing we're not talking to the other side, when we make these arguments about the truth of the past, we're not trying to convince white supremacists in the league of the south to change their mind. we're not even convincing white supremacists in congress to change their mind. i think we're talking to folks in the middle and i think we're talking to students. and i think that is the nature of truth telling, this idea that you're going to somehow strike up a friendship with the white supremacist and all of a sudden it's going to be green book. i think that's what american audiences and quite frankly, white audiences often want out of stories. they want reconciliation. but i think the work is actually reckoning. how do we tell the truth about the past? >> sreenivasan: director c.j. hunt, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, hari. >> sreenivasan: the documentary is called "the neutral ground," and it will air on pbs stations july 5.

check your local listings. >> sreenivasan: tonight on pbs stations, vanessa williams is hosting the 41st annual independence day celebration:“ a capitol fourth” from washington, d.c. due to the pandemic, the mostly pre-recorded show features guests from jimmy buffett and gladys knight to train, nee fleming and the national symphony orchestra. the celebration of the nation's 245th birthday culminates with live fireworks across the skyline of the nation's capital. check your local pbs listings to watch. here's an excerpt of tonight's celebratio ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> 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 estate of worthington mayo- smith. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. 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 yo pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

ramin setoodeh: have you ever wanted to learn more about your favorite hollywood stars? pedro pascal: don't share anything personal with me. no, no. you can always trust me. [laughing] ramin: variety studio invites you to listen in as today's biggest actors get real about their work. jason sudeikis: i was a meddler. i was a meddler. i was an-- kathryn hahn: the happy meddler. ramin: with ewan mcgregor and pedro pascal, and kathryn hahn and jason sudeikis. cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com ramin: welcome to "variety studio: actors on actors." i'm ramin setoodeh. as you can see, we're still not back in our studio, but we know you'll enjoy these revealing conversations with some of the best tv performers of thearound the world.ons ramin: ewan mcgregor and pedro pascal both play heroic