captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, atlantic divide-- the new u.s., u.k., australia alliance to counter china's ambitions in asia angers france. we speak to the french ambassador about this fraught moment. then, the ongoing surge-- hospital administrators in sparsely vaccinated areas prepare to ration services as covid 19 continues to overwhelm intensive care units. and, fentanyl frontier-- the threat of cartels leads ordinary people on both sides of the u.s. mexico border to take the law into their own hands. >> ( translated ): they have

attacked our families, they've kidnapped us, they've killed us. since then i've grabbed a weapon. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> at fidelity, changing plans is always part of the plan. >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through

investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: the covid crisis is casting new shadows tonight. the virus has killed roughly 2,600 americans for two days running, the most since early march. meanwhile, idaho today imposed health care rationing statewide. it has one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates. and, two dozen republican atorneys general warned they will sue to block president biden's vaccination mandates. new jobless claims rose last week, in a sign that lay-offs increased as covid infections kept spreading. claims for benefits were up 20,000, to 322,000. still, the four-week average of new claims fell for the fifth week in a row. france was furious today over a new defense pact with australia and the united kingdom. it's because australia will scrap a $40 billion contract for conventional submarines from

france, in favor of nuclear subs from the u.s.. paris called it a "stab in the back." in washington, secretary of state blinken responded, as he and defense secretary lloyd austin hosted their australian counterparts. >> france in particular is a vital partner on this and so many other issues stretching back generations and we want to find every opportunity to deepen our transatlantic cooperation in the indo-pacific and around the world. >> woodruff: france also likened the u.s. move to unilateral actions by then- president trump. the white house dismissed the comparison. we'll hear from the french ambassador after the news summary. a new, migrant emergency is building along the texas border with mexico. more than 8,000 people, mostly haitians, have crossed to del rio, texas in the last two days. u.s. federal agencies say they're rushing in staff, portable toilets and other aid. also today, a federal judge gave

the government two weeks to end rapid expulsions of migrants during the pandemic. across the deep south, it's been another day of rain for parts of storm-battered louisiana, from what's left of hurricane icholas". even heavier rain spread over alabama, the florida panhandle and georgia today. flash flood watches remain in effect for much of the region. the head of the united nations warned today that only immediate, large-scale cuts in carbon emissions can avoid a climate disaster. in geneva, antonio guterres cited extreme weather events, and he said a u.n. report shows the world has reached its tipping point. >> the disruption to our planet and our climate is already worse than we thought and it is moving faster than predicted. yet, we are far from meeting the goals of the five-year old paris agreement. this report shows just how far off course we are.

>> woodruff: guterres urged governments to offer new plans for emission cuts ahead of an upming climate summit. the annual ozone hole over the southern hemisphere is larger than usual this year, and still growing. scientists said today the hole now covers an area larger than antarctica. that's allowing even more ultraviolet radiation to reach earth. a ban on ozone-depleting chemicals is beginning to help, but it could take 40 years for the ozone layer to recover. special counsel john durham, reviewing the original russia investigation into former president trump, charged a cybersecurity lawyer today with lying to the f.b.i. it involved alleged russian contacts with trump associates during the 2016 u.s. presidential race. the lawyer's firm represented hillary clinton's campaign. the original investigation found russia interfered to aid mr. trump's candidacy.

for the first time, an all- amateur crew circled the earth today, carried aloft on a spacex capsule. the company's first space tourism flight blasted off last night with billionaire jared isaacman, two contest winners and a health care worker on board. they'll land on saturday. and, on wall street, stocks had an up-and-down day. the dow jones industrial average lost 63 points to close at 34,751. the nasdaq rose 20 points. the s&p 500 slipped seven. still to come on the newshour: we break down negotiations in congress over critical economic legislation. how hospitals in sparsely vaccinated areas prepare to ration care. a new report dails the problematic inner workings of facebook. plus much more.

>> woodruff: we return to the u.s., british and australian decision to build nuclear powered submarines for australia, a move sparking fury among another ally, the french. france had a $40 billion agreement with australia to build 12 conventionally powered submarines. that dl is now in doubt. with me now is france's ambassador to the u.s., philippe etienne. mr. ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. the united states, the biden administration, is saying that this is all about the endo pacific, it is not directed at france. so why is your government angry? >> well, this is the point: we are also very much involved in the indo

pacific. france, of course, is a european country, but we have territories, we have populations, we have armed forces, both in the indo ocean and the pacific ocean. and we have presented or introduced already three years ago our own strategy with a security and military component, but also with other elements. and we just updated this strategy. another european union as such is presenting its own strategy. so we are very active. we also have the goal of a rule-based alter and free circulation and democratic values in this region. and so we are, um, obviously disappointed by what happened and how it happened. >> woodruff: i mentioned the deal that france has had with australia about selling them french-built

submarines, but today we heard the australian defense minister say, and i'm quoting, he said a conventional submarine will not provide us with capabilitiy after the year 2030. the french has a version that is not superior to what the brits and the u.s. have, so we did what is best for our national security interests. >> well, this, of course habeen discussed in the last month with our australian colleagues and france. and it was still being discussed very recently, actually. and we had also an exchange on the compromising of the different elements. we also have nuclear-powdered submarines in france. this model had been chosen by australia. and now if there is a newer addition by australia, of course it is their decision, but it

will take more time for them. it is not for me to command it. but i just want to say that we have also the capacities to -- and the interest to discuss all of this with other involved countries. we have also the technology capacities. we had started with this category, and we thought it was a good contract, a good implemented contract. >> woodruff: what does this mean for the relationship between your country and the united states? >> well, it is a difficult moment, of course, because we failed -- our minister made strong statements, and we felt really a strong disappointment by the decision, the australian decision, first. in terms of trust, which was there, which is not anymore there. >> woodruff: do you feel -- doer government feel betrayed by the united states? >> i think that on this

very issue, we feel, um -- we have a feeling, yes, of not being treated like, um, an ally, which who still -- and even the american president said it, and it was obviously sincere when he said france plays a key role in the indo pacific ocean. yes, we have this feeling that it is disappointing. it is disappointing. >> woodruff: is it a matter a loss of trust now in the united states? >> i'm sure trust can be relative, but, yes, we had an issue of trust here, indeed. >> woodruff: i also want to ask you, mr. ambassador, about afghanistan. the united states says -- the secretary of state said again today that the u.s. had consulted with its european allies before the withdrawal from

afghanistan. was there sufficient consultation? and what is what happened in afghanistan say to you about the united states? >> we had an incredible evacuation operation in the second half of august. we have now the same goals: we have to resume free travel for afghans, and, of course, for our nationals. we have to fight for the rights of men and women. and we have to get the humanitarian aid to the afghan people. and all this we will do together. the e.u. also here maybe to dmore things together in agreement with the u.s., but maybe the europeans should be able to do more by themselves. >> woodruff: it sounds as if you are saying that not only france, but other european countries, can't be as sure as they were

before of american actions, of consultation? >> the american people don't want to be necessarily involved and to be on the frontline at every time. every time we have to do something. so i don't think it is bad for the united states to have allies which can take the first role, with u.s. support. i think it is in the interest of everybody. >> woodruff: the french ambassador to the united states, philippe etienne, thank you very much, mr. ambassador. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: this week has been a big one for democrats attempting to pass a priority bill for them and president biden. the so-called "build back better" plan would address paid family leave, child care and climate change, to give a partial list. but emocrats started moving

on major portions of the bill, this week also exposed major obstacles ahead, including the $3.5 trillion size of the bill. for more on all this, i'm joined by our congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. hello, lisa. so a lot has been going on this week. tell us, as of now, where do the democrats stand on this? >> well, a reminder we're talking about this because this is historic legislation, maybe once in a generation legislation, that would change the face of child care in this country, higher education, climate change, you nake it, very important debate. house committees met to put their legislation on the table. four long days of back and forth votes and amendments in committees. and actually the legislation did move out of committee. but we learned something, one of the tougher things they'll have to sell the american public is there are tax increases to pay for it. look at what we learned about those tax increases. i know we mentioned them

earlier this week. this is what democrats are posing right now, that large corporations would see an increase to 26.5%, and wealthy americans, the top 2%, it would increase to 39.6%. the ultra wealthy, making more than five million a year, a 3% surtax. this is the importance of this week. democrats actually put down in paper their initial starting point on this plan. this is just the very beginning of all of this, of course. >> woodruff: bottom line question: do they have the votes for what they would like to do? >> yeah. they do not yet have the votes. they have problems in two areas. one, as you pointed out, is the price tag on this bill. but i want to talk about what we're dealing with democrats. the margins here, there is really almost no room for error in either choom. chamber.in the house, democrats can spare own three votes with 435 members. in the senate, they can't

spare any votes. they have 50 democratic senators, and they need all votes. the problem in the senate is the cost. senator joe manchin says he wants a package half the size of what biden has called for. he is not alone. moderate senator of arizona so has a problem withhe cost. there are issues about climate portions. also revealed this week, though, judy, in the house, in committee, big problems forhree of the democrats. again, remember, three is the magic number in the house, who don't like the idea of allowing medicare to negotiate all ofhe drug prices in this country. that's a really popular idea with voters, but the democrats said it could hurt drug companies and what they can innovate. expect a lot of negotiations over this. >> woodruff: another piece that we've learned is controversial is state and local tax deductions. how is that fitting in? >> that is a big deal. this is, of course, something that happened with the trump tax cuts.

they actually put a cap on how much anyone can deduct for their state and local taxes. most americans, it didn't affect them. but it did affect big states, new york, new jersey, and i know all of those viewers are nodding with me right now. the representatives from those states say they want that cap lifted all together. and if it doesn't happen, four democrats -- again, the magic number is three -- said they would oppose this legislation all together. expect negotiations, perhaps, to sort of have a targeted change in that area. but right now it is a problem. >> woodruff: so given all this, lisa, what is next in the democrats' push to get this done? >> let's keep our faces forward and look at how this may work. here is the pro process as we know it right now: these are the typical steps you might see head. you see these five steps going forward to get this all the way through congress. where are we right now?

just at that first step, house committees. those met this week, and they're forwarding legislation. what is next? house, senate, and the white house will be negotiating largely behind closed doors. how are they going to get all of this done in just a few weeks that they've pledged to do it in? one thing they're hoping to do: that senate committee step, second from the bottom, it looks like they may skip that step. and we'll see the negotiations behind closed doors, and that will really tell us the tale of whether democrats can do this or not. >> woodruff: lisa, while all of this is going on, there is another issue that congress is looking at, which keeps recurring every year, and that's the debt ceiling. what does that look like? >> we're expected te reach our debt ceiling in the next few weeks. the date is not clear, but it is coming very soon. and there is a major divide over how to rise it, with the parties not really being willing to work with each other. democrats want republican help. republicans say they will not support an increase in the debt ceiling, if it

goes along with what democrats are doing. just listen to these two different pictures of how this works from the two party leaders in the senate just this week. >> every member of our caucus agrees we cannot allow a government shutdown or catastrophic default. to prevent both of these have happening, it will require bipartisan cooperion, just as we have done in the past. >> let me be crystal clear about this. republicans are united in opposition to raising the debt ceiling. >> this is about the distrust. this is also about the disregard. and it is very much about the politics in u.s. congress. and it is a problem we're going to have to watch closely. >> woodruff: perennial, but it seems to get worse. >> this time is worse than usual. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, thank you. i know you're going the keep looking at all of this. thank you so much. >> you got it.

>> woodruff: as we've been reporting, the covid pandemic continues across the country. last week, we heard how some hospitals in idaho were overflowing and starting to ration care. that crisis has now spread state-wide. as william brangham reports, it's forcing hospitals to start sending sick patients to neighboring states. >> brangham: judy, that's right, washington state is now fielding transfer requests from idaho hospitals who say they can no longer handle the numbers they're seeing. and this comes as washington itself is already dealing with its own spike in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. joining me now is dr. dan getz, he's the chief medical officer for the providence sacred heart medical center in spokane, washington. .>> brangham: dr. getz, thank you very much for being here. before we get to you getting these calls from other states, help us understand how things were in spokane, where you are

already. >> doctor: yeah, thanks, william. we're in spokane, and we're on the eastern side of washington state. sacred heart medical center, we're the second largest hospital in washington. roughly 700 beds. we do heart transplants and kidly transplants, and we're the only trauma center for the region. even prior to the pandemic, we were very busy taking care of diseases a illness common in our community. since the inception of the pandemic, we worked really hard to plan. over the last several weeks, we have seen a surge which is making it very difficult to serve just the needs of our community, as well as accepting the outlining transfers as part of the regional medical center. >> brangham: when you compare this to the worst parts of the winter surge for u, how does this compare? >> doctor: we're significantly beyond tt. over the last week, it seems like every week we hit a new record for daily

hospitalizations. the biggest area we're struggling is trying to create capacity in our i.c.u.s, where you take care of the sickest of the sick. when you see really ill covid patients, you're putting them on ventilators, so you're breathing for them, and they can be in the i.c.u. for two or three weeks. and it is very difficult to create extra space for the incoming patients. so the traumas, and heart attacks, and strokes that come in, we're trying to care for in addition to the extra load of covid patients. >> brangham: so you're dealing with your own buburdens, and then you hear from the other states, saying hey, can you help us out. it doesn't sound like you have the c capacity. >> doctor: we're making do. we continue toee volumes grow, continue to grow. we look at our borders and the neighbors to the east. idaho is very close. we consider those patients members of our community,

and we want to care for them. in certain parts of our community in washington state, our vacnation rates aren't much higher. so this is a crisis that is created by poor uptake of the vaccination. if we had higher vaccination rates, we wouldn't be in this situation right now. >> brangham: is that the majority of patients in your i.c.u., unvaccinated? >> doctor: almost the entirety. all of our patients on ventilators in i.c.u. are unvaccinated patients. >> brangham: i understand you're also getting calls from texas and missouri, similar states that don't have very high vaccination rates and aren't maybe stressing mitigation measures as much. given that, where does that -- where do you think we're headed in the next week, two weeks, three weeks? >> doctor: we're going toontinue to see more sick patients. that's the most frustrating thing for people who work in health care, whether you're a physician or r.n. or you work in environmental

services, we feel like the community is not taking this seriously. we know, when you look across the country in states that have mask mandates, the higher masking, the lower incidents of covid. i don't think the gener population realizes that alth care, we have limited resources. once you saturate all of our resources, use up all of our ventilators, people will die as a result of that. we have to make those really challenging decisions, trying to care for all, and eventually we'll run out of those essential tools. >> brangham: that has got to be incredibly frustrating. i saw earlier today, that you were lamenting that the local officials were allowing the county fair to go on, where a lot of people will be gathering and not wearing masks. >> doctor: it is not worth trading human lives for. fairs are fun, but we're not going to trade lives for a fair. it is really at that point now whereas a society, as

americans, if we can adopt vaccination broadly enough, a vaccine that is proven to clearly be safe and highly affective, we can get through this pandemic and go back to life as normal, and sit alongside one another without masks and having to worry about this disease. people think this disease only strikes people who have medical conditions. which is entirely not true. we're seeing young people, previously very healthy, developing severe covid disease. we don't understand why those certain people develop the severe disease, but we know if they were vaccinated, they would be protected from it. >> brangham: dr. dan gets, at the sacred hearts medical senator in spokane, thank you for being here. >> doctor: my pleasure. >> woodruff: now, our third and final story on the ravages of the cross border drug trade with mexico. with the support of the pulitzer center, special correspondent monica villamizar and producer

zach fannin traveled to the mountain top village of ayahualtempa in guerrero state mexico. they found children learning how to use firearms, preparing for an attack by a nearby cartel. >> reporter: after mexico's president, andres manuel lopez obrador, saw images like these, of children as young as six learning how to shoot, he became enraged. >> ( translated ): children should not be used like this. i am emphatic about that. >> reporter: but, despite the president's harsh reaction, the nahua indigenous community are still preparing to defend themselves against a drug cartel known as los ardillos, or the squirrels. the children are part of what's called a community guard that's made up of 96 adult men and a dozen children who defend this village, ayahualtempa, where 600 people live. mexican law allows some indigenous communities to establish their own police

forces. so children over 12 can have real guns, but all of the very small ones have toy guns, and the reason is it gets them used to the idea that they have to defend themselves. this self defense group is filling the void left by the state. there are no armed mexican security forces nearby to protect the besieged town, there is no medical facility and no financial aid has been provided to these villagers so they can weather the crisis that has isolated them from the outside world. after decades of growing poppy plants, the raw material for heroin, this impoverished, agricultural community stopped growing the illegal crop in 2015, cutting off all transactions with the local cartels and their intermediaries, fearing a takeover from the increasingly powerful and violent group. in november of 2019, as the cartel gained more power, the muer rate started steadily increasing. in the past few months, nine

people have been killed in this village and 34 others were slain in surrounding towns. the villagers believe the violence is a deadly message from the cartel that wants to take over this drug corridor, and tax local businesses as a form of extortion. today, this picturesque town has still not been invaded and occupied by the cartel, but the security situation is so bad, locals can'travel to the nearby farmers market. the local school shut down because it sits in a cartel controlled area, just past this chain that serves as a demarcation barrier. >> ( translated ): we the farmers, our job is to work the land, but since there's no security, well we feel obligated to take up arms, prepare the kids because we don't know when or at what hour they are going to kill us. so, if we don't prepare the kids, soon they won't be able to defend themselves. the advantage that we have is that we prepare the community police for each shot they take, so, they don't miss. so that's the adntage that we

don't waste bullets because we don't have resources to purchase ammunition. >> reporter: every time the leader bernardino sanchez is out on patrol, his bodyguards follow him. 13-year-old miguel is the youngest armed guard in the village. he says he misses school, and splits his time between herding goats and weapons training, preparing for a possible cartel invasion. >> ( translated ): they have attacked our families, they've kidnapped us, they've killed us. since then i've grabbed a weapon >> reporter: do you think it's normal that a kid your age is armed and has a rifle? >> ( translated ): no, but i use it to defend my village. >> reporter: this man, who prerred to keep his identity anonymous, says his other, a community police commander, was murdered by the cartel. afterward, this community wrote a letter to the mexican government asking for help but it fell on deaf ears.

now he has a warning: >> ( translated ): the government needs to listen. we are defending ourselves. yes, not because we like to carry weapons, or because we want to kill. so long as our enemies don't provoke us, all is okay. but if they provoke us, who knows what will happen to us. yes i know they will kill us, but they will also die so that's all. >> reporter: citizens taking up arms to defend themselves from cartels is nothing new here in the states of guerrero and neighboring michoacan. the last civilian uprising in 2012 made the region one of the most volatile in the country. writer ioan grillo explains that the militia movement is complicated. >> and with this self-defense movement you then had very different things, that was outside of indigenous communities, which is all kinds of groups of people creating armed squads. some of them are genuine and really defend their commity. some of them are mixed to look a bit dubious that they might be defending the community, but there are suspecpeople.

and some of them are full on drug trafficking organizations that are using the autefensas, or self-defense, to just to do their other activities. >> reporter: with this new uprising well underway, it's unclear if local militias like this one will help decrease or increase mexico's sky-high homicide rate of 34,000 murders last year, many of which were drug-related. and just over the border from mexico in southern arizona, these men are part of a training session given by the arizona border recon. the group calls themselves an intelligence-gathering operation, but they're armed to interdict and capture. their leader is this man, tim foley. >> we love our country. we've taken an oath. most of us were in the military or law enforcement, and we took an oath to defend the country. and it doesn't end when you get

out. it's a lifelong oath. >> reporter: tim foley traveled to the capitol on january 6th. foley didn't enter the building but says he doesn't think the violence was initiated by trump supporters. >> we were there, i would say 45 minutes before trump even ended his speech. and there were instigators already there, harassing the police and tear gas was already being shot. and i got gassed five times that day. >> reporter: this training is preparing recon members for a hypothetical attack by smugglers illegally crosng into the u.s. do you guys train with live ammo? >> no. it's a safety thing we do-- carry rounds with us and we do have sidearms that are loaded just in case. >> repter: foley says he finances his militia through paid training and speaking engagements. the recon also conducts armed patrols, using loaded ar-15's, pistols, and shotguns, on one of the routes where drugs are smuggled on foot for the sinaloa

cartel. this militia patrols the area because they say the government has failed to. groups of men crossing this public desert by foot with backpacks can be seen in footage that foley captured on his hidden cameras. foley calls them dope mules. >> the dope mules nowadays, they're camouflaged, but every cubic centimeter in that pack is full. and basically, it's fentanyl, meth, heroin, cocaine. >> reporter: foley's cameras caught this man with an automatic weapon. and just over the border inside mexico, one of foley's drones captured this man, pointing his gun at the camera. foley believes he's a cartel lookout who feeds information to mules on foot. foley says the recon is in the business of combating the cartel's delivery service. >> like any business, they have delivery schedules and everything else so when we come out what we do is we try to mess

up their logistics. if we can get in front of them and deter them from coming in that way. and they have to move to go two miles but if were sitting there also, then they have to move again so they are burning up their food and logistics. so it makes it harder and harder for them and they're not keeping their delivery schedule. so you're going to get some upset customers. >> reporter: foley has stopped groups that he believed were illegally crossing into the u.s., he says he gives the border crossers water and immediately notifies the border patrol. it'sonetheless an armed private citizen taking law enforcement duties. so far he hasn't gotten into a shoot-out. customs and border protection would like foley and his men to stand down. they provided this written statement: "c.b.p. does not endorse or support any private group or organization from taking matters into their own hands as it could have disastrous personal and public

safety consequences." mark napier was the elected republican sheriff of pima county, where foley conducts his patrols, from 2016 until last year. today napier works for the neighboring cochise county sheriff's department. >> how do you determine who a good guy and a bad guy is when people are carrying rifles and they are all cammied up? i am not interested in armed militia out there playing soldier of fortune. i think that's problematic. >> reporter: however, sheriff david hathaway, a spanis speaking elected democrat of neighboring santa cruz county, points out that since arizona is an open-carry state, conducting training programs and patrols is not against the law. >> as sheriff in my position, as long as they're not violating the laws, as long as they're not assaulting somebody, intimidating somebody, threatening somebody, you know, they are free to go on public lands, there is a lot of public government-owned land in arizona. >> reporter: tim foley says he's been called a racist, but he

points out that members of the ren are latino. >> if we see somebody crossing, we'll just notify the border patrol. >> reporter: hugo owns a taxi service on the east coast of the united states and spends his free time with the recon. he didn't want to tell us his last name due to fear of reisals. >> i was born in uruguay and i first came to this country as an exchange student. and now a few years later, i became a u.s. citizen. >> reporter: foley concedes more drug mules get around him than the recon can stop, but given the deadliness of fentanyl and other drugs, he's still dedicated to the pursuit. >> the way i look at, it every little bit helps. that little bit that i stop could save two people. that little bit could have saved one. i can walk away, sure. but when i look in the mirror and go, what didn't we try to stop? >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm monica villimizar in pima county, arizona.

>> woodruff: it is a deedive into dark corners of facebook. a "wall street journal" investigation out this week exposes deceit and dangers at the social giant. among its findings: facebook's platforms are "riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands." john yang has more. >> woodruff: judy, the series, called "the facebook files," is based on the "journal's" review of internal company documents. the stories highlight the ways in which facebook handles, or esn't handle, a range of issues across its vast digital empire, from the negative effects on young people, to misinformation and violent content. jeff horwitz is the lead reporter on the series. with us. you've got four installments that are published so far. you have a fifth coming. is there a common thread

or a common take-away to all of these stories that you're finding? >> there are probably a couple. one is that facebook has, ithe last few years, come to understand, through significant research, what its effects are on society. and they turn out to be pretty grave in some instances. and it is not all good news they're finding. in fact, a lot of it is very bad. and i think how the company has done that work and responded, or more often than not not responded to it, is, i think, a very important thing. and i think there is also an element of this where it just that facebook appears to have a very hard time managing itself, keeping attention on problems to fix them, and actually sort of adhering to its own rules internally. >> and a lot of these issues, when they arise and are talked about, the facebook's leaders, mark

zuckerberg and others, often to me seem surprised that this is an issue. but you're finding otherwise? >> yeah. it is a strange ting, given that, um, the company just sort of doesn't seem to expect the misuse of its platform, that people who ar misusing its platform should have trained them on by now. one of the stories is facebook's failure to address human trafficking and cartel violence. they turn out to have a hard time focusing on this and putting resources in. and every once in a while it sort of suddenly pops up, and it is very embarrassing, and they have to run around. but they don't ever sort of manage to get it done on a day-to-day basis, if that makes sense. >> on that issue of drug cartels and human trafficking, facebook provided us a statement: "in countries at risk for violence, we have a

comprehensive statue, with nat tef speakers covering over 50 languages, with local experts and third-party fact checkers to keep people safe." but as i read your story, employees may be flagging things, but there isn't necessarily reaction within the company? >> yeah. to start off with, facebook offers its services in over 100 languages, so the 50 languages might not be as impressive as one would hope there. but, yeah, i think there are a whole bunch of really dedicated people who are working for this company. they've been asked to solve really, really hor horrendous societal issues, or at least to address them on the platform. such as people being sold into endentured services. and they recommend things, and oftentimes the follow through just isn't there. >> one of your stories

that has gotten a lot of reactions, about instagram, the photo-sharing app that facebook owns, you write that fcebook's and instagram's own research shows the harmful effects this app has, or can have, on young people, especially teenaged girls. >> yeah. so this is something that over the last -- since basically 2018, 2019, they have been researching what they call negative social comparison. and i think, you know, when i started this stuff, i would have assumed that sort of instagram is kind of like high school or something, in the sense there is going to be social pressure, but we all get through it for the most part. i think the thing that was really surprising was how heavily it seemed to impact people who instagram-identified as already vulnerable. so we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls is what

they drew internal. and they found in some instces, four young women who were thinking about self-harm in the last month, that 6% of those traced that thought directly back to instagram. so we're not talking necessarily huge numbers of people, but it is poteially a life or death issue here. >> instagram's head of public policy provided us with a statement about that story. she said: "we take these findings seriously, and we set up a specific effort to spond to this research and change instagram for the better." these issues that you've uncovered about facebook or that you write about, to what extent do they drive the bottom line for facebook? define what facebook is? >> yeah. i think facebook has really sort of built itself around the idea that the more usage the facebook is, the better the world is in general.

and so they have kind of engineered this system to be as sticky as possible to keep you coming back as often as possible. and to be as entertaining as possible. and they don't really -- focusing on the quality of things, and the types of content wasn't ever really the focus. so i think it is becoming more of a focus now. they're thinking about it more, but it never has been the focus. and there still is a very large company attached to this work that wants to sort of keep on doing the things that made it big and successful. i think with the teenaged mental health in particular, it is extremely awkward because they've done this really good research, they have invested in understanding it's problem in ways i'm not convinced other tech gits actually have. but the problem is that the findings were that some of their products' key features are uniquely problematic. and that instagram focuses attention on the body,

like competely media apps that focus on the face or on performance. and there is not an easy way to sort of get around that. so i think this is kind of a situation where they have realized the negative side effects of what they do, but i'm not totally clear that there is an easy way to address them, nor are they. >> the facebook files, the series in the "wall street journal." jeff horwitz, thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪♪ >> woodruff: amna nawaz speaks to actor riz ahmed about his upcoming films, increasing muslim representation in hollywood and 9/11's lasting impact on muslims 20 years later. it's part of our arts and cultures series, canvas. >> nawaz: for riz ahmed, his acting career... >> nawaz: and his music career

have always gone hand-in-hand... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and in his new film, "mogul mowgli," which he co-wrote, the two art forms collide, with a story that hits close to home. the main character, zed, is british, like ahmed. of pakistani descent, like ahmed. and a rapper, also like ahmed. >> it's in english, it's in urdu. it's an acting piece and a rapping piece, and though it's rooted in my specific experience, i think a lot of people can really relate to that of all backgrounds. >> nawaz: there's clearly a lot of you in this new film. could this have been something you did five years ago or 10 years ago? >> i don't think i would have had the guts to make this five or 10 years ago because i think i was still in a place where i was thinking about wearing masks

in order to fit in for other people, what i'm interested in now is bringing all of myself to my work, bringing all of myself into every room i into not leaving the british side of the door, the pakistani side or the posh side or the working class side, you know, the actor or the rapper. >> nawaz: though the 38-year- old's been acting since the early-2000's, riz ahmed became more of a household name after a breakthrough turn and critical acclaim in hbo's 2016 miniseri“" the night of.” >> nawaz: that propelled him to big screen blockbusters, like disney's “rogue one: a star wars story,” in which he played bodhi rook, an imperial pilot turned rebel. 2020's “sound of metal,” in which ahmed played a punk drummer losing his hearing, earned him his first oscar nomination, making history as the first muslim nominated for best actor. and he continues to make music, most recently releasing a new album called “the long goodbye”" >> i'm a fool, when you're at war with yourself you're easy to divide and rule.

she had me locked down. beat me red and blue 'til i knew that right was white and not brown. >> nawaz: ahmed's success has come in spite of an industry influenced by a surge of anti- muslim sentiment post-9/11, narrowing muslim representation to reductive, stereotypical roles ahmed says he worked hard to avoid. years later, that strategy has paid off, and his superstar status has been cemented. but that, he says, isn't enough. >> you know, exceptions don't change the rules. real change comes from not someone having a moment, but by people creating a movement. i know for a fact i'm here because people before me have kind of carved out a path. none of us is getting to the finish line. we all just running a relay race. we all just, you know, doing a stretch of the race and we just pass the baton forwards. that's just how it is. >> nawaz: new numbers show just how far hollywood has to go. ahmed joined forces with the university of southern california's annenberg inclusion initiative, the ford foundation,

a newshour funder, and the pillars fund, aimed at amplifying muslim narratives, to back a first-of-its kind study breaking down the 200 top- grossing films between 2017 and 2019. of more than 8,500 speaking roles, fewer than two percent were muslim, and over 75% of those roles were boys or men. over 90% of films had no speaking role for any muslim character. >> we got the numbers back and surprise, surprise that the numbers are terrible, you know, of i think these 200 movies, muslims or any 1.6% of all speaking characters and three quarters of the time they're either victims of or perpetrators of violence. what does that do when we fed this image of a group of people makes it easier to dehumanize them and destroy their lives. >> nawaz: in response, ahmed and the pillars fund have created a multi-year fellowship to jumpstart and support muslim artists in the u.s. and u.k. >> you know, it's 25 grand unrestricted cash grant to this

new generation of muslim writers and directors as storytellers, along with an amazing, i call it the kind of muslim avengers, collective of muslim talent in hollywood thatan mentothem and make their professional networks available to them. people like bisha al who just wrote miss marvel, or mahershala ali, hasan minhaj, rami youssef. that, yes, it's about mental shabbas, it's about access, but it's also just about making sure people can pay the bills and keep the lights on. so we thought that that would be a solution. >> nawaz: so did the muslim avengers have a secret handshake, secret hideout somewhere? i am imagining all of that in my head. >> they do but if i mentioned it wouldn't be cret. so, yeah. >> nawaz: good pnt, good point. >> nawaz: a new initiative for a new generation of creatives, entering the industry 20 years after the attack that turned scrutiny and suspicion onto muslims worldwide. >> suddenly it became about the west versus the east, us versus them. and actually a lot of us, people like you and i and millions of people around the world found

themselves to not fit in to those neat boxes and those kind of clean lines. you know, there's a kind of hybridity to our identity, into the identity, really, of most people in the world, there's a complexity and nuance ot our views. you know, my whole career really has taken place in this, you know, post-9/11 era. the kind of impetus behind it is to try and make that no man's land habitable, try and make it fertile ground, you know, to try and, yeah, create a home for those of us who don't fit neatly into these black and white narratives that were imposed on us. >> nawaz: so i'm curious, from your perspective over the last 20 years, do you think it's gotten better? >> isn't it strange it feels like things are getting worse and better at the same time? me, the hope comes in seeing the next generation, seeing how passionate they are about change, about real change, and so, yeah, again, just to go back to really a race analogy, i don't know if we're going to be the guys that are going to fix

this, but maybe we can help the next lot to do that. >> nawaz: along that journey, ahmed says, there are plenty of stories left to tell. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: finally tonight, millions of students are headed back to school in person after a year of online learning. we asked students in our student reporting labs network what returning to in-person learning looks and feels like amid new delta variant concerns, vaccination debates, and mask mandates. >> it's only been like two weeks of school so far and there are already like covid cases in a lot of the schools in my county. >> for me honestly feels like it's my first time being here. >> i am at a school with a few

hundred people and i would say about half of them are either have the mask on their chin or don't have it covering their nose and it's the most frustrating thing ever. >> i'm just really glad to be back in a classroom because online school is jt so mentally draining. >> the thing i'm most worried about going back to school is am i going to have the motivation to do my school work? >> it is definitely frustrating to see kids who think they're way too cool to wear a mask. >> i'm kind of frustrated about that there's no mask mandate just because i would be more comfortable if people wore masks. >> for me personally, it is quite a nightmare. no one is wearing masks, the numbers are completely rising whh is quite concerning because i personally have asthma and respiratory problems. >> this year it's honestly really scary because i feel like it is going to spread which we're actually out of school

right now because of covid numbers so. >> it's going to take us a while to get re-adjusted into an in- school setting. so not bombarding us with a bunch of homework, a bunch of tests. >> everybody handles stress differently. some people are going to make jokes about covid, some people are going to be anxious and shy when they normally aren't. >> i wish the adults making our decisions for our district focused more on mental health and our resources. >> i've lost a lot of cial skills during the quarantine and i'm worried that i'm gonna be too nervous to talk to people. >> i think a lot of people are gonna get covid and have to step out of school again like they did last year. >> it's definitely a time of a lot of compassion, empathy and mutual understanding that we are in very unpredictable, unprecedented times and i feel like we're doing the best we

can. >> woodruff: and, yes, they, but it is so hard to watch, the things we are asking them to do. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> architect. bee-keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> 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 phone 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 friends of the newshour. >> 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

hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. here's what's coming up. >> the scale of unjust and the level of urgency is obvious. >> the great vaccine divide as wealthy nations plow ahead with booster shots, the w.h.o.'s europe chief hans kluger joins me. then people risking their lives to save our planet. i speak to one on the front line and to the watch dog tracking this, mike davis of global witness. plus. >> whate're seeing is a home brew of american radicalism. >> covid and the american culture wars. co-founder of the lincoln project steve schmidt'