anchor: good evening. 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 moment. the ongoing surge. hospital administrators in sparsely vaccinated areas prepare to ration services as covid-19 continues to overwhelm intensive care units. fentanyl frontier. the threat of cartels leads ordinary people o both ses of the u.s. mexico border to take the law into their own hands. >> they have attacked our

families, they've kidnapped us, they've killed us. i've grabbed a weapon. reporter: all that and more in tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> what's new? >> audrey is expecting. >> twins. ♪ >> change of plans. >> at fidelity, a change of plans is always part of the plan. ♪ >> johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. consumer cellular. financial services firm raymond james. the kendeda fund.

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

the full show after the latest lead lines. the daily covid-19 death toll has reached roughly 2600 americans for two days in a row, the most since early march. idaho today imposed health care rationing statewide. it has one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates. two dozen republican attorneys general warned they will sue to block president biden's vaccination mandates. new jobless claims rose last week in a sign that layoffs are tracking with spreading covid infections, claims for benefits were up 20,000 to 322,000. the four-week average of new claims fell for the fifth week in a row. the french government expressed anger today over a new u.s. defense pact with australia and the united kingdom. australia will scrap a $40 billion contract for conventionally powered submarines from france in favor of nuclear powered subs from the

u.s.. paris called it a stab in the back. secretary of state antony 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 issues. stretching back generations. we want to find every opportunity for transatlantic comp -- cooperation around the world. stephanie: we hear from the french ambassador after the news summary. a new migrant emergency is building along the texas border with mexico. 8000 people have crossed to del rio in the past two days. u.s. federal agencies saying they are rushing and staff, toilets, and other aid. 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.

even heavier rain spread over alabama, the florida panhandle, and georgia j. flash flood warning's remain in effect for much of the region. a federal judge in denver ruled that robert dear, the suspect in a mass shooting that killed three people at a planned parenthood clinic in colorado springs in 2015, is not mentally competent to stand trial. federal prosecutors charged him wi 70 criminal counts. he was found incompetent to stand trial in the state case. he admitted to carrying out the killing and wounding eight others. the secretary-general of the u.n. warns that immediate large-scale carbon emissions can head off a climate disaster. in geneva, he cited extreme weather events and he said a n. report shows the world has reached its tipping point. >> these options for climate and our planet, it's worse than we

thought. it's moving faster than predicted. yet we are far from meeting the goals of the five-year-old peers agreement. these reports show just how far off course we are. stephanie: he urged governments to offer new plans for admission cuts have -- ahead of an oncoming climate summit. reports say the ozone hole over the southern hemisphere is larger than usual this year and still growing. it covers an area larger than antarctica. allowing more ultraviolet radiation to reach earth. a ban on chemicals is helping but it could be decadesefore the ozone lar recovers. special counl or john durham who was tasked by president trump with reviewing the origins of the most -- russia investigation charged a cybersecurity lawyer today with lying to the fbi. he's accused of presenting information to the fbi without disclosing that his firm represented hillary clinton's

2016 presidential campaign. the larger pressure investigation found russia interfered to aid mr. trump's candidacy. for the first time, and all amateur crew circled the earth today, carried aloft on a spacex capsule. the companies first faced -- space tourism flight blasted off last night. to contest winners and a health care worker on board. they will land on saturday. still to come, we break down negotiations in congress over critical economic legislation. how hospitals in sparsely vaccinated areas prepare to ration care. the problematic inner workings of facebook, plus much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour, from w eta studios in wasngton anin the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

♪ judy: we returned to the u.s., british, australian decision to builnuclear powered submarines for australia. a move sparking fury among other allies, the french. france had a $40 billion agreement with australia to build 12 conntionally powered submarines. that deal is now in doubt. with me is the french ambassador to the u.s. thank you so much for joining us. the united states is saying that this is all about the indo pacific, it's not directed at france. why is your government angry? >> this is the point. we are also very much involved in the indo pacific. france is a european country but we are also in indo pacific country. we have territories and populations and armed forces, in

the indian ocean and the pacific ocean. we have presented or introduced already three years ago our indo pacific strategy with security and military complements. also with other elements. we just updated the strategy. the european union is presenting its own strategy. we are very active. we have the goal of a rule-based order and free circulation of democratic values in the region. so we are obviously disappointed by what happened. >> i mentioned the deal that france has had with australia about selling them french built submarines. today, we heard the australian defense minister say a conventional submarine will not provide them with capability after the year 2030.

the french ha a version that is not superior to what the brits and the u.s. have. we did what is best for our national security interests. >> well, of course this has been discussed in the last months with iris trillion colleagues in france. it was still being discussed very recently, actually. we also had an exchange on the comparison of the different merits of the different categories. we also have a nuclear powered submarine in france. this model had been chosen by australia. if there is a newer option for australia, that's their decision. it will take more time for them. it's not for me to comment on this. i just want to say that we have also the capacities and the interest to dcuss all of this

with the other involved countries. we also have the technology capacities. we started with this category and we thought it was a good contract, good implement it contract. judy: what does this mean for the relationship between your country and the united states? >> it's a difficult moment, of course. our minister made a strong statement. we felt a strong disappointment by the australian decision. in terms of trust, which was there which is not anymore there. judy: does your government feel betrayed by the united states? >> on this very issue, we have a feeling of not being treated

like an ally. the american president said it, it was sincere when he said france plays a key role in the indo pacific ocean. yes. we have a feeling that is disappointing. judy: is it a matter of loss of trust now in the united states? >> i'm sure trust can be redeemed. yes. we have an issue of trust here. judy: i want to ask you about afghanistan. the united states says the secretary of state, the u.s. consulted with its european allies before the withdrawal from afghanistan. was there sufficient consultation? 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 now have the same goals. we have to resume free travel for afghans and our nationals. we have to fight for the rights of men and women. we have to get the humanitarian aid to the afghan people. all this, we will do together. we need too more things together. an agreement with the u.s.. maybe the europeans should be able to do more by themselves. judy: 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, consultation. >> the american people don't want to necessarily be involved and on the front line at every

time, every time we have to do something. so i don't think it's bad for the united states to have allies which can take the first role u.s. support. i think it's in the interest of everybody. judy: thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. ♪ judy: this week halfing -- been a big one for democrats attempting to pass a priority piece of federal legislation. the so-called build back better plan would address pd family leave, childcare, and climate change. as democrats started moving on major portions of the bill, this week exposedajor obstacles ahead includi the $3.5

trillion price tag. here to clear up the latest, our congressional correspondent. hello. a lot has been going on this week. tell us where the democrats stand on this. >> we are talking about this because this is historic legislation, once in a generation legislation that would face -- change the face of childcare, you name it. very important debate here. this week, house committees met to put their legislation on the table. four days of back-and-forth votes and amendments and committees. the legislation did move out of committee. we learn something, one of the tougher things they will have to sell the american public is the tax increases to pay for it. let's look at those tax increases. this is what democrats are posing right now. large corporations would see an increase to 26.5%. wealthy americans, their tax

rates would increase to a maximum of 39.6%. the ultra-wealthy, 3% surtax. this is the importance of this week. democrats put down on paper their initial starting point on this plan. this is just the very beginning of all of this, of course. judy: do they have the votes for what they would like to do? >> yeah. they don't yet have the votes. they have problems into areas. one is the price tag on this bill. i want to talk about what we're dealing with with democrats. the margins, there's no room for error in either chamber. in the house, democrats can spare three votes out of a chamber with 535 members. in the senate, they can't spare any votes. they have 50 democratic senators this is assuming no republicans join them. the problem in the senate is the cost. joe manchin has said he wants a

package half the size of what biden has called for. he's not alone. kyrsten sinema are has a problem with the cost. there's issues about climate portions. in the house, big problems for three of those democrats. three is the magic number in the house. they don't like the idea of allowing medicare to negotiate all the drug prices in the country. that's a really popular idea with voters. those democrats said it could hurt drug companies and what they are able to innovate. expect a lot of negotiations over that. judy: another piece of this is state and local tax deductions. how is that fitting in here? >> this is something that happened with the trump tax cuts. they p it cap on how much anyone in the country can deduct for their state and local taxes. it didn't affect most americans. it affected states, new york and

new jersey. the representatives from those states say they want that cap lifted altogether. if it doesn't happen, for democrats said they will oppose this legislation altogether. expect negotiations to have a targeted change in that area. right now, it's a problem. judy: given all this, what is next for the democrats? >> let's keep our faces forward and look at how this may work. here's the process as we know it right now. looking at the different steps that are coming, the typical steps you might see ahead. five steps going forward to get this all the way through congress. where are we right now? house committees. those met this week. house, senate, white house will be negotiating behind closed

doors. how are they going to get this all done in just the first few weeks that they pledged to do it in? the senate committee step, it looks like they may skip that. we will see these negotiations behind closed doors will tell us the tale of whether democrats can do this or not. judy: while all this is going on, there's another issue that congress is looking at. it keeps recurring every year, the debt ceiling. what does that look like? >> we are expected to reach our debt ceiling in the next few weeks. the date is coming very soon. there's a major divide over how to raise it, with the parties not really being willing to work with each other. democrats want republican help. republicans will not support an increase in the debt ceiling if it goes along with what democrats are doing. listen to these two different pictures of how this works. >> every member of my caucus

agrees that we can't allow our government to shut down or catastrophic default. to prevent these from happening, it will require bipartisan cooperation 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, the disregard. it's about the politics and u.s. congress. it's a problem we will have to watch closely. judy: perennial but it seems to get worse. >> this time, it is worse than usual. judy: thank you. i know you will keep looking at all of this. thank you so much. ♪ the covid pandemic continues across the country. last week, we heard how some

hospitals in idaho were overflowing and starting to tion care. that crisis has spread statewide. it is forcing hospitals to start sending sick patients to neighboring states. reporter: 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. this comes as washington itself is already dealing with its own spike in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. joining me now is the chief medical officer for the providence sacred heart medical center in spokane. thank you very much for being here. for we get to you getting these calls from other states, help us understand how things were in spokane already. >> thanks. in spokane, we are on the eastern side of washington state. sacred heart medical center is

the second largest hospital in washington. highly specialized. we do trance pants -- transplants. even prior to the pandemic, we were very busy taking care of diseases no one else -- that were common in our community. since the pandemic, we work hard to plan for the inevitable increase in patients. for the last several weeks, we've seen a surge to the point where it's making it difficult to serve the needs of our community as well as accepting the transfers that are part of being the largest regional medical center. reporter: when you compare this to the worst parts of the winter search for you guys, how does this compare? >> we are beyond that. it seems like every day we been hitting a new record for daily hospitalizations. the biggest area we are struggling is trying to create capacity in our icu, where you take care of the sickest of the sect. really ill covid patients are being put on ventilators, you

are breathing for them. they can be in your icu for three weeks on that ventilator. it's difficult to create extra space for incoming patients as well as care for the needs of our current customers. we are trying to care for them in addition t the extra load of covid patients. reporter: you are dealing with your own burdens and the phone rings from other states saying, can you help us out. it doesn't sound like you have that much excess capacity. >> we are struggling for capacity. we are making do. we are not in a crisis standards of care situation, although that is possible. i think what's important, we look at these borders and our neighbors to the east. idaho is very close. it's a 40 minute drive away. we consider those patients members of our community and we want to care for them. in certain parts of our own community, vaccination rates are much higher. this is a crisis that is created by poor uptake of the vaccine.

if we had higher vaccination rates, we would not be in the situation right now. reporter: is that the majority of your patients and your icu? >> almost the entirety, currently. all of our patients on ventilators are unvaccinated. reporter: you touched on this a moment to go. you are getting calls from texas and missouri, similar states that don't have 30 high vaccination rates and are stressing measures as much. where do you think we are headed in the next? >> we will see more sick patients. that's the most frustrating thing for people in health care right now, all across the board. we feel like the community is not taking it seriously. when you look across the country , states that have mask mandates, the higher masking you see, the lower instance of covid

, the fewer people in hospitals. the general population doesn't realize that health care has limited resources. once you saturate our resources, we can provide dialysis. people will die as a result of that. we have to make challenging decisions. eventually, we will run out of essential tools. reporter: that has to be incredibly frustrating for people like yourself. you were lamenting that local officials were allowing the county affair to go on -- county fair to go on. >> it's incredibly frustrating. i understand that people have lost a lot. it's not worth trading who -- human life's four. fares are fun. we want trade lives for it. americans, if we can adopt vaccination broadly enough, the vaccine has proven to be safe and effective. we can get through this pandemic. we can go back to life as normal

without masks and having to worry about this disease. people think it only strikes people that have medical conditions which is not true. we are seeing young people that were very healthy developing severe covid. we don't understand why those certain people develop the severe disease. we know that if they have been vaccinated, they would be protected. reporter: thank you very much for being here. >> my pleasure. thank you. ♪ judy: our third and final story, the ravages of the cross-border drug trade with mexico. with the support of the pulitzer center, special correspondent and producer travel to the mountaintop village 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 saw images like these of children as young as six learning how to shoot, he became enraged. >> children should not be used like this. i'm emphatic about that. reporter: despite his reaction, the indigenous community is still preparing to defend themselves against the drug cartel. the children are part of what is called the community garden, made up of 96 adult men and a dozen children who defend the village where 600 people live. mexican law allows some indigenous communities to establish their own police forces. children over 12 can have real guns but all of the very small ones have to wait guns. the reason is, it gets them used

to the idea that they haveo defend themselves. this self-defense grouis 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, this impoverished agricultural community stop growing the illegal crop in 2015. cutting off all transactions with the local cartels and their termediaries. fearing a takeover from the powerful and violent group. in november of 2019, as the cartel gained more power, the murder 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 court or and tax local businesses as a form of extortion. today, this town has not been invaded and occupied by the cartel. the security situation is so bad, locals can't travel to the farmers market. the local school shut down because it sits in the cartel controlled area, past this chain that serves as a demarcation barrier. >> the farmers job is to work the land. since there is no security, we feel obligated to take up arms, prepare the kids because we don't know when or at what hour they will kill less. if we don't prepare the kids, 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 that they don't miss, we don't waste bullets because we don't have resources to produce ammunition. reporter: every time the leader

is out on patrol, his bodyguards follow him. this 13-year-old 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. >> they have attacked our families, kidnapped us, killed us. i've grabbed a weapon. reporter: do you thinkt's normal that a kid is armed? >> no. i use it to defend my village. reporter: this man preferred to keep his identity anonymous. he says his brother was murdered by the cartel. afterwards, the community wrote a letter tohe maximum government asking for help but it fell on deaf ears. now he has a warning. >> the government needs to listen. we are defending ourselves. not because we like to carry

weapons or because we want to kill, so long as our enemies don't provoke us, all is ok. who knows what will ppen to us. i know they will kill us. they will also die so that's all. reporter: citizs defending them so -- themselves is nothing new here. the last civilian uprising in 2012 made the region one of the most volatile in the country. this writer explains that the militia movement is complicated. >> with the self-defense movement, all kinds of groups of people. some of them are genuine. they defend their communits. some of them are mixed, a bit dubious. they are suspect people. some of them are full on drug trafficking organizations that are using the self-defense name

to do their other activities. reporter: with this new uprising under way it's unclear if local mission -- militias like this one will help decrease or increase mexico's skyhigh homicide rate of 34,000 murders last year. many of which were drug-related. just over the border from mexico in southern arizona, these men are parof a training session given by the arizona border recon. the group calls themselves an intelligence gathering operation. they are armed. their ader is this man. >> we love our country. we've taken an oath. most of us are in military and law enforcement. we took an oath to defend the country. it doesn't end when you get out. it's a lifelong oath. reporter: he traveled to the capital on january 6. fully didn't enter the building but says he doesn't think the

violence wasnitiated by trump supporters. >> we were there. i would say, 45 minutes before trump ended his speech, there werenstigators already there. harassing the police and tear gas was already being shot. i got cast five times that day. reporter: this training is preparing the members for a hypothetical attack by smugglers illegally crossing into the u.s.. do you train with live ammo? >> no. it's a safety thing. we carry around with us and we have sidearms. reporter: he finances his militia through space -- speaking engagements. they conduct arms put -- armed patrols. on one of the routes where drugs are smuggled on foot further cartel. this militia patrols the area because they think the

government has failed to. groups of men crossing this public desert by foot with backpacks can be seen in footage that fully captured on his hidden cameras. fully calls them dope mules. >> nowadays, their packs are bigger, they are camouflage. every centimeter is full. basically, fentanyl, meth, heroin, cocaine. reporter: his cameras caught this man with an automatic weapon. just over the border inside mexico, one of the lease drones captured this man pointing his gun at the camera. fully believes he's a cartel lookout who feeds information to mules on foot. fully says the recon is in the business of combating the cartel's delivery service. >> they have delivery schedules and everything else. we come out and 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, if we are sitting there also, they have to move again. they are burning up food and logistics. it makes it harder and harder for them to keep their delivery schedule. you will get some upset customers. reporter: he has stopped groups that he believes were illegally crossing into the u.s.. he salves -- says he notifies the border patrol. nonetheless, it' an armed private citizen taking law-enforcement duties. he hasn't gotten into a shootout so far. customs and border protection would like fully and is meant to stand down. they provided this written statement. we don't endorse or support any private group or organization from taking matters into their own hands. it could have disastrous personal and public safety consequences. mark was the elected republican sheriff of piedmont county where

these patrols are conducted. today, he works for the neighboring sheriff department. >> how do you determine when a goodbye -- good guy and bad guy are? i'm not interested in armed militia playing soldier of fortune. i think that's problematic. reporter: the sheriff of 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, as long as they are not violating the laws, as long as they are to salting somebody, intimidating somebody, threatening somebody, they are free to go on public lands. there's a lot of public government owned land in arizona. reporter: tim has been called a racist but he points out that members of the recon or latino. >> if we see somebody crossing, we notified border patrol.

reporter: he owns taxi service on the east coast and spends his free time here. he didn't want to tell's last name due to fear of reprisals. >> i was born in uruguay. i came to this country as an exchange student. yearsater, i became a u.s. citizen. reporter: more drug meals get around him then the recon can stop. given the deadliness of fentanyl d other drugs, he is still dedicated to the pursuit. >> every little bit helps. the load i stopped might have saved two people. i can walk away. when i look in the mirror and know, why didn't we stop them? reporter: ♪ ♪ arizona. ♪ judy: it's a deep nod into the inner workings of facebook.

a wall street journal investigation out this week alleges deceit and dangers at the social media giant. among its conclusions, facebook platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. john yang has more. reporter: the series is called the facebook files. it's based on the journal's review of internal company documents. the stories highlight the ways in which facebook handles or doesn't handle a range of issues across its fast digital empire, from the negative effects of instagram on young people to misinformation and violent content. jeff horwitz is the leaves reporter -- lead reporter enjoins us. you have four installments so far. you have a fifth coming. is there a common thread or take away through all of the stories that you're finding? >> there are a couple.

one is that facebook has, in the last few years, come to understand through significant research what its effects are on society. they turn out to be pretty grave in some instances. it's not all good news. a lot of it is very bad. how the company has done that work and responded, or more often than not not responded to it, is a very important thing. i think there's also an element to this where it's just, facebook appears to have a hard time managing itself. keeping attention on problems to fix them. actually adhering to its own rules internally. reporter: a lot of these isss, when they arise and are talked about, facebook's leaders often seem surprised that this is an issue. you are finding otherwise. >> yeah. it's a strange thing, given that

the company doesn't seem to expect the misuse of its platform. that people who are misusing its platform should have trained them on by now. one of the stories we did is about facebook's failure to address human trafficking and cartel violence on its platform. they really turn out to sort of have a hard time focusing on this and putting resources in. every once in a while, it suddenly pops up and it's very embarrassing and they have to run around. they don't ever manage to get it done on a day-to-day basis reporter: on that issue of drug cartels, human trafficking, facebook provided a statement that says, and countries at risk for conflict and violence, we have a strategy including relying on global teams covering over 50 languages, educational resources, partnerships with local experts and third-party fact checkers to keep people safe.

as i read your story, employees may be flagging things but there isn't necessarily reaction within the company. >> yeah. facebook offers its services in over 100 leg witches. 50 languages might not be as impressive as one would hope there. 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 horrendous societal issues, to address them on the platform. such as people being sold into indentured servitude in the gulf states on their platform. they recommend the company do things and then often, the follow-through isn't there. reporter: one of your stories that got a lot of reaction is about instagram, the photo sharing app that facebook owns. you write that facebook and instagram's own research shows

the harmful effects this app has or can have on young people, especially teenage girls. >> yeah. over the last, since 2018, they haveeen researching what they call negative social comparison. i think, when i started this stuff, i assumed instagram is like high school or something there will be a social pressure but we all get through it. the thing that was surprising was how heavily it seemed to impact people who instagram identified as already vulnerable. we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls. that's the conclusion they drew internally and presented to management. in some instances, for young women who were thinking about self-harm within the last month, 6% of those traced that thought

directly back to instagram. we are not talking necessarily huge numbers of people. it is potentially life or death issues here. reporter: 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 respond to this research and change instagram for the better. these issues that you've uncovered about facebook, you write about, how much are they -- to what extent did they drive the bottom line for facebook? do they drive their revenue? define what facebook is. >> yeah. facebook has really built itself around the idea that the more usage of facebook is, the better the world is. so they have engineered this system to be as sticky as possible to keep you coming back as often as possible. to be as entertaining as

possible. they don't really focus on the quality of the things and the types of content that succeeded. that wasn't really the foc. it's becoming more of a focus now. they are thinking about it more. it's never been the focus. there's a very large company attached to this work that wants to keep on doing the things that made it big and successful. with teenage mental health in particular, it's extremely awkward. they've done really good resource. they've invested in understanding the problems and ways i'm not convinced that other tech giants have. the problem is that the findings were that some of their products key features are uniquely problematic. instagram focuses attention on the body, unlike competing social media apps which focus on the face. there's not an easy way to get around that. i think this is a sittion

where they've realized the negative side effects of what they do. but i'm not totally sure that there's an easy way to address them, nor are they. reporter: thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ reporter: -- judy: finally, 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 culture seri canvas. reporter: for riz ahmed, his acting career and his music career have always gone hand in hand. in his new film, which he

cowrote, the two art forms collide with the story that hits close to home. >> forget this. >> what is it going to be? reporter: the main character is british. of pakistani defendant -- dissent. and a rapper. >> it's in english and hurt you. it's rooted in my specific experience. a lot of people can relate to all of that. did you ever listen to me? >> no. let me do my thing. reporter: there's a lot of you win this film. could this have been something you did five years ago, years ago? is this the perfect story for this time? >> i wouldn't have had the guts to make this. i was still in a place where i was thinking about wearing masks to fit in for other ople. what i'm interested in is bringing all myself together,

bringing all myself into every room i enter. not leaving the british side, the pakistani side, the working-class side at the door. reporter: the 38-year-old has been acting since the early 2000. he became more of a household name after a breakthrough turn in critical acclaim in hbo's 2016 miniseries the night of. that propelled him to big stream -- big screen blockbusters like rogue one. 20 20's sound of metal, he played a punk drummer you -- losing his hearing. he made history as the first muslim nominated for best actor. he continues to make music. most recently releasing a new album called the long goodbye. >> you are easy to divide and rule. beat me red and blue. reporter: his success has come

in spite of an industry influenced by a surge of anti-muslim sugden meant post 9/11, narrowing muslim representation to reductive stereotypical rules. that strategy has paid off and his superstar status has been cemented. he says that isn't enough. >> exceptions don't change the rules. real change comes not from someone having a moment but b people creating of movement. i know that i'm here because people before me have carved out that path. none of us are getting to the finish line. we are all running a relay race. we are doing a stretch and we pass the baton forward. that's how it is. repoer: new numbers show how far hollywood has to go. he joined forces with the university of southern california to back the first of its kind study, breaking down

the 200 top grossing films between 2017 and 2019. of more than 8500 speaking roles , fewer than 2% were muslim. 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. surprise surprise, the numbers are terrible. of these 200 movies, muslims are only 1.6% of all speaking characters. three quters of the time, they are victims of or perpetrators of violence. what does that do when we are fed this image of a group of people? it makes it easier to dehumanize them and destroy their lives. reporter: they have created a multi-year fellowship to jumpstart and support mlim artists in the u.s. and u.k. >> 25 grand, unrestricted cash grant to a new generation of muslim writers and directors and storytellers along with an amazing collective of muslim

talent in hollywood that can mentor them and make networks available to them. it's about access. it's also about making sure people can pay the bills, keep the lights on. we thought that would be a solution. reporter: do you have secret handshakes? i'm imagining all of that in my head. >> it is secret. reporter: good point. a new initiative for new generation of eative's entering the industry 20 years after the attack that turn scrutiny and suspicion onto muslims worldwide. >> it suddenly became about the west versus the east, us versus them. a lot of us, people like you and i, billions of people around the world foun themselves to not fit into those neat boxes and those clean lines. there's a hybridity to identity

and the identity of most people in the world. there's complexity and nuance to our views. my whole career has taken place in this post 9/11 era. the kind of impetus behind it is to try to make that normalized. trying to make it fertile ground tory to create a home for those of us who don't fit neatly into these black-and-white narratives that were imposed on us. reporter: from your perspective, over the last 20 years, do you think it has gotten better? >> it feels like things are getting worse and better at the same time. the he comes in seeing the next generation, seeing how passionate they are. about change, real change. i don't know if we will be the guys that will fix this. but maybe we can help the next lot to do that. reporter: along that journey,

there are plenty of stories left to tell. ♪ judy: millions of students are headed back to school in person after a year of online learning. we asked students in our student reporting lab network what returning to in person learning looks and feels like amid new delta variant concerns. vaccination debates and mask mandates. >> it has only been like two weeks of school so far and there are already covid cases. >> school for me honestly feels like it's my first time being here. >> i'm at school. a few hundred people. i would say about half of them are either not -- either have

the masks on their chin or not covering their nose. it's the most frustrating thing ever. >> i'm glad to be back in a classroom. online school is so mentally draining. >> the thing i'm most worried about, will i have the motivation to do my school work? >> it is frustrating to see kids who think they are too cool to wear a mask. >> i'm frustrated that there's no mask mandate. i would be more comfortable if people wore masks. >> for me, it is a nightmare. no one is wearing masks. the numbers are completely rising, which is quite concerning. i personally have asthma and respiratory problems. >> it is honestly really scary. i feel like it will spread. we are out of school right now because of covid numbers. >> it's going to take us a while to get readjusted into an in

school setting. not bombarding us with a bunch of homework, tests. >> everybody handles stress differently. some people will make jokes about covid. some people will be really anxious and shy when they normally aren't. >> i wish adults making our decisions for our district focused more on mental health and our resources. >> i've lost a lot of social skills during the quarantine. i'm worried that i will be too nervous to talk to people. >> i think a lot of people are going to get covid. they will 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. we are in unpredictable, unprecedented times. i feel like we are doing the best we can. judy: yes they are. so hard to watch the things were asking them to do. that's the newshour for tonight. thank you. stay safe.

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(music plays) fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice, chicken casserole, chicken salad, almost nothing shows up more on our tables than chicken. boc boc boc boc boc boc boc boc. okay anyway. ummm i have absolutely no shame, no integrity. (theme music plays- the avett brothers "will you return") i'm vivian and i'm a chef. my husband, ben and i were working for so of the best chefs in new york city when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant. of course, there was a catch. we had to open this restaurant in eastern north carolina, where i grew up and said i would never return. ♪♪ ♪ “i wish you'd see yourself” ♪