judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on "the newshour" tonight, the fallout continues. the u.s. negotiates with the taliban and says they promise safe passage for civilians leaving afghanistan, as the insurgent group begins to explain how they will govern. then, the fight for rights -- prominent activist and former afghan government official kamila sidiqi discusses the precarious road ahead for women in afghanistan, as the taliban vows to respect them. >> people are afraid a lot, but let's see if they can be different. we will see from their action. judy: and getting the vaccine --

the biden administration is set to announce that vaccited americans will soon need a booster shot, as the delta variant continues to surge across the country. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. the raymondjames financial visor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well-planned. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been offering a variety of no contract plans and we can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv.

>> johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. and with the ongoing support of these individuals an institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

judy: the taliban cemented their hold on power in afghanistan today and they began to speak in detail about their plans for the country. evacuations of civilians also resumed. and the top american general in the middle east visited the kabul airport to observe american military operations, now with nearly 4000 troops on the ground. still, inside kabul, there is fear and even panic over what the future may bring. again, with the support of the pulitzer center, our jane ferguson is in kabul. jane: relative calm prevailed over kabul this morning. a day after chaos gripped the afghan capital's international airport. in the taliban's first news conference sce they overran the country, spokesman zabiullah mujahid, who has never shown his face publicly until today, sat down with afghan and international journalists.

the messaging was clear, a second taliban government would be a softer, more globally acceptable one. thisas the friendly face of the movement. with an interpreter translating the spokesman's words into english, he announced a pardon for those they once called traitors. >> we are assuring the safety of all those who have worked with the united states and allied forces, whether as interpreters or any other field when they worked with them. jane: he promised the taliban would respect women's rights under islamic law. >> women will be afforded all their rights, whether it is in work or other activities, because women are a key part of society. we are guaranteeing all their rights within the limits of islam. jane: but when the taliban last ruled, and in areas under their control over the last 20 years, women have had their rights severely restricted. they could not take most jobs or go to school. while the taliban have pushed to

consolidate their control here of the capital, today in a dramatic twist, we also heard from the former vice president amrullah saleh, releasing a statemenvia twitter, saying that he considers himself to now be the predent of afghanistan because the former president has stepped down and left the country, that he is still in afghanistan and plans to oppose the taliban rule. >> i am standing for my country and the war is not over. jane: in january, saleh told the "newshour" he'd rather die than submit to the taliban. he and the son of famed militia leader ahmad shah masoud are apparently trying to organize armed resistance in the panjshir valley, north of kabul. in washington, u.s. military officials say order at the airport has been restored, at least for the moment. >> we are confident we have taken the right steps to resume safe and orderly operations at the airport. jane: at the white house this afternoon, national security adviser jake sullivan again defended the president's

withdrawal decision. he also said a deal was struck with the taliban to ensure safe passage to the airport, but he expressed fear for the future of the country's women. >> truly, deeply, my heart goes out to afghan women and girls. we have seen what the have done before. and that's a very hard thing for any of us to face. but this wasn't a choice just between saving those women and girls and not saving those women and girls. the alternative choice had its own set of human costs and consequences. and that would have involved is substantial ramp up of american participation in a civil war with more loss-of-life and more bloodshed. >> will the u.s. government meant to ensuring any government who still remain get out? >> that is what we are doing right now. we have asked them all to come to the airport, get on flights and take them home.

that is what we intend to do. jane: as the u.s. defends its withdrawal and tries to manage the disaster on the ground, reaction came in from allies and adversaries across the globe. in brussels, nato secretary jens stoltenberg said evacuating personnel is the top priority right now. but, like president biden, he blam the afghan government for the rapid collapse of the country. >> why didn't the forces we trained and equipped and supported over so many years, why were they not able to stand up against the taliban in a stronger and better way than they did? jane: china blamed the u.s. for the bedlam it says was caused by a hasty pull out of american military forces. in greece, where many afghan refugees currently live, the government has warned it cannot take in a new wave of migrants. afghan refugees on the island of lesbos today protested against the taliban. afghans who choose not to stay under taliban rule, now face the painful question of where to next.

judy: and jane ferguson joins us now from kabul. where again, it is very late at night. so what did you make of this taliban news conference? jane: we really need to look at this press conference from a wider perspective. the whole atmospherics, the very fact it took place sends a message. as you saw we had an english translator. the first question was taken from a female journalist. they were even simply acknowledging the press and the international press. the messaging here was very much so we are here to engage the international community. we could even surprise you. we have to remember the taliban now find themselves with a country to govern, and they said they wanted the international community, aid agencies, diplomats to stay. they of course are going to be

reliant on a huge amount of international aid. the messaging coming from this event and the atmospherics around it, the fact they e even having a press conference, acknowledging the press, and the international press, sends that strong message this branding they want to show is that th are somehow changed, that they are softer, that they are much more an internationally acceptable version of the taliban. judy: tell us more about some of the specifics they spoke of, and particularly in regards to women and women's rights jane: they were not as specific as i think many of the journalists would have liked to have heard. we have put these questions to the taliban several times, how do they view women's rights going forward. they would not get into specifics of legalities, and on what rights specifically woman wod be allowed to have and keep, because right now women do have legal rights.

instead they gave their usual answer, which is women would have rights within an islamic freight work -- framework. of course that is incredibly vague. they did use a few buzzwords. they specifically addressed some jobs they thought woman should have, such as working in the judiciary or government ministries. that was very much a push against criticism of them, where people have said if you are separating women, if you are not encouraging them to work, what about all these influential positions they should and could have? significantly, there was other specific language that was used. they said we will not allow afghanistan to host any international groups or fighters that could launch attacks on other countries. that is very important that they brought this up, because that is very much a message for the international community, and for america, because those words

were taken almost verbatim from a deal president trump's white house, his government signed with the taliban back in 2020. basically there met -- basically they are messaging the americans saying we are not going to allow al qaeda to launch attacks again. that is a significant specific they did bring up. judy: which raises the question of tir credibility. do afghan citizens believe the taliban when they speak? jane: well, the difficulty is whenever you hear words versus actions. there is a major divergence. almost every subject the taliban brought up, almost every point they made that was designed to try to put the international community's worries at rest, is not seen in their actions and is divergent from their action on the ground. they can talk about how they want me to go to school and have

jobs, but if you look at the areas of afghanistan they have controlled over the last 20 years, that is not happening. women and girls are not going to school, and women do not have influential jobs. for itance, they have said we will not enact retribution, there will be no revenge against anybody who fought within the afghan security services. we know there have been assassination campaigns, specifically against helicopter and fighter pilots. so there is a divergence about what they have been saying. the even said that they are opposed to narcotics, and that drugs are bad, and that they should not be produced or sold or grown, when we of course know that they are heavily involved in the heroin trade. so many people here do not take them at their word. they believe that much of this is branding, that it is designed rebrand the group as a group that cannot only run a country, but be internationally engaged. and i think that fear that

people cannot trust them is why we see scenes of thousands rushing the airport trying to get out of the country. judy: very quickly you mentioned the former vice president, a force to oppose the taliban. is that a real resistance? jane: at this stage it is not clear. we know in the valley, which has traditionally been a spot of resistance against the taliban, the only holdout during the taliban's last government. so it resonates in history in afghanistan. it is not really clear though. it is unlikely people will take him seriously as an acting president of the entire country, but that does not mean it could not be the begning of at least some form of insurgency here, and a small holdout agast the taliban. judy: jane ferguson reporting for us once again from kabul. jane, please stay safe. jane: thank you. judy: so what should the world make of the promises the taliban

made today? our lisa desjardins has that. lisa: and for that, we get two views. ali jalali was afghanistan's minister of the interior from 2003 to 2005 and afghanistan's ambassador to germany from 2016 to 2018. he was a military officer in the afghan national army when the soviets invaded and was a military planner in the resistance against the soviets. he's now a distinguished professor at the national defense university in washington, d.c. and torek farhadi was an advisor to the governor of the central bank of afghanistan, and a senior economic advisor to former afghan president hamid karzai. he is now an independent analyst. i want to start off with something jane ferguson reported. the taliban is clearly fighting on the field of public relations, using buzzwords, thgs like inclusive. torek, what do you think this means, and is it having an effect? torek:, the messaging is right -- look, the messaging is right.

the afghan people are tired of war. and we arrived in some ways at the best of all solutions available. if we had put all the options next to each other, we arrived at the best one. for the couple of past years the u.s. has tried to create an environment for negotiations. here, what happened is the former regime collapsed. the taliban have come in, they have occupied kabul, they have established peace. not a bullet has been fired in kabul. and now, theya r -- they are even ready to talk to each other and others in order to establish a government. they have not been in a hurry to establish their own government. it looks like qatar and all the countries that have mediated are

encouraging them to talk to other people, and two of the leaders issued a small video message saying there in touch with taliban. so the conversation is going, the tone is positive, there's each will respect, and i do not expect them to be part of the taliban government, but they will be respected elders, and some day they might even be part of a counsel, or -- lisa: positive tone we hear, and we just heard, the best of all possible solutions, in his view. do you agree with that? ali: yes. it all depends how you translate this rhetoric into actions.

people have very bad memories from the time taliban were in power, in the areas they controlled, about their behavior. so people are airing a -- are in a mood of shock and anxiety and uncertainty of what is going to happen. i think the people i spoke with, they want any government to come soon so that the people will have their normal life. that will take some time, but immediately, now, people are concerned about their daily life. banks are closed, people cannot withdraw money, prices are high, and services are nonexistent. these are the concerns of people, but later on i think people will see how the rhetoric of taliban will be translated to actions. that is what people will decide.

lisa: it's something judy asked jane, the taliban said they want to end the drug trade, they will keep terrorists from attacking other countries, they want to keep the rights of women. can the taliban be trusted? torek: again, we have no choice. the taliban are de facto in kabul, they are occupying the president to policy, they gave the press conference from there. their tone was very, very conciliatory. they sent a message to foreign embassies saying we will ensure your security. russia, china, turkey, and pakian will keep their embassies open, as well as iran. these are the regional players. it is important, the regional players. and the united states has said

we will keep in touch with the taliban after august 31. there might be the united states might also agree to leave a very skinny presence there is the relationship improves between now and then. the taliban have to pronounce some words, also. they need to say that they agree to the charter of human rights of the united nations. they have to speak the international language. but the regional powers will engage with taliban. although everyone right now is saying we will decide together, but it's most probable china will recognize taliban. at some point russia will recognize taliban. and my view is that united states is in a better position if it recognizes taliban so that the aid it provides in any case

to afghanistan, it goes without problems or sanctions, etc. and u.n. provides aid, the u.n. is financed by the united states. the united states, biden gave her -- by engaging with taliban, will have more leverage over taliban. if the united states does not engage with taliban, we're manufacturing a nonstate actor. dealing with a nonstate actor is always problematic, and we will blame ourselves something happened in that territory because we created the nonstate actor. lisa: should the united states recognize the taliban? ali: the united states has said many times they will recognize any government if they actually observe the international law, human rights, and we will see if the taliban actually live up to the promises they have made.

currently in their public statements, they say the right things. but it depends what will happen, when they establish themselves more. now they are not in a situation that they can actually make statements that cause them to lose international support. on the other hand, the one thing that was very impressive, the discipline of their fighters. when they entered kabul and other areas, they actually had acted in the right way of treating the people in a more acceptable way. so i don't know what will happen in the future, once they establish themselves. if now the nice words is to win international recognition and support, or if there's going

to be a change of policy or change of their behavior from the past. i think several times they said their ideology is the same. how they interpret it, that is the problem, because they are not talking about specific things. they are talking about human rits, but within the context of islamic law. how they interpret that and how they are going to practically implement that? lisa: so many questions and an interesting picture you're both painting here. a lot we have to wait and see. and so many people on the ground for whom this is life-and-death at the moment. thank you both. thank you. judy: as we have been hearing, the plight of women and girls in afghanistan is now among the most important and concerning priorities now that the taliban

have taken over. with the help of author gayle tzemach lemmon, stephanie sy tells us the story of a woman who persevered under the taliban, flourished over the last 20 years, and escaped the taliban's return just 48 hours ago. stephanie: on the streets of kabul, there is defiance amid despair. a few afghan women in front of the presidential palace, demanding that the taliban protect their rights. elsewhere in the capitol there are few, if any women on the streets. the u.n. says 80% of the 250,000 people internally displaced in afghanistan since may have been women and children. the lucky ones, if you can call themhat, have left the country, including entrepreneur kamila sidiqi. "newshour" contributor gayle tzemach lemmon wrote a book about her, "the dressmaker of khair khana," nearly a decade

ago. gayle: what comes next for you? stephanie: last friday, lemmon interviewed kamila from her home in kabul as the taliban edged closer. gayle: you said you want to come back to afghanistan, you want to stay in afghanistan, you say you want to stay and be partf your country's future, but how hard is that for you personally? >> it's really hard for me, especially since tonight, that everybody called me, my friends and my colleagues and my family members and ask me that, why you're not leaving. you have to leave kabul. stephanie: she spoke to kamila again this morning. she had fled afghanistan over the weekend as the taliban overran kabul. gayle: how do you feel right now? you've just landed from afghanistan? >> no hope, right now i'm so sad because the majority of my friends, family, the activists, everybody is in kabul and everybody want to leave the country. [00:01:09][17.4] stephanie: gayle spoke to kamila six years ago while she was visiting washington as deputy

chief of staff for the afghan president. gayle: is there anything that gives you concern or things that keep you up at night worrying about the future? >> security. security of my country, especially those people that they are living in the very remote area and very different provinces, that there is no good life for a woman. stephanie: kamila has lived under taliban oppression before. gayle: what do you think this taliban will be like? they're telling the international community they are different and they're going to allow women and girls. >> now people are afraid a lot, but let's see if they can be different. we will see from their action and we will see. there was a lot of interview from different taliban and they ask people to go back to their offices. stephanie: promises made are not the same as promises kept, but there are signs of change. afghan news outlet tolo news resumed coverage today with

women anchors, including one who interviewed a taliban spokesman. that scenario would have been unimaginable in the late 1990's under taliban control. then, the group implemented their own interpretation of islamic law. women were not allowed to work or leave the home without a male escort. in 2001, the taliban fell, and women like kamila were largely responsible for rebuilding the country. >> today, we have a lot of opportunity. if someone wants to establish a business, it's very easy to go and register a company and do a business. stephanie: today, a member of the taliban id there would be no gender discrimination under their rule this time. >> the stand of the islamic emirate of afghanistan towards women is clear. the islamic emirate of afghanistan has never had a discriminative statement and never expressed gender discrimination. unfortunately, there are false rumors going around that are not accurate. stephanie: but in recent years,

the taliban has assassinated female public figures in afghanistan, like judges. and there are new reports of women being taken out of school and high-profile women being detained in recent days. shopowners are painting over images of women out of fear of taliban retribution. safer in germany for now, kamila has a message for the rest of the world. stephanie: do you think the international community fought hard enough to protect women and girls in all of this? >> i wish, because this time, right now, the experience that we have from two, three days, everybody left us. i don't know where is international people. the woman that they are living in kabul, they are very sad from international community and also from the world. stephanie: as the taliban flag flies over major afghan cities this week, kamila and thousands of women feel abandoned. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy.

vanessa: i am vanessa ruiz at newshour west in for stephanie sy. we will return to the full program after the latest headlines. u.s. health officials are expected to recommend covid booster shots for everyone, regardless of age. an announcement could come tomorrow, calling for boosters eight months after the second dose of the pfizer or moderna vaccines. the transportation security administration announced today airline travelers will be required to wear masks until january 18, 2022. the current tsa mask mandate was set to expire in september. and texas governor greg abbott, who has strongly opposed mask mandates, has tested positive. he's been vaccinated and says he has no symptoms. we'll focus on the booster shot issue, after the news summary. the suffering in haiti deepened today as the official death toll

in saturday's earthquake rose to well over 1900. to make matters worse, tropical storm grace swept through overnight. harsh winds and up to 15 inches of rain battered the country as hospitals were still overwhelmed with thousands of people injured in the quake. others, left homeless, spent a long, miserable night before the rain finally ended this morning. >> the rain fell on top of us. we slept sitting down on chairs. nobody has come to help us. we have no tarpaulins, we sleep he sitting down. i don't want to go home. i am in god's hands. >> it's not good here by the coast. my home was destroyed. i have nothing, nothing to use to sleep. look, there's lots of children here. i really have nothing. vanessa: grace is powering up

again after crossing haiti, and forecasters say it will grow into a hurricane as it heads for mexico's yucatan peninsula. meanwhile, the remnants of tropical storm fred spawned tornadoes and dumped heavy rain across the southeastern u.s. today. thousands lost electricity in the florida panhandle, after it came ashore monday. firefighters in northern california labored today to save a town from the giant dixie fire. strong winds have fanned the flames within eight miles of susanville, home to some 18,000 people. pmoa across more than 940 square miles. it is still only about a third contained. 40 miles southwest of lake tahoe, the caldor fire exploded over the weekend it burned through the town of grizzly flats this morning, seriously injuring two people. it has scorched 8000 acres and is 0% contained. today, governor gavin newsom declared a state of emergency

for the area. and also tonight, pacific gas and electric began cutting power to 50,000 homes to try and reduce fire danger. and maki kaji, who created the popular number puzzle sudoku, has died of bile duct cancer. he came up with sudoku in japan in the 1980's, and the puzzle eventually became a global hit. maki kaji was 69 years old. still to come on “the newshour”" why vaccinated americans will soon need a booster shot in the battle against the delta variant. gold medal-winning swimmer katie ledecky reflects on her experience at the tokyo olympics. and tennis legend billie jean king discusses the ongoing fight for equality. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at

arizona ate university. judy: tomorrow, the biden administration is expected to recommend coronavirus booster vaccinations for americans starting eight months after they received their second shot. william brangham joins me to explain who is affected. hello, william. what we're told is that the government is going to say that everybody who had the pfizer or the moderna vaccine, and that is over 100 million americans, are going to recommend that they have this booster. what is behind this? william: the rationale is twofold. one is the delta variant we all know so well, which is this incredibly contagious strain which is sickening people and filling hospitals, sickening largely unvaccinated people. the second is a small number of studies that are showing that these two mnra vaccines are

slightly waning in their efficacy is, going from something like 90%-plus down to 50%, 40%. the waning of efficacy is about your ability to get infection. these are still very good in preventing you from getting sick and going to the hospital, but they are showing in that about six months that the vaccines are starting to fade in their protection. so the idea is if you would get a booster, you would get one more shot of the same vaccine you took originally, and that would extend your protection and ramp up your protection. the ceo of pfizer recently said that in studies within the company themselves, a third dose boosted the protection by tenfold. so that is the rationale. judy: tenfold. so when would this booster shot be offered? william: the biden

administration we believe tomorrow say this is a good idea. shots will not owe out until the fda formally approves them, but that could be in the fall. it is expected for people who have gotten the j&j vaccine, that they too will get the recommendation for the booster, but not right away. the government is still waiting on another trial for them. if the fda approves this, it is likely that we will go through the same order of vaccinations for these boosters. they would go to the elderly, frontline health care workers, and then the rest of us. judy: there is this argument that has been made by a number of people that doesn't make sense for the united statesnd other wealthy countries to be giving a third covid vaccine when so much of the rest of the world has barely even begun to have access to vaccinations at all. william: that is exactly right. this is an argument you hear many people make.

the w.h.o. said there is a limited supply of vaccines in the world right now. if we are to deploy them, what is the most effective way to deploy them? they have said it is morally inappropriate to be using them to give to westerners who have already been vaccinated, when so much of the rest of the world has not. because this is the problem, that this is how variants get created. the various running rampant in the world, new variants come out. i recently asked this to anthony pyeongchang when he was on the show last week. how do we balance this? the desire for boosters with a world that needs more vaccines? here's what he had to say. dr. fauci: i believe we can do both and we are on the pathway to doing that. the united states is leading the world as far as getting doses to other countries, particularly

low and middle income countries. we have now given about 110 million doses to 60 countries. having said that, i don't think that's enough and we don't think that's enough. so we're going to try and push and work with the companies to expand their capacity to get billions of doses to people. i think as we do that, at the same time that we can get booster doses to the people in this country who need it. bottom line, i believe you can do both. william: that is the administration's argument, that they can do both. give boosters here if needed and supplied to the rest of the world. but the w.h.o. and many others argue the current vaccines still gives great protection to the most serious outcomes from covid-19. we are not going to go to the hospital and we are likely not going to die if we have been vaccinated. given that, shouldn't we be

focused more on a global equity issue? those arguments right now do not seem to be winning the day. israel has already started to vaccinate people with a third dose. germany and france are considering it month. and sounds like tomorrow the biden administration will announce we are want to start here. judy: this raises questions as to how many more doses will be available, and how quickly. thank you. seven-time olympic gold medalist and record-breaking swimmer, 24-year-old katie ledecky, is one of the most decorated olympic athletes from the tokyo games. she won the first-ever women's 1500 meter freestyle in tokyo, and she won gold in the 800 meter, plus two more silver

medals in the games, bringing her career total to ten. katie ledeckis here with me in our studio. welcome and congratulations, and you are wearing four of those me dals. are you still on cloud nine? katie: i am. it is great to be back in the u.s. and be with friends and family. and just share the memories with them. judy: they look heavy. how heavy are they? katie: you felt it earlier. is always shocking for people how heavy they are. it is always fun to bring them to schools or anywhere and have somebody feel how heavy they are. judy: so exciting. what you did in tokyo. and yet we were all conscious, there was nobody there as a spectator. you are there with your coach and teammates. did that affect what you are able to do, do you think? katie: i was sort of surprised at how normal it did feel. my teammates were in the stands cheering when they did not have races or when they were done competing, so they brought a lot

of energy to our team. i think team usa was the loudest at the pool, so that was nice to still see some familiar faces that are supporting you. judy: i am asking because you are used to hearing cheering and screaming fans from one end of the pool to the other. katie: yeah. it was also tough not having family there. i made sure to video call my family between races as best as i could. i had those short moments and there was a time difference, but we snuck it in. judy: i was looking at what was some of what was written about your winning the500 meter freestyle, the first time that competition was there for women. thinking 15 minutes-plus of swimming your heart out. how hard is it? katie: it is a challenging race, but it was so great that it was finally in the olympics. there are so many women that did not have that opportunity and it has been a long time coming. for the u.s. to go 1-2 in that

event for the first time it was there was incredible. it was the best we could do. judy: i was also rding what you said about what is the secret sauce. i mean, year after year, olympic after olympic, how do you keep doing what you're doing? and you came back with a very straightforward answer. you said it is practice. i think a lot of people would say, so hard work? how inspirational cannot be? katie: everyone is always trying to find out the secret is, but there really is not a secret. it is just a lot of hard work over many, many years. not just for myself from my coaches, my teammates, my family, everyone who has helped me get to this point. it is not just the 15 minutes that i'm in that race in the 1500, it's hours and hours every week from five years from rio to now, but also the many years before that. judy: as you know very well,

there was a lot of attention at the games to simone biles and what she said about opting out of some of the events in order to deal with her mental health. it's notomething we often hear from the most successful athletes. how do you think about all that? katie: mental health is super important. and it goes hand in hand the physical health. we talked a lot about health as a whole over the past 1.5 years. it's important to continue to talk about and athletes are humans, too. we experience very similar things to everybody. i do not think it is just an athletic problem, but you see everyone in society have different challenges, and everyone has to support each other, to get to where you want to get if you have those big goals. and a lot of people do have big goals, and it takes a balanced approach to reach those goals and a lot of support. you have to rely on your support system. and it was great to see that simone and many other athletes

at the games were able to do that successfully. judy: you have been doing this now for a number of years. do you think women athletes have it tougher than men, or do you think it is pretty much even now? katie: i don't know. i think female athletes do have some challenges that men don't have, whether that is on the competition field or pool or court, or outside of it. again, just going back to the 1500, it was so great to finally get that opportunity. i feel like swimming is a really great sport in that the men and the women compete on the same playing field. the usually alternate men's event and a woman's event, and we all train together, and things like that. i have been really grateful that in our sport it has not had that big of a disparity. but i know that many athletes and female athletes do feel the need to get out there and there are some differences that need to be addressed. judy: in connection with that,

we are remembering title ix was a law that was passed in 1972, almost 50 years ago, mandating that women had to be treated equally with men in education, and particularly in sports. you have talked about that and said what a difference it has made, but you also said is more work that needs to be done. what needs to be done do you think? katie: as you said, my mom was one of the first beneficiaries of title ix. she swam at the university of new mexico and was able to get a scholarship and compete, and get a great education. and so looking back on that i do not know if i would have been a swimmer if my mom had not swum through college. she did not push me through the sport by any means, but she helped me arn how to swim and i grew to love the sport probably because of some of that love of the sport that she had. i look at my career and i don't know if it would have been possible without title ix, and i

am really grateful for all the advances we have made over the past 50 years through title ix, and there is a lot of work to continue to be done. judy: when you look at the younger athletes coming along today, whether it is women in swimming or other sports, do they have a clear field ahead of them or are there still obstacles? katie: there are still obstacles. you just look at companies, and i want to see more females in boardrooms, and leading companies, especially athletic companies. i think that is a big step that needs to be taken over the next several years. and i hope that i can lead in whatever way i can. judy: speaking of the future, you have mentioned this, you are already looking ahead to the olympics in 2024. you just graduated from stanford university. congratulations. but he said the other day that you are thinking about what you

wanted to do outside the pool. tell us a little about that. what are you thinking? katie: i am passionate about a lot of things outside of the pool. i have had rate opportunities to work at panasonic on a stem education program where i have been able to visit with schools and students virtually over the past year, talking about the importance of education and setting goals and trying to familiarize students around the country with science, technology, engineering, and math skills they will need in future careers. i'm also considering going to grad school at some point. i don't know if that will be in the next three years, between now and paris, but i will take the next couple of months and years to really plot that out and figure out where i feel like i can be most impactful. judy: i think you have got some time. katie: thanks. judy: katie ledecky, congratulations. everybody joins me in congratulating you. so proud of you. thank you very much. katie: thank you.

judy: and we'll be back shortly with more on women in sports with tennis icon billy jean king. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station.

judy: the 19th, an independent nonprofit newsroom focused on gender and politics, and a streaming partner of "the newshour," hosts its annual represents summit this week. in an interview with our own amna nawaz for the event, tennis icon billie jean king described how, as a young woman, she'd worked with other female players to turn amateur women's tennis into a professional sport. billy: we went and talked to gladys heldman, who was publisher of world tennis magazine. and there were nine of us called the original nine, signed a $1 contract with her. and here are the three things we were willing to do.

we had a long talk about this because i told the women, i said if you think you are going to make a lot of money, if you think you're going to get a lot of applause, etc., don't do this. i mean, i was trying to be really, telling all the risks. but here's the three things we decided on. we were willing to give up our careers and that these were the three things -- that any girl in this world, if she's good enough, would finally have a place to compete. number two, that she'd be appreciated for her accomplishments, not only her looks. and number three, the most important thing was to be able to make a living. and that's why we are the leaders in women's sports today. every time a woman tennis player gets a check or makes money off the court, that is because of that moment in time that we were willing to stick together, even if we got suspended, no matter what happened, we were willing to give up our careers.

and we were in our 20's. we were right in the thick of our careers. we didn't care. judy: so great to hear from billie jean king and katie ledecky. and you can watch all of 19th represents this week on our website, pbs.org/newshour and on the newshour's youtube page that is 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 and see you soon. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. financial services firm raymond james. bnsf railway. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement

of international peace and security at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broaasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this is "pbs newshour" west from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

- [announcer] this program was made possible in part by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. - [daniels] ken burns, lynn novick, and the talented team at florentine films tackle one of the most influential american writers of all time, ernest hemingway. - [narrator] hemingway's story is a tale older even than the written word. of a young man whose ambition and imagination, energy and enormous gifts, bring him wealth and fame beyond imagining. who destroys himself, trying to remain true to the characr he has invented. - [burns] i can't think of anything, history firing on all cylinders