♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, taliban takeover. the militant group announces a new government amid protests and an economic crisis. then, the recovery continues. some gulf coast residents regain power but many remain stranded in sweltering conditions as the president surveys the damage in the northeast. and 20 years later, the new jersey town that lost more residents in the 9/11 attacks than anywhere else outside new york city reflects on that tragic day. >> the wounds of 9/11 are never going to fully heal and i think this community has embraced the families and 20 years later, it still holds firm.

judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist, a raymond james financial advisor taylor's advisor to help you live your life. life well planned. >> 25 euros, consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless -- for 25 years, consumer cellular has an awfully new contract wireless plans. we can help by the planet that's you. >> johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. ♪

x the john -- >> the john s and james l. knight foundation. learn more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station fromiewers like you. thank you. judy: the taliban takeover of

afghanistan came into sharper focus today, as the group announced leaders of what it calls a "caretaker" government. atop that structure: this, man, habiatullah akhund-zada, the emir of the taliban. he will serve as what's being called "supreme leader." meantime, the u.s. secretaries of state and defense were in the gulf region today in qatar, where the ongoing mission to evacuate individuals from afghanistan is headquartered. and the white house requested $6.4 billion for the evacuation and the resettlement of afghan refugees. yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> today the taliban's head spokesperson ushered in an interim government void of women. >> our country needs comprehensive activities and services in various fields to address the legal, economic and social rights of the people and prevent losses. the islamic emirate decided to appoint and announce an acting cabinet to advance important matters.

>> key roles in the government include veterans of the group. mullah hasan akhund, the interim prime minister headed the taliban government in kabul during the last years of its previous rule that was ended by u.s.. mullah abdul ghani baradar is deputy prime minister. the trump administration pushed pakistan to release him from prison in 2018 to jump start the doha peace talks. baradar led talks with the united states and signed the deal that led to america's final withdrawal from afghanistan. sirajuddin haqqani, was appointed acting interior minister. he's the head of the haqqani network group, a branch of the taliban. haqqani has an american bounty on his head. he is wanted in questioning by the fbi for a 2008 attack on a kabul hotel. amir khan muttaqi as acting foreign minister, and mullah mohammad yaqoob has been named as defense minister. he's the son of taliban founder mullah omar. the taliban said these men would form an interim government., but it did not say how long they

will remain in power or if elections will bheld. at the press conference today taliban spokesperson mujahid celebrated the withdrawal of foreign troops. >> thank god ourountry regained its freedom from occupation. all the causes of the wars were destroyed. >> but today on the streets of kabul, hundreds of women came out to protest the taliban takeover and what they say is pakistan's interference in the country. >> we do not want the intelligence services of pakistan to establish a government for us. afghanistan has always been and will remain an independent country. >> pakistan has historically deep ts with the taliban and many afghans accuse it of playing a role in bringing the group back to power. in the northern city of mazar-e-sharif, planes chartered to fly out more than two thousand people sit on the tarmac. several hundred, including american citizens and green card

holders, say they have been waiting for more than a week for taliban permission to leave. the taliban says anyone with the correct paperwork can board the flights. on a visit to qatar today, secretary of state antony blinken also denied the taliban was blocking americans from leaving. >> they said they will let people with traveled -- documents freely depart. we will hold them to that. so will dozens of other countries. the international community is watching to see if the taliban will live up to their commitments. >> for the pbs newshour i'm yamiche alcindor. judy: who are the men - and they are all men - who will leadthe new government in afghanistan? we turn to two experts who have tracked the taliban for a long time. ahmed rashid is a journalist who has covered afghanistan, pakistan andentral asia for decades. his book "taliban: militant islam, oil and fundamentalism in central asia," which came out in 2000, was the first one on the taliban. and douglas london had a 34 year

career in the cia's clandestine service where he focused on afghanistan, south and central asia, the middle east and elsewhere. he is the author of the new book “the recruiter: spying and the lost art of american intelligence.” welcome to both of you. thank you very much. let me start with you, what does the naming of these individuals say to you about what the taliban has in mind for the future of afghanistan? >> i think overall, i mean, they have not done anything what the western countries havbeen asking for. it is not a diverse cabinet, it is a solidly taliban cabinet they have chosen. the government has not taken on board any of the non-taliban politicians in afghanistan, they have chosen not to take any

women into the cabinet for the time being. this is a caretaker government they have set up today, and they have said they will -- there will be changes and presumably there will be a full-time government at some stage. but at the moment, it looks as though this is going to continue as we have seen so far with beating up women, demonstrators, and not tolerating any kind of dissent. judy: is that what you see, doug wondered? and what do you see in terms -- london? and what do you see? >> it is best to judge them by what they do a number they say. this cabinet traces back to being close to him, in the 90's, it was the case of the named prime minister who was in fact head of their shore, so that is

some continuity, the shore being there -- the decision-making body operating in pakistan. i think they give a little more room for the haqqani's to have some room for themselves including the interior mr. being a wanted felon with a $10 million reward for his capital -- capture, and i think it is interesting the taliban five, those individuals the united states traded in a guantanamo present all received good jobs but not necessarily the top jobs in the cabinet. i think it is interesting i see the number two intelligence official was an explosive specialist that the cia hoped to get detained in pakistan, but he was released due to his poor health and he has made a quite -- quite a recovery. judy: mr. rashid, you mentioned

no women in this lineup of leadership. what does that say to you? do you see anything here that tells you there may be some give? they have been saying they want women to have a role in society. >> have been saying that, but women have been out in the streets kabul and other places demanding their rights and demanding, their slogan today was freedom. it seems that the women are literally leaving -- leading the young male students and men to show dissent against the telegram. the taliban admit they don't have people trained in crowd control, they don't know what to do when masses of people come into the street, so what we have seen is that they have been beating up people frequently like outside the airport when

people were trying to leave. judy: what should we expect in terms of what their attitude is going to be toward al qaeda, toward isis? we are told they are enemies but what should we expect? >> it is interesting if you look at the statement released today under the enir of the taliban who is now the self reclaimed supreme leader, much like in iraq. the individuals in the cabinet are those who have a historically good and positive relations with al qaeda and there is language the statement that thanks all the muslims. i think that was intended as a chapeau to the various stations the united states in the west consider terrorist groups, al qaeda and other groups that are considered part of what route the taliban victory. so i think it is a suggestion that they are not really planning to cut their ties.

judy: it's coming across as a group of individuals certainly to be feared. to both of you, the name or of this as a caretaker government, suggesting it is temporary. how do you read that? >> they don't seem to be having any kind of political plan for the future, they have already said we don't believe in elections, so that is out. but how are they going to put in place an opponent government without giving the public some kind of choice or ability to choose who they want? they won't allow political parties, because that is against islam. according to their whole interpretation, it's going to be i think based on what we have seen, how we have seen al qaeda in the last few years and other organizations where you have a top man who is endorsed by

basically the council. there is been -- very little choice left to the public or the people and very little dissent, either. judy: finally to doug london, have been told this new government is going to need desperately aid from the west, but do you see anything here that suggests that they are making any concessions at all, that would put them in a better place in terms of receiving aid? >> there are some clues i think in their statement and it is important to realize he is still in charge and calling the shots regardless of what the government composition is despite the fact that the taliban does tend to lie about consensus. there is leg which about self reliance, afghans not leaving -- language about self-reliance, afghans not leaving because they need them. there is suggestion to me that

this leadership is loathe to integrate globally with the west and make itself vulnerable to sanctions and information that they can't control. i don't see much hope for a taliban that, though there is some early indication, white house has -- said the taliban 2.0, they want more than subsistence into key people under control and content, there was leg which about respecter human rights, nothing about women if you notice, spect minorities, let their 33 cabinet members include three ethnic minorities. reading them for their actions better than their words will be more helpful in us informing our decisions on what we can expect and what actually limited leverage we will have over the taliban, their interest in economic aid and technical

development is what they see. that does not seem to be the case by virtue of their cabinet and the statement. judy: we are watching it closely and we think the two of you, doug london and ahmed rashid. >> thank you. ♪ >> i'm vanessa ruiz at newshour west in for stephanie sy, we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. the u.s. death from covid-19 has reached 650,000 out of nearly 4.6 million worldwide. word came as hard-hit idaho imposed crisis standards for overwhelmed and under-staffed hospitals. doctors in coeur d'alene and other locations are permitted to allot scarce resources to those covid patients deemed most likely to survive.

and non-covid patients will have to wait. >> we're having to make some tough decisions, delaying surgeries that we normally would do that day or the next day, we're having to delay those until we have staff and beds available. it's nothing i've ever experienced in our, in my career. >> infections in idaho have skyrocketed, while the state's vaccination rate is among the lowest in the nation. and the louisiana health department today revoked the licenses of seven nursing homes that evacuated residents to a squalid warehouse as ida pummeled the state. seven of those residents died. more lights are coming back on in louisiana nine days after hurricane ida. by late today, crews had restored power to some 700,000 customers out of 1.1 million who lost it. meanwhile, president biden surveyed storm damage in new york and new jersey. we will take a closer look after

the news summary. in texas, a republican bill to overhaul state elections is now law despite protests that it will suppress minority turnout. gop governor greg abbott signed the measure today, banning all-night and drive-thru voting and limiting mail-in balloting. he dismissed lawsuits already being filed. >> i'd be astonished if a law like this was not challenged in court. i feel extremely confident that when this law makes it through the litigation phase it will be upheld in a court of law because exactly what we have said. >> abbott also defended a new law that bans most abortio after six weeks of pregnancy. it took effect last week. and in south dakota governor kristi noem today issued an executive order restricting access to abortion-inducing drugs. meanwhile, the supreme court of mexico ruled today that imposing criminal punishment for abortions is unconstitutional. the decision directly affects

the state of coahuila along the texas border. today's ruling sets a national precedent. mass demonstrations unfolded across bzil today, in support of embattled president jair bolsonaro. in brasilia -- the capital -- tens of thousands turned o with flags and banners as bolsonaro helicoptered in. he blasted judges for jailing some of his key supporters on charges of supporting violence. bolsonaro has said he might reject the results if he loses his reelection bid next year. leaders of three major branches of christianity appealed for action on climate change today in their first-ever joint statement. pope francis along with the archbishop of canterbury justin welby and ecumenical patriarch bartholomew the first -- leader of orthodox christians -- came together today. they urged an upcoming u.n. climate summit to quote "listen

to the cry of the earth". thousands of firefighters in northern california have made more gains against the giant caldor fire. their progress in the lake tahoe region is being bolstered by cooler temperatures, higher humidity and easing winds. the fire is now about 50 percent -- 50% contained. the father of britney spears has petitioned a los angeles court to end his daughter's conservatorship. jaime spears has had control over his daughter's personal and professional life since 2008. still to come on the newshour, how the gulf coast and the northeast dig out from ida's wake. the director of the african centers for disease control discusses global back we -- vaccine and equity. a new jersey town heavily impacted by the nine eleven -- 911 attacks reflects on that tragic day. plus much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from

w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: for the second time in less than a week, president biden visited communities hit hard by ida. the president made several stops in new jersey and new york. at least 50 deaths in six states were associated with the storm that hit last week. and separately, in louisiana, at least 15 deaths are linked with ida. president biden said extreme weather events have made it clear the country must take meaningful action. pres. biden: these waves crashed through this reads here, testing the agent infrastructure and taking lives. more lives were taken here and down in louisiana, climate change poses an existential right to our lives, our economy and the threat is here. it's not going to get any

better. the question is can it get worse. we can stop it from getting worse. judy: president biden visited the northeast at hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses in louisiana have not had power, water or other basic needs for over a week. the newshour's roby chavez, is in new orleans and he joins me again tonight. very good to have you. the president was in the area where you are last week. he promised her own resources, now we know that the state is promising to get the power back on by the middle of this week. where does it stand? roby: it is day nine of the recovery and people in louisiana are still struggling. things are getting better, 70 to 80% of people in new orleans have power back on,here are less lines at the gas stations, more gas stations online. grocery stores are opening,

there is mail delivery that is started, but it is a different story among dutch along the gulf coast where they have had a direct hit from hurricane ida. many people still without power and basic needs, they need clean clothes, water, communications, power and housing. it is really tough for them and the word on the ground is once things start to move into that rebuilding phase, it will be just as tough because there is a shortage of supply, labor. that was the case before, during the pandemic, and after the hurricane it is worse. judy: as is so often the case after these major storms, deaths in place after the storm has passed. there were more deaths announced today in louisiana. tell us what you have learned. roby: the most recent death we have heard about is a man who did not have power or enough oxygen and he passed away. in louisiana, mississippi and alabama, there have been 17

deaths due to hurricane ida. a lot of those have been due to carbon monoxide poisoning after the storm. four people according to the louisiana department of public health died from using generators improperly. nearly 140 people went to the hospital from improperly using generators. we are seeing problems with those vulnerable populations, senior citizens, those with special needs, those on low and fixed income. those with medical challenges. they are trying to get basic resources to keep them alive and it is tough. judy: the challenges are enormous. how are enormous. however people dealing with this? >> it has been a tough last days everyone in southeast louisiana. but the spirit of louisiana, the spirit of new orleans is awry -- alive. it warms your heart when you see strangers helping each other to fix their homes, some of the restaurants in the area have donated food.

there been massive barbecues that feed folks and that allows them to have a hot meal and get together as a communitynd start to talk about some of the experience they have had with hurricane ida. judy: one other thing we have been reading about today, that is even cemeteries affected by this. roby: yeah, a big problem. never at floods, the tombstones in louisiana are aboveground because most of the area is below sea level. whenever we get these huge floods, caskets literally will pop outf the tombstones and end up down the street in people's yards cluttered with the rest of the debris. there is a special task force in louisiana that tries to get all of those caskets back to the place of burial, but it is not an easy task. after katrina, they did mandate there should be identification insidehose caskets, but we understand from hurricane laura last year they are trying to replace some of those caskets to their final resting place.

judy: so difficult, one issue after another. roby chav reporting from new orleans. thank you so much. roby: thank y, judy. ♪ judy: as the u.s. and other western countries discuss the rollout of covid vaccine boosters, in africa and other parts of the world, many millions are still waiting for their very first shot. covid has killed 200,000 people across the african continent, where there are nearly 8 million confirmed cases. while south africa is on track to have a majority vaccinated by the end of the year. for many other sub-saharan countries, fewer than 3% of their populations have been vaccinated. earlier today, william brangham spoke with the head of africa's cdc dr. john nkengasong. >> dr. john nkengasong thank you

so much for joining us. i wonder if you could briefly just give us a sense continent wide, how is the pandemic going in africa right now? >> unfortunately, we are not winning the war against this pandemic in africa. as we speak, at least 32 countries are going through a very severe third wave and about four or five other countries are actually witnessing a fourth wave. and the background of this is that we have very limited vaccines that have been introduced on the continent. a population of 1.2 biion people have only seen about 3% of the population fully vaccinated, which is unfortunate if we imagine that our goal was to at least vaccinate up to 60 % by next year. it's a very unfortunate situation we are witssing in africa. [00:02:52][50.1] -- in africa. >> i would love to talk about

the vaccines in a moment. before then, though, is it your sense that the delta variant is the primary variant of the virus across africa now? >> it is. as we speak, over 30 something countries have now reported the delta variant and africa as a continent of 55 member states, so at least about 20 countries have not yet reported the delta variant. but the speed at which the variant is evolving suggests naturally that in the next couple of weeks or months, it will become the predominant variant. i know that testing is not as widespread across africa as it is elsewhere. do you think? do -- you share the concern that you might be possibly missing even more cases simply because you don't have good eyes on the ground? >> oh, we are absolutely missing cases. there's no doubt about that, because of lack of broad testing, as we would love . and it's not because countries don't want to do testing, i think, it is a lack of really access to large-scale testing.

and we have made significant progress. if you compare it to where we were last year, last year around april as a continent of 1.2 billion people, we had just tested 300,000 people. so today we are way past that marker. but testing has to be the cornerstone of the rest of the continent, because if we did not test, we did not find >> on this vaccinati front, the global covax, the effo in many western nations-- they say that they are doing everything they possibly can to try to increase production and get vaccines elsewhere into the world, but it sounds like you clearly don't believe that effort is happening fast enough. >> -- >> well, let's admit it, i mean, the spirit of covax and the principle were sound and they were based on our need to cooperate and to express solidarity. the reality is that it has not translated into action where in

africa, where as we speak, as i indicated earlier, just under 3% of our population of one point -- 1.2 billion people have been vaccinated. if you recall when this was set up, it was very clear that we wanted to have a basket where vaccines will be dumped into and the vaccines that are effective will be accessible at the same time to everyone in the world who need the vaccines. but that is not what we are seeing today. >> and certainly here in the united states and in other parts of western europe and in israel, they're talking about introducing booster shots and giving booster shots, which could be hundreds of millions of third doses going to wealthier nations while you all are still waiting for so many of your doses. first>> that is absolutely correct. my greatest concern with the concept of a booster is that i have not seen the signs yet that justify that. for example, there are at least a couple of

conditions or scenarios that -- evidence is a better word that i'm looking for. one is that we should be able to define that when vaccine protection actually wanes to the point that somebody actually needs a booster. we haven't seen that data. second is that even if the immunity of that vaccine drops to a certain level in people that have received it, do you still get protection from disease or hospitalization? if the answer is that you get enough protection, then you don't need urgently to get a booster. >> and certainly within the u.s., pfizer and moderna which are two of the most commonly used vaccines here, the evidence, as you say, does seem to to indicate that we are still getting good protection from hospitalization and death with those two vaccines, which seems to reinforce the point that you're making, that it is not that urgent for western nations to be giving boosters when you compare it to continents, entire

continents like africa that are waiting. >> no, absolutely. i think if we look at the united states and also look at israel, i mean, israel was one of those countries that perhaps the first country that vaccinated at least 60 to 70% of its population. but the beauty of the situation in israel is that even the most people that have received the vaccine were infected - they were not hospitalized and they were not having severe illness there. so the situation in israel teaches us two things. one is that by vaccinating your entire population and neglecting other parts of the world from being vaccinated, yoare not safe because it will bring new variants and the variants will challenge even your own vaccines that you receive. i think that is one. lesson number two is that vaccines do, of course, but -- vaccis protect from disease, but they do not protect from infection.

so i think that is very, very clearly messages that we should be taking home and that we truly don't kw when, if we need a second dose, and how soon we need that booster dose and how soon we needed. >> all right, dr. john nkengasong, director of the africa centers for disease control and prevention, thank you so much for your time and best of luck to you. >> thank you. thank you for having me on your program. ♪ judy: now, let's turn to the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which we are marking all this week. tonight, we do thain two parts, beginning with the many ways that lives were impacted in a new jersey town -- a place that was disproportionately affected back in 2001. ali rogin returns to middletown, where she grew up, to see how residents and neighbors coped over the past two decades.

>> middletown, new jersey. a suburb about an hour's train ride from manhattan. it's a community that was deeply affected by 9/11. it also happens to be my hometown. so i returned a few weeks before the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks see how people have moved forward, even as they look back. first stop: a scenic overlook that's now home to the county's 9/11 monument. an eagle clutching a beam salvaged from ground zero. i'm here at mount mitchill in atlantic highlands, which happens to be the highest point on the atlantic seaboard. people come up here to admire the sweeping views of the neyork city skyline. but on september 11, 2001, many people, my own family included, came up here to bear witness to the horror that was unfolding across the riv. >> it is very difficult to convey the chaos that ensued, the disbelief, the fear.

>> jodi molisani was my fourth grade teacher. >> i can remember being on my driveway days after and smelling the smoke from ground zero. >> 147 county residents died that day. their names inscribed on the monument's base. 37 were from middletown, the most of any municipality outside of new york city. >> i had the television on, he had called me twice that morning. >> molisani's husband jude worked for the financial firm eurobrokers, on the 84th floor of the south tower. >> he was crying, and he said i'm watching people jump out of the north tower, and that's when i panicked and i said, get out of there, come home. he said, ok, hung up the phone. i looked at the television and that's when the second plane hit. so i knew right then and there that he wasn't coming home. >> jude molisani's body was recovered quickly. months later, some personal effects surfaced - including his account card for the car service he used.

>> this was in his wallet, which was in his desk. and this was recovered at fresh kills landfill. >> more importantly, his wedding ring. it's incredible how you can see the half of it that's kept its shape and the half that was misshapen. >> we know that he was thrown from the building because he was found on the ground. he was the 13th body recovered. and that is just illustrative of what he physically went through. it took 20 years to be able to be very matter-of-fact about things. and now, when i think of him, i'm good. i think. >> you know i went to work with grandmkathy one time? elise: daddy rode the train. matt: yeah. she worked in a really tall buding. >> matthew casey (an engineer married to my kindergarten classmate, elise) has no artifacts from ground zero. but

he does have his daughter, kate named after his mother, kathleen, who was killed in the south tower. she ran the equities trading desk at sandler o'neill. >> you had to be strong to work on wall street, especially as a as a female back then and she took her career very seriously. >> but his memories are of a loving mother who would do anything for her only child. st 14 when she died, he has worked long and hard at learning to live with his grief. >> the pain doesn't go away. it's just a different kind of pain. >> casey often seeks solace in middletown's memorial gardens, where each victim has a stone. >> its people -- peaceful. -- it is peaceful. i feel her presence there and if i just need a place to go to talk to her i find that's the best place >> the gardens are right next to the train station, which many of the victims used to get to work. today, the trains rush by as always, but steps away is an oasis - a reminder that people here live in the present, but never forget the past.

along the walkway, friends and family members leave mementos s. engraved inscriptions tell a story of who their loved ones were. >> her love was boundless, her laughter contagious, her generosity legendary and her friendship a gift. those four lines are, that's who my mom was. >> the gardens are a living memorial - opened in 2003, they've been expanding ever since. this year, they're adding a monument to first responders - many of whom suffered health complications due to exposure at ground zero. tony perry is middletown's mayor. >> this memorial is growing because the wounds of 9/11 are never going to fully heal. but this community has embraced the families. the day at tragic attack occurred, and 20 years later it still holds firm. >> for some, staying in this community was more painful than comforting.

>> i left middletown because it was too much of a reminder every day of what was missing in my life and my daughter's life. >> kristen breitweiser's husband ron was a senior vice president at fiduciary trust. he died in the south tower on 9/11. she and her daughter moved to '' new york years ago. >> i wanted caroline to not sort of be walled in by all of the horror. she nearly made it through high school without anyone ever knowing that her dad was killed on september 11. >> but her goal was not to forget the events of that day. rather, breitweiser, a lawyer, became immersed in them. >> the reality is my husband left for work one morning and never came home, and i just assumed that the government would give me answers. and so when we received so much resistance from at that time the bush administration, we started doing our own research. we learned that our intelligence agencies were clearly following the hijackers. they had every bit of information that they needed to stop the 9/11 attacks.

and for whatever reason, the 9/11 attacks weren't stopped and read thousand people -- 3000 people were murder ed in broad daylight. >> breitweiser was one of the so-called “jersey girls” - four widows who kept the pressure on co ngress. -- congress. they helped make the case for the 9/11 commission, which in 2004 concluded that there had been, quote, “failures of imagination” across the government. but breitweiser thinks those lessons remain unlearned. >> we went into several wars based on 9/11. we have scaled back privacy rights, constitutional rights of americans based on 9/11. we tortured, we extrajudicially killed. we had renditions all based on 9/11. >> in your mind, what has it all amounted to? >> i think it's just created more of a morass on the backs of, you know, my dead husband and others. >> she will recognize the 20th anniversary quietly, as usual. >> i've never gone a memorial service. i kind of like to keep

that date private for caroline and me. >> i want to replace that american flag, way too small. >> back in middletown, officials are planning a larger than usual ceremony. >> i have the easy job of remembering and ensuring that our community remembers, but i have a one-year-old daughter. she doesn't know any of this. >> for molisani, who still teaches fourth grade, educating the next generation about 9/11 is comicated. >> the children always have a lot of questions about what happened that d, and where were you, mrs. molisani? and i'm very candid in saying that i was at home. but at that point, that's where i stop the discussion. >> what do you hope other people who may not have a personal connection to 9/11 remember on this 20th anniversary? >> how our nation came together and how we were kind to each other and how there was no

political party that you were affiliated with. everybody was just an american. >> a reminder that you don't need to be from middletown, new jersey or any town that lost lives on september 11 - to honor the people and the places that did. for the pbs newshour, i'm ali rogin, in middletown, new jersey. judy: just heartbreaking. now, amna nawaz widens the lens with a conversation about how september 11 and its aftermath changed the direction of the country. amna: judy, two decades later, we are still learning how the september 11 terror attacks shaped our politics, military and sense of national unity. graff is the author of the book -- garrett graff is the author of the book "the only plane in the sky: an oral history of 9/11". he also hosts a new podcast called "long shadow" about lingering questions after the attacks. he joins me now. welcome back, when you first

read the book and we talked about it you said your goal was not to recount the fact of the day but to remind everyone what it felt like. 20 years later, do you still think it is as important to remember this really what that day felt like? >> absolutely. and i think part of this is, here we are 20 years later, a generation later, we are seeing this event from memory into history. of the 13 marines and the sailor killed in kabul in august, only two of them were old enough to be out of diapers on 9/11. so the story we tell them and future generations about what this day meant to our country can't just be about the facts of the day. it has to be about the way that humans and the u.s. government and that his sins across the country lived the day. because so much of our reaction as a country was driven afterwards by the emotion of that day.

the fear, the cha, the confusion, the trauma as much as it was the facts. >> your remarkable book includes 480 accounts from that day and we talked about, you said one of the things that stood out to you was his idea of luck, a matter of one decision versus another over whether people lived or did not. does that still stand out to you? >> yeah, even more so. when we look at all of the different ways that small decisions that day, when to get a cup of coffee, went to place a phone call, which plane to catch. determining life and death that day, it remains to meet one of the most important and poignant themes of that day and the way that the other thing we have to remember even all these many years later, is that we have no

idea what tomorrow will bring and that is an important life lesson that many of the survivors of that day and the victims of that day that i talked to still talk about. >> in the immediate aftermath of those attacks, we all remember this sense of national unity. it is fair to say we are not there today. when you look over the last 20 years, how did that happen? >> yeah, and unfortunately i think they are very much related. one of the challenges of taking stock of this war on terror is 20 years this week is to realize how much we got wrong as a government, a nation the way we responded in the west, the weight nat responded globally the way nato responded globally, step-by-step squandered the global unity and sense of purse that ought us

together after 9/11 and in fact time and again it got into some of the darkest, worst angels of our nature. when y look at the war in iraq, the cia torture program, the black sites, here we are 20 years later, one ton of them obey is still there, none of the -- guantanamo bay is still there, none of the 9/11 plotters have been brought there. desperate out. there is a direct line -- brought out. there is a direct line between the unity we felt as a government and the sense of partisanship and polarization that continues to this day now. >> there is now an entire generation of americans who can vote, whhave graduated college, who are young professionals starting their own families who have no firsthand memory of the day. i'm curious how you think this day resonates with them. what place in history?

>> this is going to be the huge difference over the next 10 years, we are going to see a generation who has never known the nation as it existed before 9/11 but has spent their entire life growing up in the country shaped by it. i think one of the things that most stands out is that america is much more afraid today that when you look back at 9/11 and see that seven minute period between the first crash in the second, you see just how innocent a nation we were that we a defaulted to believing that this was an accident. a mechanical problem, the pilot having a heart attack, a small plane, helicopter, that this could not be a war on our country. and now with 20 years past, we are a country that that fear of being in public spaces, that fear of an attack coming in the

places where we feel most safe is a daily presence in our lives. >> that is garrett graff author of the book "the only plane in the sky: an oral history of 9/11". thank you. >> thank you for helping me remember this week. ♪ judy: as we know, the sea can be the source of terrible storms or summer escapes. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston explore how it has also inspired american art as part of our canvas series. >> painters throughout american history have always been drawn to the glittering, sun-dappled sea. they've been duced by sumptuous sunsets, majestic masts and still waters. not to mention the spitting, tempestuous opposite.

that also attracts artists. >> they wander the beach and they look out to see and it's an imaginative place. and so they think about how they can generate that kind of feeling in their paintings. >> like thvalor of an unyielding naval commander , the solitude of abandonment , or the feeling of just traveling by ferry on a gray day. [wake of the ferry] -- grade a. >> it is a very mundane scene. but it is steeped in sort of the maritime environment, with the mist, with the thick air. but it isn't a grand story of a fabulous voyage that was world changing in any respect whatsoever. >> that's the point of this show that longtime maritime art curator dan finamore has been wanting to do for yearsfeaturing work that, well, rocks the boat when it comes to perspectives in marine painting. >> kay walkingstick is an artist

who has always visited the new england coast. it's just a painting of looking out to sea. but then it's overlain, as you can see, in the lower right, by her design of a native american basket motif. so she is simultaneously sort of looking at her own experience of the sea while also declaring this coastline, uh, as indigenous land, uh, in the -- indigenous land. >> here you'll also find a seascape abstracted immiants anticipating hope on the horizon , and a departure from that denizen of the desert, georgia o'keeffe [wave, night]. -- georgia o'keeffe. >> what she saw at night, in particular, making it even more challenging is the beach before her, the far distant horizon with a lighthouse, the wave rolling at her and the vacant space that is everything where the narrative should be. >> it's a fitting show for the peabody essex. the nation's oldest continuously operating museum, it was founded in salem, massachusetts in 1799just blocks away frowhat was then one of the world's most thriving ports. today, in this exhibition, the romance of the sea often washes awayin norman lewis's roiling sense of the ocean's fury and in this rare depiction of a slave ship.

>> the ship wanderer was chased by an anti-slaving squadron off the coast of africa, but it arrived safely in south carolina and all of the survivors were dispersed throughout the landscape, the crew was brought, -- rod up on charges and they were all acquitted by a charleston jury. >> i think it is this wonderful exploration of american identity through the lens of the sea. >> sarah chasse is one of the show's co-curators. her specialtyportraits where the sea floods the background as it does in this gilbert stuart image of george washington painted as a gift for alexander hamilton. or in this painting of the roman goddess diana highway of maine. >> i am just mesmerized by this portrait. >> it is definitely a mesmerizing portrait. it's also very mysterious. this is by the artist marguerite zorach, the rowboat is full of

crustaceans, starfish, crabs, lobsters are sort of her bounty as diana the huntress. >> but we do know that this painting by amy sherald, who created first lady michelle obama's official portrait, is about the everyday american-ness of a sunny day at the beach. >> i think there's so many layers of complexity to it in terms of america's, um, uh, you know, black experiences with the beach and segregated beaches in the past. so it's just really, really, really poignant. >> and pointed. as we also find in the show's final work. it's by early 20th century artist marsden hartleya maine native who frequented the peabody essex museum and here, renders the maine coast at night. >> it is simultaneously calming and threateng. we wanted to end the show with that kind of a message, that the sea is many things, um, but it -- something to be wary of, to take note of, um, and it has an impact on everody's life. >> for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen in salem, massachusetts. ♪

judy: the official u.s. response to 9/11 spooled out in a series of fateful decisions, spanning across four presidencies. these two decades are the subject of a new pbs "frontline" documentary, "america after 9/11," airing tonight. here is a sneak peak. >> just four months after 9/11 in his first state of the union address, the president decided to dramatically widen the war. >> north korea has a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction. iran aggrsively pursuing these weapons and exports terror. iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward america and to support terror. >> when you do hear that, you perk up and it's kind of surprising because here you had president of the united states addressing congress and then

naming these countries a putting them, lumping them together as this axis of evil. >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. >> for a frenchman to speech about the axis of evil is simply impossible to understand. you know, it's really coming from another world for us. we said axis of evil. what does it mean, you know? >> i will not wait on events while dangers gather. i will not stand by as peril draws closer and closer. the united states of america will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons. [applause] >> what had begun with this attack in new york and washington had now grown into

this much larger and graver attack on america in the political language. >> our war on terror is well begun, but it has ly begun. cracks -- >> the idea that we weren't at risk just of terrorism, but in fact we were at risk of a nuclear attack, wmd, and that was an entirely new realm of conceivable combat. judy: you can watch frontline's "america after 9/11" tonight at 9:00, 8:00 central on pbs. earlier this year, we spoke with 61 black women in politics about the harassment and threats they face in office. tonight on the pbs newshour's twitter account, join us for a special event. beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern, amna nawaz will host a twitter space with three lawmakers from across the nation to talk about their experiences and what needs

to change. you can participate, too - send us questions at hashtag ask newshour. that's on pbs newshour's twitter account @newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. thank you, please stay safe 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 innovation in education, and the advancement of peace and security. at carnegie.org.

the target foundation, committed to equal opportunity. and with the ongoing suprt of these 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. ♪ [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 our bureau of journalism at the arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

[ sizzling ] -the sounds of sizzle, the smells from the grill. don't you just love it? look at these you guys. these sights and sounds go by many names. a barbecue, a cookout, a parrilla. but in mexico state of sonora, these delicious weekly gathering of family and friends is known simply as a carne asada. mm, so good, so good. and today, i'm bringing that traditional carne asada experience right into my own back yard with the help of some very hungry and suddenly much taller boys. i don't... -you need to flip it soon. -i don't see any sweat. -i don't see any sweat. -i see, i see some sweat. -you don't have the chef's eye. -we're making a fire roasted salsita, a chunky chili verde guacamole, a sonoran-style macaroni salad,