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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  September 8, 2021 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT

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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the pandemic persists-- hospitals in areas of low vaccination struggle to handle a surge of covid cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant. then, total recall-- the governor of california faces a reckoning from voters that could have major political implications for the state and the country. and 20 years later-- the brother of a passenger on board united flight 93 reflects on the heroism of those who fought back against the 9/11 hijackers. >> we have to actively remember. it's far too easy to move on, to forget our losses, forget the
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lessons that thawe learn. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.
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>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support 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.
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>> woodruff: the world health organization demanded today that rich nations hold off giving covid-19 booster shots until next year at the earliest. the agency's head had already called for a moratorium through this month. today, he said that appeal has been ignored, despite severe vaccine shortages in poor countries. >> we have been calling for vaccine equity from the beginning, not after the richest countries have been taken care of. i will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the worlds poor should be satisfied with leftovers. >> woodruff: also today, the global vaccine alliance covax lowered its target for shipping doses to needy nations, for the second time. the new goal is 1.4 billion doses this year. it started at two billion.
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the city of new orleans has lifted the overnight curfew imposed after hurricane "ida" struck, 10 days ago. today's announcement came as utility officials said 90% of the city should have power back five parishes to the south and west of new orleans remain almost entirely in the dark. a new tropical storm has formed this evening in the northeastern gulf of mexico. it's named "mindy" and has minimal sustained winds of 40 miles an hour. the storm could reach the florida panhandle later tonight. a long-awaited trial opened in paris today in the islamic state attacks that killed 130 people, in 2015. james mates of independent television news has our report. >> reporter: almost six years after the worst terrorist attack in french history, they finally bring the one surviving attacker to court.
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central paris around the palais de justice locked down so that salah abdeslam and 13 others can face hundreds of victims and accusers over the next nine months. 130 dead, 350 others wounded, hundreds more who survived that terrible night but with their lives changed forever. they were codinated attacks right across the french capital, planned and executed with calculated savagery. olivier laplaud who escaped with his wife through a rear entrance of the bataclan will go to the trial and give evidence, if asked. >> the best answer you can give to those people who attacked us is a fair and also exemplary trial being judged by mankind if not there god or whatever, whatever excuse they find, whatever justification they find to those attacks.
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>> reporter: but for others who will be represented here by their lawyers, even six years later is not something they could go through. >> some don't want to come. some are themselves denying their own condition of victims. some don't dare come to paris because it brings a lot of reminiscences. >> reporter: the french will become acutely aware of this trial with the security disruption here affecting the center of the city for many, many months. but most believe it a price worth paying to establish that the last word will be had by their justice system. establishing guilt or otherwise will be just part of the task here. the court will also want to know who masterminded these aacks from afar and how much more could the french state have done to stop them. >> woodruff: that report, from james mates of independent television news. in indonesia, a fire at a crowded prison near jakarta killed at least 41 inmates today, and injured 80. officials suggested an
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electrical short circuit was the cause. state tv showed the charred prison compound after the flames swept through. the victims were taken away for identification by family members. the united states pressed afghanistan's new taliban rulers today to let more evacuees leave. hundreds of people are waiting to fly out of the northern city of mazar-i-sharif on charter planes. today, in germany, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken said the taliban claims it's a document problem. he said the u.s. is doing all it can. >> while there are limits to what we can do without personnel on the ground, without an airport with normal security procedures in place. we are working to do everything in our power to support those flights and to get them off the ground. >> woodruff: separately, u.s. officials said 60,000 people arrived here from afghanistan since august 17th. about 17% were american citizens.
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more than 150 aftershocks have rattled southern mexico, after an overnight earthquake that killed one person. the quake was centered near the resort city of acapulco and rocked buildings 200 miles away in mexico city. authorities say there was no major destruction in acapulco. the tremor did damage some buildings and vehicles, and sent people into the streets. back in this country, work crews in richmond, virginia removed a towering statue of confederate general robert e. lee today. onlookers cheered and chanted as the bronze monument was hoisted off its pedestal in the former capital of the confederacy. it had stood since 1890. >> you know, this isn't the end, but this signifies that we're accepting the past for what it really is. we can't hold the confederacy and people like robert e. lee on statues anymore. >> i'm a native of richmond, i've been here all my life, i'm
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60-some years old. and so i've been passing through and seeing this. for it to finally come down man, it's a moment of joy for me. >> woodruff: democratic governor ralph northam ordered the statue's removal, amid nationwide protests after the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis. in economic news, the u.s. federal reserve reports overall activity slowed in july and august amid the covid surge. a separate report found job openings hit a record high of 10.9 million in july. and, on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost 69 points to close at 35,031. the nasdaq fell 87 points. the s&p 500 slipped x. still to come on the newshour: the governor of california faces a reckoning in a critical recall election. the founder of the once-lauded tech company theranos goes on trial for fraud. we examine the cultural changes
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brought on by the me too movement four years later. plus much more. >> woodruff: the surge of covid cases in idaho has gotten so bad that some hospitals in the northern part of the state are having to ration the care they give. idaho has one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates: only 40% are fully vaccinated. as william brangham tells us, many of the i.c.u.s have been pushed to their limits. >> brangham: judy, the dision by state officials to allow for the rationing of care means that if hospitals are so overtaxed, they can decide to limit i.c.u. rooms to just those patients who are most likely to survive, and then move other patients to non-
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hospital rooms for their care. elective surgeries have also been cancelled or seriously cut back. and these problems seem to be accelerating elsewhere in the state. covid cases are up more than 40% in the last two weeks, and hospitalizations up 25%. brian whitlock is the c.e.o. of the idaho hospital association. all of the state's full-service hospitals are members of the organization. he joins me now from boise. brian whitlock, great to have you. i'm sort of alarmed to hear what's going on in your state right now. can you just give us a sense of what you're hearing from different hospital officials? >> thanks, william. appreciate the opportunity. our hospitals across the state have been stressed for a couple of weeks. what we saw starting at the beginning of august was a rapid increase in the number of positive cases which translated into hospitalizations, which translated into i.c.u. visits and also an increase in the
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amount of covid deaths. so that's been concerning since the beginning of august, and we have been doing all that we can to prepare to move into contingency modes, to move hospital space into nontraditional spaces like classrooms, hallways and other areas where we can at least try to meet the demand that's coming there uh the doors, but we've reached the point where we are almost on overload and have an inability to transfer patients to other areas of the state or even the region because of the lack of capacity around the state. >> reporter: when people hear terms like rationing or crisis standards of care, they are troubling sounding terms. in a practical sense, if i'm a patient who's been in an i.c.u. for awe while or i'm a patient who's arriving at an i.c.u., what does that mean for me? >> it means that there may be a longer wait if you are just arriving. i had a sobering conversation
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just yesterday where all of our hospits get on a call each day and we try to load level and make sure that we can transfer patients. one small critical access hospital, they jumped in as all of our larger tertiary hospitals were saying their i.c.u.s were completely full and couldn't take transfers, and this tiny hospital just said we just had a covid patient pass away in our c.u., we will have an i.c.u. available in about 30 minutes, to try to off-load some of the pressure on the larger hospitals that have just been inundated and in some cases are on divert. so if you did need to go to an i.c.u., that might be closed and they might have to send you to the next closestest i.c.u. >> reporter: are hospitals at the point where they might have to choose a ventilator goes to this patient and perhaps not that patient? >> william, those are difficult conversations to have but they are taking place. if you have somebody in an
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i.c.u. that's been on a ntilator for a couple of weeks and is not showing any sign of improvement and you do have somebody who it might be younger whose conditions may not be as acute as that person that's been in the i.c.u. for a couple of weeks, those are conversations that are taking place about moving that one patient into comfort care and freeing up the ventilator in order to hopefully save the life of another patient. >> reporter: are these patients that are filling these i.c.u.s unvaccinated patients by and large? >> more than by and large. almost all of the patients that we are seeing in the hospital and certainly in the i.c.u. are unvaccinated. we do see some vaccinated people with breakthrough cases that do need hospitalization, but it's nowhere near as serious as it would be if they were unvaccinated. >> reporter: i mean, thoughts got to be incredibly dispiriting for hospital staffs to know 95% of the patients could have
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avoided this with a free, safe vaccine. >> and that's the challenge. our nurses, doctors and all our hospital personnel are going to continue to be passionate and provide that compassionate care. but there is some fatigue knowing this is entirely preventable. when you have a hospital that has 200 beds in north idaho and more than 100 of those beds are taken up with covid patients that didn't need to be there, it could have been prevented, and yet you still have people who have other conditions -- heart attacks, breast cancer -- i mean, there are other things that -- you mentioned elective surgeries have been canceled but now some of the urgent surgeries are also being postponed because those hospital beds are being taken up by covid patients who are unvaccinated. >> we've seen and i've talked to health and hospital officials in various parts to have the country, do you have a sense as to where that hesitancy is coming from?
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>> i think there is a lot of misinformation. i think, in today's world, people get information from social media, they have friends who have friends who are on social media who heard somebody say something, and, you know, my encouragement is that most physicians, most researchers don't accomplish their findings on youtube, and peer review doesn't mean the most number of likes that you get on social media. and, so, please, do your research, but do it with credible sources of information, and then make a decision, and hopefully that decision is that you choose to get a vaccine. that's the only way that we're going to get ahead of this pandemic. >> reporter: lastly, do you have a sense of the arc of this? i've read one analysis that you might up to 30,000 new cases per week mid month this month. do you have a sense of how bad this might get?
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>> i think all of our hospitals and health systems that are doing their projections fear that it still may be a couple of weeks out before we peak, and when you look at all of the projections in their totality, some of those are saying we may not even peak until the middle of october. and, yes, in a small state like idaho when you're having 30,000 cases predicted, that is overwhelming, and that may still be five or six weeks away. that has our hospital personnel very, very concerned and hopeful that they'll see the seriousness of this crisis that has been declared in north idaho, and i will tell you, the rest of the state probably is not far behind unless something drastic happens. >> reporter: brian whitlock, c.e.o. of the idaho hospital association, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you, william.
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>> woodruff: should he stay or should he go? that's the big question facing california's 22 million voters about their governor, democrat gavin newsom, in the recall election next tuesday. vice president kamala harris, who previously served as senator from the golden state, was in oakland campaigning for newsom today where she talked about the stakes for california and the rest of the country. >> this recall campaign is about california and it's about a whole lot more. they're thinking if they can get this done in california they can go around the country and do this. you've got to understand what's happening right now. what's happening in texas. what's happening in georgia. what's happening around our country. with these policies that are about attacking women's rights, reproductive rights, voting
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rights, worker rights. they think if they can win in california, they can do this anywhere. well we will show them you are not going to get this done. t here, never. >> woodruff: to sort out what's at stake for newsom and the 46 candidates vying to replace him, we turn to scott shafer. he is the politics and government editor for public media station kqed in san francisco. he also hosts the "political breakdown" podcast. scott shafer, welcome back to the "newshour". sofirst off, what did governor newsom do to get -- how did he get himself in this situation where he invited this recall effort? >> well, judy, we should say, first of all, this is the sixth recall effort against gavin newsom. in california we have recall petitions circulating literally all the time. the first five petered out and went away. this one was about to have the same fate, but then a judge gave them another 120 days, and then
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the governor ate dinner at a posh restaurant in napa valley, videotaped not wearing a mask at that time when he was telling everyone else to be home. so that was a very simple idea, the idea of hypocrisy, and there was a lot of anger in the state as around the country -- schools were closed, businesses were closing, a lot of people were unemployed, people were scared, no vaccine -- and i think a lot of people took it out on the governor, fairly or not, and signed the recall petition and ultimately more than 1.6 million voters signed it. >> reporter: so it's a two-step process, people vote on the recall and then they would vote, of course, on the replacement. but as we mentioned, 46 candidates, scott shafer, that's a lot. but we know a couple of them have gotten most of the attention. tell us about who they are. >> well, the one who is by far in the lead in every single poll is larry elder, conservative talk show host, african-american, lives in los angeles, and has gotten a lot of attention. he has a big media following, he
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also has a big social media following, and, so, he's been able to parlay that into a lot of support from his followers as well as contributions, he's raised quite a bit of money, far more than the other candidates, and a lot of people never heard of him till he jumped into the race kind of in the lastment. kevin faulkner, the moderate governor of san diego, attacking from the center. when president trump was in the office, he opposed his policies like the border wall. also running we have john cox, a businessman who ran against gave newsom four years ago and was crushed by newsom 62 to 38%, he running again, we also have caitlyn jenner. there's one democrat a 29-year-old youtube entrepreneur who has a big social media following. the one kind of candidate who is not running, judy, is an arnold schwarzenegger. there's no candidate who towers
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above the field and is able to attract moderate democrats and independent voters. larry elder is very good at getting the republican base excited, but there's no indication that he can go beyond that. >> woodruff: so how is gavin newsom countering this? what is his message coming back? and where does the race seem to stand right now? >> at this point, it's sort of a blame versus fear. the republicans are blaming newsom for everything from crime to homelessness and the pandemic, and then you've got fear being talked about by newsom, the fear of larry elder becoming goverr of this state. larry elder talked about rolling back policies on covid, mask man dates, vaccine man dates, that kind of thing, as we just heard in the segment from idaho, we don't have those kinds of problems the way idaho does or texas or florida, and newsom is saying, look, if this is -- this is me or larry elder, an that's,
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based on the polls, fair to say. it's really in some ways christmas in september for gavin newsom because larry elder has said some very outlandish things about slavery, reparations and women in the workplace and it's coming back to haunt him and the republican party in a way because he is now their standard bearer. polls show at least the once that are credible, i think, show newsom is well ahead. the recall is only getting about 39% all right report but it's all about who votes, all about the likely voters, that's what kamala harris being here today, biden being here next week, it's about turning out democrats. >> woodruff: quickly, are vovoters paying attention and cn kamala harris and joe biden make a difference in this race? >> at this point, no persuasion needs to be done. very few people are undecided. eth about getting attention, reminding people they got a
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ballot in the mail three weeks ago, 22,000 ballots went out, it's about getting people to mail in or walk in the bloc and if there's a big turnout, gavin newsom should be okay, but it's by no means certain and that's why he's really pulling out the stops to get peple to vote. >> woodruff: kqed, scott shafer with a big story on his hands. thank you very much, we appreciate it. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: elizabeth holmes was once the world's youngest self-made female billionaire now she could face up to 20 years in federal prison. today, opening statements began in the closely watched trial of the former silicon valley star. amna nawaz has our report. >> nawaz: elizabeth holmes was just 19 when she dropped out of stanford to start a company called theranos. holmes claimed to have developed
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revolutionary blood testing technology, capable of running dozens of blood tests for patients, with just a prick of a finger. she attracted big name investors from media tycoon rupert murdoch to former trump education secretary betsy devos. her work gained widespread praise. she was involved in events with former president bill clinton, and even president joe biden, who sat on a panel about health care innovation at her company in 2015 when he was vice president. the company would go on to partner with major corporations like safeway and walgreens, which offered in-store blood tests to customers. at its peak, theranos was valued at over nine billion dollars. but the tide soon turned, after investigations raised serious questions about whether the blood-testing technology even worked at all. holmes, now 37, faces ten counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. holmes has pleaded not guilty. to help sort through this trial, i'm joined by rebecca jarvis, the chief business, technology and economics correspondent for
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abc news. she's host of the podcast "the drop out," which chronicles the rise and fall of elizabeth holmes. rebecca jarvis, welcome to the "newshour". thanks for making the time. you're standing outside the courthouse. you were inside the croom all day today. give us a sense of what it was like in the room today. >> it was a little surreal, having covered this story for so many years, to see elizabeth holmes in person before jurors the opening statements from both the defense and the government. really what we heard today were both teams laying out their strategy for this trial, the government laying out the strategy showing elizabeth holmes has misled inverts, patients, doctors with her blood testing technology, whereas the defense laying out a story very much like the early years of theranos and elizabeth holmes, that story of an ambitious young woman who sought out to change the world. their defense is essentially
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mistakes were made but, ultimately, elizabeth holmes did not commit fraud. >> reporter: she raised millions of dollars from a number of high-profile investors. part of the prosecutors' case is she defrauded the investors. what's the basis of the allegations and how tough is this case to prove? >> rupert murdoch, the walton family, individuals like the betsy devos family came up today, who put millions of dollars into theranos, and paper trails that there were communications elizabeth holmes had with these investorrers, there are conversations, there's what she presented to the media, what was presented to these inverts. so there is a large amount of evidence here, amna, where the defense will contradict that evidence is to say these were supposed to be sophisticated individuals who put loads of money at risk but they understand that they were taking a big risk on a leap of faith. >> reporter: so the other part of the prosecution's case is she
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also defrauded patients, people making health decisions based on the test results. do we expect to hear from any of those patients as well? >> we absolutely will hear from a number of patients who received inaccurate theranos tests, and this is where you really saw the jurors perk up, when the government laid out who some of these patients were. women, for example, who got misdig knowed or inaccurate pregnancy tests, a whom who got inaccurate information about her pregnancy and was told to take new medications based on the idea that a theranos test said that she had miscarried when, in actuality, she had not. there are patients who got misinformed about h.i.v. status. we spoke to a woman sherry acert who was misinformed through a theranos test who believed for a week of her life that she had breast cancer, that her breast cancer returned, amna, because of inaccurate results of theranos tests. >> reporter: at the heart of
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this is the big question, whether or not elizabeth holmes said that her box-like test, this edison box could do, it was actually doing. do we have the answer to that? >> well, the government laid it out plainly today that that box, the miniature blood testing device that goes by a number of names including edison like thee one you mentioned could only do 12 tests in its entire history and the real key is the government proving intent, that not only did elizabeth know it couldn't perform those tests but that she intended to mislead a number of people from the inestors to the patients and they very plainly put it out from the device, misleading around the device, to these questions, for example, things that the company said over the years, that it was used on the battlefield. that plainly was not arc. that will be at the heart of the government's case, whereas the defense will say these were mistakes made by a young,
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ambitious woman set out to ange the world, changing the world is difficult work and she surrounded herself, unfolder, according to the government's case, with some of the wrong people including c.e.o. and former boyfriend who you know is at the heart of these bombshell allegations that came out just days before the trial began. >> reporter: rebecca, you have followed this more closely than most, you no ethis story inside and out. here you have elizabeth holmes who went from being one of the most celebrated c.e.o.s in silicon valley, to where she is today. the tech world is not without its failures, big claims that don't pan out but this is getting white attention. is there something drnd about theranos and elizabeth holmes? >> on the one hand, she is an outlier. she is a female who obtained a very large sum of money which is very rare for women, she did about almost a billion. silicon valley, in many respects, is around us all the time and it raises this question
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of faking it till you make it, and if faking it till you make it is really okay, if someone who put people's lives at risk can get away with faking it till you make it, what does that say about the future of technology and all the things that we as consumers accept in our day-to-day lives? >> reporter: fascinating stuff. we know who will be following the trial and the reporting. rebecca jarvis of abc news covering the trial of elizabeth holmes. good to see you. thank you for making the time. >> you, too, amna. thank you. >> woodruff: it's been almost a month since new york governor andrew cuomo announced he would resign, after a report by the state attorney general's office found he sexually harassed multiple women. since then, a cascade of firings and regnations have brought down leaders of the women's movement caught in cuomo's orbit:
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on monday, alphonso david was fired as president of the human rights campaign. that follows resignations by tina tchen, the chief executive at times' up, an organization focused on supporting women in the workplace. along with, roberta kaplan at the times' up legal defens fund, and a number of the group's board members. all left after revelations that they had advised cuomo's team on how to respond to the allegations. the news raises questions about the progress of the "me too" movement and where to go from here, nearly four years since the hashtag went viral in 2017. here to discuss all this, i'm joined by dani ayers. she is the c.e.o. of the "me too" international. and author and journalist lin farley, who is credited with coining the term "sexual harassment" in the 1970s. and welcome to both of you. thank you for being here.
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dani ayers, m going to start with you. how is it that the downfall of governor cuomo led to the downfall of these others leaders in this movement? >> well, i think what we need to understand about cuomo and the accusations against him and the investigation which led to his resignation is that that happened independently and is very much a result of the work of the #metoo movement. the repercussions that have happened with the h.r.c. and with "times up" are separate from the effort we made having an independent investigation taking place that led to the results that we've seen today. >> woodruff: lin farley, we know that the individuals who have resigned or been fired were part of advising governor cuomo as he looked at how to deal with
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these allegations against him. what do you think all of this says about where the movement is right now? >> i think the movement's in trouble. i don't think we should duck that because the same concern is happening with the #metoo movement that happened with the issue itself, and that is it's extremely easy to co-op the people who are tasked with, you know, bringing sexual harassment to light. now, you have a strong political figure in new york state, and he took a lot of #metoo people with him because, in fact, they had sold out their man date. >> woodruff: dani ayers, where do you think the movement stands right now? >> yeah, thank you for asking that because i think it's important to remember that the #metoo movement is made up of more than just two
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organizations. it's made up of millions of organizations and individuals who have been fighting for decades to interrupt rape culture which allows for the prevalence of sexual violence. so to say that two organizations are somehow impacting the overall #metoo movement is to really not acknowledge the work me too international is doing each and every day, that all of the organizations we work with every day are doing, and we have seen many, many big pieces of progress that we've moved forward especially since the hashtag went fearful. #metoo has made a ton of work possible and we're now seeing the kinds of accountability that we just witnessed with the cuomo investigation. i don't know if that would have been possible before the #metoo movement. so we have to name that as a victory and we're going to continue to call for
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accountability from people in positions of power and those everyday folks, right, we're seeing differences in workplace environments, differences inside of politics. all of that has been made possible by so many survivors coming forward and saying enough is enough, we're not goingto stand for it anymore. >> woodruff: lin, you are the person given the credit for coining the term "sexual harassment" decades ago. how much progress do you think women have made in the years since? >> it's extremely difficult to measure that with any degree of accuracy. there's a lot more. the whole movement laid the ground for #metoo and #metoo took it to another level, really jumped way up there, but now where do we go? that's the question. how do we cement this? how do we make it real in the
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workplace? what's happening? #metoo is great, but we need to change the workplace, the culture. it's got to stop being a rape culture within our corporations, and that's what it is. you still have women who are terrified that they're not going to be able to keep their job or they're not going to be able to advance if they are not nice to certain people or not put out or not do certain things. that's all still going on. we don't really have any kind of checks and balances within the workplace itself. >> woodruff: dani ayers, is being co-opted by powerful forces out there whether political or some other organization a significant issue right now for this movement? >> well, i think because the new cycle, frankly, continues to elevate some of the stories of those people in positions of power who have been perpetrating violence or harassment, that
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ends up being the story that mainstream america talks about. we don't necessarily get to hear about all of the grassroots work that is happening on the ground every day in communities across the country. that is advancing the interruption of sexual violence. that is happening every day, and i think the other thing that i will echo that there is this co-opting that people are going to try to do, and our job is to continue to work together as a movement, not as an individual organization or an individual organizer. a lot of individuals are calling burk to speak, but together we can go much further thanne organization on their own and once we put survivors at the center and the needs and wishes
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and demands of the survivors at the center and operate from that place, we will move forward. >> woodruff: terana burk being the founder of the #metoo movement. well, it is a conversation and work that will go on. it's a version that will continue long beyond this. but it's so important to hear from the two of you, and we thank you very much for joining us. lin farley and dani ayers, thank you. >> thank you, judy. . >> woodruff: indiana's agriculture tradition is well documeed. from indy 500 winners drinking milk, to county fair midways and local 4-h animal exhibits, farming is celebrated. but the national conversation around race is largely absent in many rural indiana communities. from indiana public media, brock turner has the story.
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>> reporter: you'd be forgiven if you drove through lyles station and thought it was like any other farm town. >> i grew up here too and i was fortunate enough to see my uncles farming, and to see the other black farmers and to live in this community, when it when it was more of a community. >> reporter: settled in the early 1800s, lyles station was a bustling community and haven for thousands of black farmers. it offered freedom and a pathway to economic vitality. this land has been in the greer family since before the civil war, but over time the community that once defined this place has eroded. >> it was a farming community. there were other gentlemen, you know, at the end of the day, at the end of the weekend, you know, to have fish fries and the sit back, and they're happy because their crops are and crops are growing, you know, because when dad was here, this was full black farming community. >> reporter: denise and her father, norman, are now almost exclusively surrounded by white farmers. >> we're kind of what you call
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it landlocked to where they bought stuff all around us, or bought it so they're sitting there waiting for that opportunity to just get the rest >> reporter: at 84, norman has farmed this family land his entire life, but it's becoming more difficult. >> you don't see the black farmer expanding or getting bigger, they're getting smaller. >> reporter: smaller operators, regardless of race, are struggling as margins throughout agriculture shrink. the “get big or get out” mantra is what many live by. however, white farmers don't experience the racism many black and other farmers of color say is routine. whether accessing credit, participating in government programs, or dealing with subtle racism in town when working with local vendors, many farmers of color say the problems are systemic. even the recent covid relief plan contained a program that was supposed to help socially disadvantaged and minority farms. but to date, primarily due to a federal court ruling in wisconsin, farmers across the country haven't seen any of the estimated $4 billi that was promised.
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for farmers like greer, this is just another example of setbacks black farmers have faced for decades. john boyd, president of the black farmers union agrees. >> i want to be really clear here, it took place on the watch of republicans, it took place on the watch of democrats, and it took place on the watch of the american people. everybody's guilty here, because we didn't step up and stop it. >> reporter: he admits he's disappointed with how the covid program has been rolled out, but believes the resistance is part of a bigger problem. >> there's a real division between white america now and black america. and even a bigger division between a black farmer and a ite farmer, you can feel the tension. >> reporter: back in lyles station, all hope isn't lost. greer's grandson, deanthony, encouraged by his grandfather, is about to graduate with a degree from tennessee state university in agribusiness. while he's not sure he'll be
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taking over the family farm. he understands the close ties farmers, regardless of race, have with their land. >> understand that we want to be out here too, we want the same thing as you do. we want to be able to carry on family legacies, family land, and be able to grow our n. like i said, legacies as well. so just take into consideration what we want and how we feel. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm brock e.w. turner in lyles station, indiana. >> woodruff: as we commemorate the lasting legacy of the september 11th attacks, there's been a great deal of attention to the attacks on the world trade center and at the pentagon. but less so for flight 93, the
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flight where passengers stormed the cockpit and brought the plane down. the u.s. capitol was the likely target of where terrorists had planned to crash the plane. instead, passengers and crew brought the plane down in shanskville, pennsylvania. that site has become an important touchstone ithe community and for those who died. william brangham is back with a conversation about flight 93 and its community. >> brangham: the flight 93 memorial in somerset county, pennsylvania, is dedicated to the 40 passengers and crew members who brought down that flight and averted potentially a much worse disaster. there's one part of the memorial that the general public can visit, but there are also many acres that are considered sacred ground where parts of the plane came down. throughout the past two decades, gordon felt has been the president of families of flight 93. his brother, edward, was on that
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plane. he was a 41-year-old engineer with two daughters when he died. and gord felt joins me now. gordon, thank you very much for being here. i know this is obviously a very difficult time and this anniversary is certainly something that has captured the nation's attention. and i just wonder how that sits with you and other family members at this time, at this milestone. >> wel once again, the eyes of the world are back on flight 93, the world trade center and the pentagon, it's an opportunity for us to look back over 20 years, reflect on our losses, reflect on the ripple effect of september 11th and how it continues to create loss and create great strife for us. but it's also a ique opportunity for us to reach out to a new generation of students
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and even young teachers to help tell the story of flight 93, about the heroism, about the sacrifice, the honor that was demonstrated by our loved ones. that morning. >> brangham: i was struck recently by the service members and women who died in afghanistan, as they were that few weeks ago, leaving afghanistan. and how many of them were babies or just toddlers when 9/11 originally happened? do you think that we have done a good enough job of remembrance, of remembering what happened on that day and what has happened since? >> i think it's critical that we have to actively remember it's far too easy to move on, to forget our losses, forget the lessons that that we learn. there's no question. september 11th was an extraordinarily difficult day in our nation's history with the loss of thousands of innocent people and since then, the continued loss of thousands upon
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thousands of our military service men and women. and it's you know, we can't afford to just move on now that we're out of afghanistan. just kind of let's look for the next issue to focus on. >> brangham: can you tell me a little bit about your brother ed? >> ed was a gentle, caring genius, no doubt about it. he loved his family deeply more than anything. he loved learning. he loved mentoring. he loved meeting people. he loved solving problems. he was a computer engineer that traveled the world on problem solving for his company. ed was a lead engineer in one of the teams that helped establish the protocols for early internet financial transactions. we never really understood what he did. he tried to explain it to us, but he was operating at a far
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higher plane than most mortals. but i do know that that ed always had time for anyone, certainly for his children, his family, the people he worked with. he would give you the shirt off his back and he is missed greatly. and he was the patriarch of our family. he was the one you could always call. he was unflappable, again, a problem solver. he would talk through issues. he would until they were solved. and that's who he was. >> brangham: a problem solver and a mentor, certainly the kinds of people we need more of. i know that you and many others fought very hard for this memorial to come to fruition. for people who visit that memorial, what do you hope that they take away from that visit? >> well, there's a couple of important aspects that we want people to take away as they drive out of the flight 93 national memorial. first one, when they're here, we
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want them to learn the story, the facts of the day, to learn about the individual people who are those 40 heroes that were on board that got up that morning. you know, on the morning of september 11th, my brother got up and had breakfast with his eldest daughter. they read the "wall street journal." that was their habit. and then he got in a car service to go to newark airport and we never saw him again. and, you know, of all the thousands of people that died that day had similar stories. they just were going about their business. we want visitors that come to this memorial to realize that it could have been any one of us that day. it didn't make a difference how old you were, how young you were, what your profession was, you what the demographics were, that that didn't make a difference. and by remembering the individuals, by saying their names, by learning about those individuals, that makes it personal. we can relate to that. and then after the personal side in saying the names and remembering those individuals,
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it's critical that we also remember what they did collectively. the passengers and crew members of flight 93 had 35 minutes. 9:28 was when the hijacking began, 10:03 was when the plane came down here in somerset county, pennsylvania. and those 35 minutes, they were able to get information from the ground to understand what was going on, to realize that their plane was also going to be used as a missile, that unless they did something, those terrorists were going to dictate the terms on how their lives ended. under that extraordinary pressure, they were able to actually come up with a plan on how to try to take the plane back. they voted on that plan. they prayed together and then they acted. they fought to retake that plane. and while we know they lost their lives in the process, they did something extraordinary. so the passengers and crew
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members of united 93 revealed true heroism that morning. and for that, we need to remember and honor them. >> brangham: right the day after that awful event, we all remember that sense of national cohesion that we all felt. and maybe it's naive in some way to think that that could have sustained for two decades. but do you see us more divided? do you see us more cohesive? >> oh, there's no question we're more divided. i long for september 12th. it is possible we have it in us. we've demonstrated that we are able to function together, respectfully, communicate, problem, solve. we've strayed a long way from where we were that day. and i think that we have to work diligently to try to get back on track as a nation so that we can once again be one people working to do good work and to do what's
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right. >> brangham: allight, gordon feldt, president of milies of flight 93, thank you so much for your time. and we all hope that this week of commemoration is as gentle as possible for you all. thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: finally tonight, voices of young americans who were born after september 11th. our student reporting labs network of high school journalism programs across the country gathered the reflections of teenagers to explore the legacy of 9/11 on their generaon. >> i probably first learned about 9/11 in elementary school, really early on, and of course, as a little kid, you don't really understand. >> being one of the first generations born after 9/11 feels really confusing. like i've never been around
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before this constant fear of terrorism. >> after hearing what happened, i was terrified of tall buildings. i was terrified of elevators. i was terrified of planes. >> it's very heavy on our generation, because so many older generations expect us to know everything while we're still trying to learn and process. >> these attacks have affected my family directly. they were excited to come to this country. they've heard really great things about it. and then as they're excited to start their new life, it like snapped them back to reality that not every place is super safe to live in. >> my dad considered changing my last name from ahmed to something more white-passing. my mom was afraid to put on the hijab for multiple years after that because she was afraid of being discriminated against or hate crimes. >> i've always inherited this idea that everyo in the middle east is a terrorist oromething which just isn't true. >> i also feel like it brought america together and patriotism was at an all-time high.
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>> people just like myself who are applying to colleges and needed financial aid or simply just wanted to g out of their hometowns or find a better future for themselves, wound up in the military where they were sent to war in afghanistan and honestly, it was a great tragedy on my generation. >> i wish that in addition to simply being cautious and being fearful, we there was a legacy of hope in that, y know, wiin the wake of 9/11 and within those tragic events, there were some really beautiful moments of humanity where people came together to help others. and i wish that that was a legacy that was remembered just as much as this legacy of fear is. >> woodruff: such a burden on each one of them, and we thank each one of them for sharing. and on the "newshour" on the newshour online right now, our amna nawaz spoke with two journalists about their experiences working in the field as muslims in a post-9/11 world. that conversation is at: pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.
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join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular believes that wireless plans should reflect the amount of talk, text and data that you use. we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for people who use their pho a little, a lot, or anything in between. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.
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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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