captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, high stakes-- congress passes a key government funding measure, but democrats remain divided at a critical juncture amid tense legislative negotiations. then, getting the vaccine-- the centers for disease control issues an urgent appeal, calling on pregnant women to get vaccinated against covid-19. and, a country in crisis-- mozambique battles an isis-affiliated insurgency. we examine the drivers of the conflict and the few options left for everyday citizens. >> ( translated ): we blame the bosses of our country. if they didn't want their people to suffer, they wouldn't give our country's wealth to

foreigners. they would leave it to us. >> 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

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>> woodruff: it is all but certain that there will be no government shutdown tonight: a bill extending funding for two months is headed to president biden, after clearing congress this afternoon. still, for the white house and congressional democrats, the pressure isn't over. for much of today, it wasn't certain whether the u.s. house would vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill tonight as on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, tonight, as speaker nancy pelosi had promised. our own lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor have been following all the twists and turns in this story today, and they join me now. first of all, lisa, you're wearing an eye patch. you hurt your eye. are you all right. >> desjardins: you noticed, of course. yes, i'm fine. no one in congress is responsible for this. it was my own fault. i was rushing. i was thinking about something intensely, and actually pulled a car door into my face. but i will be fine, and it's just a remernd maybe we all need to slow down. >> woodruff: we want you to

take care of yourself. >> desjardins: i will. >> woodruff: it will get better. about what's going on, where do things stand? is it thought speaker pelosi will go ahead with this vote tonight? >> desjardins: yes, it is. what a dramatic day. i want to remind people what's happening here with these two bills. let's look at this reminder of where we're at. first of all, these are critical decisions. the infrastructure bill still needs to believe passed by the house to become law. house progressives want the reconciliation bill, the bill with child care and climate in it, to go first. they were reluctant and said there will be no votes on the infrastructure bill. nonetheless, pelosi has said, and i have been hearing the vote will be tonight after 9:00 eastern time. now, what progressives are waiting for especially is the word of two senators, joe manchin, and krysten sinema, the sort of moderates who have been holding out saying $3.5 trillion, what progressives wa, is too high. but til today, joe manchin has not said what number he wants. he did do that today.

let's listen. >> my top line has been 1.5, because i believe in my heart what we can coand the need we have right now and what we can afford to do without basically changing our whole society to an entitlement mentality. >> desjardins: protesters were actually not far away from where senator manchin was speaking. that's $1.5 trillion he was talking about, $2 million away from what folks there want. we expect the vote tonight, but we don't know how house speaker pelosi will get those votes. as of yesterday, she seemed to be missing 40 to 60 votes of progressives who said they were a no. house republicans say they're not going to make up that difference. but she is saying she's confident, and it's a mystery to how one of the best legislators in modern american history will make this up. we're going to watch closely. >> woodruff: sound like it will be a late night. >> desjardins: i think so. >> woodruff: at the white house, tell us what is going on there, what the president and his people are up to, and what is their sense of how all this

will impact the president's agenda? >> alcindor: it's a great question, judy, and the fact that lisa is reporting with an eye patch shows the dedication we have, and how lucky we are to have her on a day like this that is so intense. hang in there. we are all rooting you will be fine. as for what is happening today, the president and white house aides have spent all day scrambling, trying to get democrat olz the same page. the president has not been seen in public. it's because, i'm told, he has been behind the scenes, talking to lawmakers, making the the pitch he needs his party to get together to try to pass this robust agenda that he promised to the american people. another thing i noticed, the president is really making this pitch to his party. we all want to be on the same page in terms of infrastructure. we all want children to have clean drinking water. we all want children to be able to have access to broaded band, especially in the middle of a pandemic. that's why he has been tell lawmakers he doesn't want to link the bill. the first bill, the one that is

bipartisan, he sees as a critical first step to helping people, americans who need the help now. that said, this really is, of course, the president's legacy on the line here. it's a huge test for his party. i will also say the white house is saying even if this doesn't happen today, there are other days to come. this, of course, is a deadline the democrats have set for themselves. white house officials have been telling me they hope this process continues. they aren't admitting failure but hintinghat want president will continue to try to get vote for the infrastructure bill. >> woodruff: lisa, whatever happens with this infrastructure legislation, what is the sense of what democrats are going to do going forward now? >> desjardins: with reconciliation, that big bill, this is reallia the quandary for them. tough choices are ahead, judy. it is not going to be $3.2 billion trillion. they'll have to cut something. is it child care? is it climate? how do they handle that? those talks are beginning now.

while many democrats wanted this process to be ending this week, the truth is, the negotiations on reconciliation among democrats are really just beginning. >> woodruff: well, the long journey of that legislation. lisa desjardins, please take care of yourself. yamiche alndor, please take care of yourself. thank you, both. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, on this last day of september, the stock market ended a month of stark downturns. the dow jones industrial average lost 546 points today to close at 33,844. the nasdaq fell 64 points. the s&p 500 slipped 52. overall, the s&p and the nasdaq had their worst month since the pandemic started, down nearly five percent or more. four percent for its worst month in nearly a year.

the nation school boards association sought federal help today to investigate threats over mask mandates and other pandemic measures. the group wrote to president biden, and warned that rising violence and threats are "equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes." meanwhile, at a u.s. senate hearing, health secretary xavier becerra said there's plenty of precedent for covid protective measures. >> 50 years ago some people protested using seatbelts. today we don't. we know how safe and effective they are. same thing with vaccines. same thing with masks. same thing with social distancing. same thing with better ventilation. same thing with better hygiene. we know what works. it's common sense. >> woodruff: at the same hearing, education secretary miguel cardona condemned hostility against school board members. he said that in some places, it has turned dangerous. the biden administration is rolling out a more lenient approach to immigration

enforcement. new guidelines will target only migrants who illegally entered the country since last november, or who pose a threat to public safety. then-president trump directed authorities to go after anyone in the country illegally. the new rules take effect november 29th. the number of suicides in the active-duty u.s. military rose 15% last year, to 580. the overall suicide rate rose only slightly. the figures are part of a pentagon report released today. officials say they did not see any influence from the covid pandemic. u.s. senators attacked facebook today over findings that its instagram platform can harm teenagers' mental health. "the wall street journal" has reported that facebook's own research shows peer pressure on instagram fuels eating disorders and suicidal thoughts. today, democrat richard blumenthal challenged the company's global safety chief,

antigone davis, as she disputed those accounts. >> we are looking to find ways to release more of this research. i want to be clear that this research is not a bombshell. it's not causal research. it's in fact just directional -- >> well, i beg to differ with you ms. davis. this research is a bombshell. it is powerful, gripping, riveting evidence that facebook knows of the harmful effects of its site on children and that it has concealed those facts. >> woodruff: next week, the senators will hear from a facebook whistleblower who's believed to have leaked the research. in france today, a paris court convicted former president nicolas sarkozy of campaign financing violations. he was accused of spending nearly twice the legal amount on his failed re-election bid in 2012.

sarkozy is appealing an earlie conviction for corruption. today, he was sentenced to a year of house arrest. he appealed that, as well. and, korean automaker hyundai is recalling 550,000 hyundai and kia vehicles in the u.s., over faulty turn signals. the company says the signals can flash the opposite of what a driver intends. the recall includes hyundai mid- size sonata's and sedona minivans made by kia, from model years 2015 to 2017. still to come on the newshour: the c.d.c. calls for urgent action to increase covid vaccines among people who are pregnant. a massive chinese company's financial troubles threaten an already unstable market. one african country's battle against an isis-affiliated insurgency. plus much more.

>> woodruff: while democrats work to pass trillions of dollars of spending, the fate of the bill, and its final price tag, may be up to two senators who have been at the center of negotiations: west virginia's joe manchin and arizona's kyrsten sinema. we have reports on how they each think about politics and the pressures they face in their home states, beginning with lisa desjardins in the mountain state. >> desjardins: in west virginia, high school football gets you full-throated, field-rushing tradition, and a stadium full of political insight. from those who've known joe manchin the longest.

>> his office was right next door to mine. >> we went to the same church for awhile. >> he fishes out near where i fish. >> i was probably a freshman when he was senior year quarterbacking. >> desjardins: they're from joe manchin's home county, where his identity was forged. starting on the football field, as a standout player. but now the game, and winning, are much more complicated. >> i just don't agree with his politics. >> desjardins: from right of center. >> not the way they're taking over the united states. everything's wrong. >> desjardins: and from left. >> i think he's letting the democratic party down. >> now, the brick house that's there, the manchin's house. >> desjardins: stephanie cummons gives us a tour of farmington, her hometown, and manchin's. does everybody know joe manchin here? >> if they don't, they know a usin or a brother or some type of relation. >> desjains: 400 people and

one stoplight, farmington was built up by coal miners. for those wondering why manchin is a democrat, much of it is here. cummons and her grandmother, who live next to each other, point to the tight-knit immigrant community. >> italians, you had czech, croatians, polish, all these different countries. but when they got here, they were all on an even playing field. >> desjardins: this building was the manchin's grocery store. they also owned the furniture store where manchin worked. the stores and family framed his brand of democrat-- his family regularly helped struggling miners with food and clothes and everyone was expected to work hard. >> you don't get things for free, but at the same time, you know, being in that environment, he saw all the good deeds and the way they kind of paid it forward to other families. >> he always stood out because he wanted to help. >> desjardins: over 20 years, manchin rose from state delegate

to governor, skilled at reading political winds, he worked by forcing opposite sides to talk. and manchin often got his way, cutting taxes while expanding a few pieces of the social safety net. here he is at the 2008 democratic convention. >> we reduced the size of government and tackled our debts. now the time has come for washington to follow our example and bridge partisan divides to bring america the change it needs. >> desjardins: that year, as governor, manchin swept every county in the state. but just a decade later, in 2018, senator manchin barely won. the state has shifted dramatically to the right-- some democrats are shifting on manchin too, with pressure from home-state and younger progressives worried he's blowing it on big issues. >> there are some things there like existential right now, climate change, existential, the state of the pandemic where we're on fire right now, existential.

>> desjardins: 20-year-old jarryd powell shows us the pictures of his beloved dad, who died of covid last year. >> that was the last seat you got to sit in on this house because he has searchefor an insurance card. >> desrdins: powell wants government to do more than manchin. he remembers a teacher offering to keep him fed when his dad lost his job. >> i took from it a lesson how, like, you know, to be a west viinian. it's like, you know, we care for those that need care. >> desjains: he believes manchin has good intentions. but is he making the kinds of deals you think should be made right now for the country? >> no. >> i don't know what, how long this window of opportunity for democrats is going to remain open in washington. >> desjardins: that's mike caputo, current state senator, manchin ally and longtime union leader for miners. manchin was governor during two major coal disasters, with 41 deaths, and afterward led pushes on mining safety and miner benefits. >> his care about health and safety on the job makes him a

democrat. >> desjardins: and of course, coal is a major factor in manchin's pushback at climate change ideas. on most everything else, caputo wants manchin to lean more left. but he sees the headlines and anger from outside groups and says those miscalculate. >> i think he makes his decision based on what he believes is the right thing to do for west virginia. and i don't think he'll cave to that type of outside pressure. >> desjardins: and from voters here, we heard one critique the most: that manchin sits on the fence too often and for too long. but not in doubt, that manchin is the same middle-of-the-road democrat who was first elected to office 40 years ago. in farmington, west virginia, i'm lisa desjardins. >> sy: i'm stephanie sy front of the arizona state capitol in phoenix, where senator kyrsten sinema started her career. unlike senator joe manchin, sinema was not always the centrist willing to reach across the aisle. in fact, in her activist days she would attend protests on

this very lawn. her early reputation was as an anti-war liberal flamethrower. her shift to the center has confounded and angered progressive democrats. kyrsten sinema used to lead protests. now, the tables have turned. since the summer, she's been the target of anger by activists in the democratic party-- from the civil rights leader jesse jackn... to workers rights leader dolores huerta, who last week melted an ice sculpture of senator sinema in effigy. channel powe, an educational and political consultant in phoenix says she's canvassed or volunteered for sinema for over a decade. >> i looked up to kirstyn, you i would cling to her every word and she would talk about, you know, having the proper education and, you know, knowing how to interact with, you know, opposing views.

but it was always still standing on your values wast selling out. right... i remember kirstyn when she was approachable. >> she definitely would be classified as a liberal >> sy: david wells, a political science professor at arizona state university attended rallies with sinema-- protesting the wars in iraq and afghanistan. he's watched her political arc. >> she ran for legislature for the first ti as an independent. she didn't want it to be outside the two parties and she worked really hard, but she lost. and then she ran as a democrat and won in the house. >> sy: from there to the state senate, and then elected to congress. >> i like the fact how she kind of she kind of bucked the status quo at the time, again, you legislature and really standing up as if she was the people's champion. >> sy: in 2018, she became the first democrat elected to represent arizona in the senate since 1995, and the first woman. >> arizonans don't care whether you have an "r" or a "d" at the end of your name. what they care about is whether or not you're able to deliver real results for everyday

arizonans. >> i'm an old man and i'm a former republican. >> sy: and you're a conservative. >> very. >> sy: okay, so what do you like about senator sinema? >> everything. she's young. she's cute. she's 42 years old. she has two masters. she has a law degree and she's run in two iron mans. >> sy: rick ireland is a sunch sinema supporter. >> so when i tell people that i was on her selection committee, they would say, do you know who she is? you know, she's very liberal. she wears pink tutus and she's anti this and she's anti that. >> sy: but ireland, a former army officer and businessman, sees beyond her brazen fashion statements and early activism, and says she's grown up. >> kyrsten to me is neither right nor left. she's right down the middle. she reminds me of my political hero in this day and has john mccain.

>> sy: john mccain was arizona's senator for more than three decades, and there are signs senator synema has taken cues from the man known as a“ maverick.” last march, sinema voted no to increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour in a covid stimulus bill, giving a thumbs down, echoing mccain's game-changing vote against repealing the affordable ce act. but for channel powe, sinema's performance that day was a“ stab in the heart.” >> i got goosebumps, right? because, you know, again, these are the same families from the organizers who have been knocking on doors and making phone calls and persuading voters to vote for her to say that she was going to be our >> sy: this sentiment may put sinema at risk if she faces a

democratic primary challenger in 2024, which activists are but david wells says sinema's shift to the middle reflects her pragmatic side, and her view toward the long game. and the republicans are going have a very hard time running anybody of note against her. >> sy: an unlikely duo-- kyrsten sinema and joe manchin-- two senators, two critical votes deciding the democratic agenda in washington. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in phoenix, arizona. >> woodruff: and lisa is back with me to talk about what we've learned about these two key senators. so, lisa, you and stephanie both looking at these two senators, their background, their politics. what do we know about ther role as negotiators right now? >> desjardins: there's so much to say. they're different kind of negotiators. both try to forge compromise. krysten sinema is a policy wonk. she has spreadsheets. she's looking at kirch kinds of policies in reconciliation, how much they cost.

joe manchin is looking at the 30,000-foot vul. he has six or 7 over-arching goals. he wants the opposing sides to get into a room. they're different in how they work with their states. joe manchin is the son of west virginia. and someone told me, everyone has his cell phone in west virginia. i asked 134 people, random people, that i didn't know-- three of them did have joe manchin's cell phone, and about 60 of them said, "i know someone who has joe manchin's cell phone." his greatest influence comes from his state, and that's something to know. >> woodruff: the other thing that we need to say about these two individuals is what they face in terms of the election. they are both up in 2024. what are the political calculations at this moment looking ahead? >> desjardins: krysten sinema is from a purple state, where there are very sort of fractured divides politically. there is a big question for both of those lawmakers: does donald trump run for president in 2024?

that will affect their fate dramatically. however, krysten sinema is it's a little different there where we saw joe biden win. for joe manchin, he has survived in one of the most trump states in the country. but it will make things harder for him in trump runs. that's part their thinking right now. they want to stay serving their state in four years. they also are hearing a lot from what their constituent politicals say about what this means for their party. those are the two dynamics difficult for them right now. >> woodruff: it's over three years away but it's still very much in focus. >> desjardins: it is. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, thank you again. >> >> desjardins: you're welcome. >> woodruff: the c.d.c. has come out with its most urgent appeal to date urging pregnant women to get vaccinated against covid-19. new data from the c.d.c. shows that pregnant women are twice as likely to be hospitalized if they get the virus.

more than 22,000 women already have hospitalized so far. 161 have died. 22 of those deaths were in august. amna nawaz has more facts about the vaccine and the risks of the virus. >> nawaz: that's right judy. just 32% of pregnant women are currently vaccinated, and the racial disparities are stark. among asian women, 47% are vaccinated, as are 35% of white women. among hispanics and latinas, only 27% are inoculated, and among black women, just 17%. we explore this with obgyn dr. joia crear-perry. she's also founder and president of the national birth equity collaborative, an organization focused on the reproductive health and well being of black women. dr. crear-perry, welcome to the newshour. thank you for making the time. let's start with the overall number. what do we know about why those vaccination rates, specifically for pregnant women, are so low? >> we took a long time to really

get around to pregnant women. if you think about the beginning of this pandemic, we were focused on the elderly, on frontline workers, and so our messaging and our outreach really focused on those areas. and forleft pregnant women, as s pregnant people, as well as children out of the convsation. it's confusing, i'm sure, if you're pregnant right now, saying it's been 18 months, why now are you coming to me to say i need to be vaccinated? we need to do a really good job explaining that, although in the beginning we didn't have data showing pregnant people needed to get vaccinated. we got the frontline workers vaccinated, and the elderly. now the virus is moving on to the next host, and the next host is going to be pregnant people and children because we didn't include them in the beginning. the science tells us it's time to beef up our efforts tory. out to that group. >> woodruff: what is an urgent action? what does that mean? how do we get more shots in arms?

>> it's really important, i know from my colleagues who are ob/gyn, many are not telling their patients to become vaccinated. when we see a call from the c.d.c., we heed that, as scientists, as healthcare, as midwives, as ob/gyn, the c.d.c. saying you need to make sure pregnant people are vaccinated. that means our job is to respond and ensure when our patients come in for the prenatal appointment, we have the vaccine in our office, it's available. it really changes the sense of urgency when the c.d.c. says to the medical community this is important, and our job is to respond so our patients thrive. >> what about ethnic and racial backgrounds. what should we attribute that to. >> we know there is mistrust, the history of the black mmunity, black working people have a mistrust of the healthcare system. that's an opportunity. we can really lean in and ensure we give them the information they need so they can make a good decision with their trusted providers.

this is an opportunity for my field to invest in trust building. >> we have also seen pregnant women and women hoping to be pregnant targeted with misinformation online. from the studies you have seen so far, is there any evidence the vaccine causes infertility if you're trying to get pregnant? >> there is no evidence that the vaccine causes infertility. in fact, were worried in the future that we might find out covid causes infertility, because we know it causes blood vessel damage. and you have blood vessels around your ovaries, your reproductive parts. you want to get vaccinated to protect your fertility. >> any evidence the vaccine increases miscarriage or stillbirth. >> we there is no evidence. we know covid causes premature birth. people contract the violence are having babies too small and having to go to the i.c.u. instead of focusing on the vaccine, we should be worrying about the vaccine.

getting the vaccine protects your baby and protects you from having a baby that's too small. >> if someone is pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, what would be your best advice to them right now if they're on the fence about getting the shot so they feel better about that decision? >> it's important to talk to your provider, which is probably one of the reasons why we see lower rates with black and latina folks, because we don't have necessarily a continuous provider. but a trusted provider to ensure that you feel comfortable and get all of your questions answered, because we want you to get the vaccine. we want you to be safe. so going, if you're thinking about being pregnant, if you're trying to get pregnant, or if you're lactating, all of those times are still very safe to be vaccinated and ensure your provider has a conversation with you to make sure all your questions are answered, so we can get you vaccinated. >> that is dr. joya crear-perry. thank you for your time. >> thank you, so much, it's been my pleasure.

>> woodruff: "too big to fail" was a phrase used duri the global financial crisis for companies so over-extend that their collapse could cripple global finance. now, china is trying to take a too-big company with too much debt, and manage its failure. the company is a real estate giant called "evergrande." nick schifrin tells us more. >> schifrin: the mission was occupy: evergrande. in a country where protest is often prohibited, earlier this month evergrande's investors filled the company's lobby to chant “give us our money back.” they direct their fury at an evergrande manager. his solution is rejected, and he's dejected next to a woman who speaks for the crowd. >> ( translated ): if they don't give me my money back then i'll jump off a tall building. they've cheated me out of all of my money.

i have nothing left. >> schifrin: evergrande built itself and helped china build extraordinary growth thanks to tall buildings. this promotional clip shows evergrande apartments for china's booming upper middle class. evergrande became the country's largest real estate developer by building apartments across 8,000 sites, and pre-selling them before they were done. that means half built apartments remain unfinished, even though people like fan wanting already paid. >> ( translated ): we definitely hope that the government will come out and give us an assurance. we still have to pay the mortgage. >> schifrin: but it was xi jinping's government, that looked at evergrande and china's real estate giants, and decided to cut them down to size. at one point, evergrande's c.e.o. reportedly rejected a $100 million yacht as too plain. >> evergrande is now basically the poster child for what beijing is looking to do as it reigns in the sector. >> schifrin: michael hirson is the china practice head for the eurasia group, and is the former u.s. treasury chief

representative in beijing. he says the $300 billion of debt amassed by evergrande, whose headquarters towers over shenzhen, china's silicon valley, was considered too risky. >> china is now basically five years into what they're calling a financial de-risking campaign. and essentially it's a reflection of the fact that xi jinping and the chinese leadership realized if they don't get serious about debt risks, it could bring the whole system down eventually. >> schifrin: but in reigning evergrande in, the communist party faces risks: not only of more protests outside of evergrande's headquarters that police tried to hide. but also contagion. last week evergrande's troubles led to the dow jones' worst day in months. experts say evergrande is not a repeat of lehman brothers' 2008 collapse, when bankers left their jobs with only cardboard boxes and left the global financial system on the verge of collapse. but especially when it comes to real estate, what happens in china, doesn't stay in china.

>> in a worst case scenario, what we would see is the fallout from evergrande ripple through the sector, a fall in property prices, property sales, property demand that would really have a big impact on china's growth. >> schifrin: and a ripple in china, of course, could mean a ripple globally, right? >> if you think of the property sector in china as 25 to 30% of china's economy will then think as well of the fact that china has been generating about 30% of global growth in recent years. so this is an engine for china's economy and china is an engine for the global economy. >> schifrin: beijing assures the world even if there's no bailout, evergrande won't explode, and its implosion can be controlled. >> ( translated ): various regions and various government departments have adhered to the principle of "housing for living in, not speculation," and stabilized housing prices. the overall situation has retained a stable trend. >> schifrin: but china faces economic headwinds, and now, rolling blackouts.

the lights are out in many shops, and factories, and could delay this year's holiday shipments. the cuts come from beijing's reigning in emissions from coal fired plants to meet environmental targets. beijing thinks cleaning up notorious pollution is popular, and helps long-term stability. but that requires short-term pain. and whether it's electricity, or housing, the risk is the communist party will fail to deliver the immediate prosperity it believes creates stability. >> you've got president xi striking this theme of common prosperity, which means equitable gains for households, the party is going to take care of you, it's going to ensure quality of life. and obviously, having households now purchasing apartments that don't get delivered looks worse than ever. >> schifrin: beijing is trying to reform and reduce risk without sparking crises. whether it can succeed, could determine the country's economic future. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin.

>> woodruff: the southeast african nation of mozambique is being terrorized by an isis- affiliated insurgency that has killed 3,000 people and displaced many more. we first reported from there earlier this year, but with the support of the pulitzer center, special corrpondent neha wadekar and filmmaker ed ram returned to mozambique, and its northen cabo delgado province, to report on the drivers of the conflict. >> reporter: islamic insurgents have been pushing for control in ca delgado, northern mozambique, since 2017. in their own videos, they pledge allegiance to the so-called islamic state, and show off their weapons. they build their territory by terrorizing towns and villages.

the conflict has displaced more than 800,000 people. families flee beheadings and horrific violence, and human rights workers struggle to keep up with the flow of people and reach those trapped in the middle of the conflict zone. 100 miles south of the fighting, people displaced by the violence live here with local families, and the host community is flooded with newcomers. in this village we meet 28-year- old luisa victor. luisa and her baby were held captive for a month after insurgents attacked her village. >> ( translated ): i was scared and shaking, and i was crying. i couldn't look at them. >> reporter: before escaping, victor witnessed the insurgents' brutality. >> ( translated ): we saw them beheading men. they would hold the men by the ears and tie them to posts. then they would behead them and

take the heads and bring the heads inside to show us. they said, "this is the work that we do." >> reporter: many of the displaced people we met during our two weeks in cabo delgado said they'd also witnessed beheadings and obscene violence. their stories made us want to understand the motiv of the insurgents, beyond the narrative of iamic extremism. cabo delgado is rich in natural resources. but whilmost local people still live in extreme poverty, it's large international companies that profit from the region's wealth. the insurgency has grown around one of africa's largest foreign investments a $20 billion natural gas project run by french energy giant, total. in march, the insurgents mounted a significant attack in palma,

where the project is located, prompting total to suspend its operations. the same preconditions for insurgency that exist around the gas project are also growing around one of cabo delgado's most infamous industries: mining. we trekked deep into a forest near montepuez, cabo delgado's major mining area, to gain access to illegal gold and ruby mines. multinationals, including the u.k.-based company gemfields, have bought rights from the mozambican government to extract precious minerals and stones from this area. these miners say the presence of large companies has left them little choice but to dig illegally.

( translated ): we blame the bosses of our country. if they didn't want their people to suffer, they wouldn't give our country's wealth to foreigners. they would leave it to us. as you can see, these people around are very angry. >> reporter: reports suggest that requests from big businesses for mining concessions have increased as the conflict has escalated, an indication that mining companies are benefiting from the insurgency. the men in this mine are working under tough conditionsnd say they're often beaten and chased away by security forces. being pushed out of the mineral industry is one of the many reasons why the people of cabo delgado province are unhappy with their government. in montepuez' famous ruby mines, the conflict between illegal miners and multinationals boils down to a simple problem: >> ( translated ): white people want the stones. we want them too. >> reporter: and experts on the conflict are concerned that it's this anger with the government

in cabo delgado that's fueling the insurgency. joao feijo works for the rural environment observatory, which aims to contribute to the sustainable development of rural regions like cabo delgado. >> montepuez has, in fact, all the conditions for the insurgents to install because it these mining projects only increase social differentiation, so it creates this sense of anger, of social tension and revenge. >> reporter: in a statement, gemfields told pbs newshour that a country's mstones are not resources to be “looted purely for personal gain” and said the suggestion that mining has contributed to the insurgency “" absurd andisleading.” in addition to minerals and natural gas resources, there is also a large timber trade in cabo delgado, where trees are cut down legally and illegally

and shipped to china. experts suspect that insurgents could be felling trees in the land they control and selling wood to fund their operations. and the more money the insurgents make, the more villages they can attack, sending dozens of people each day south to pemba, cabo delgo's capital ci. insurgents control the roads further north, so many people flee the fighting by boat. >> ( translated ): my children d i were seasick. we were vomiting. everyone in the boat was vomiting. >> reporter: nazira sumaila and family complete their long journey to her mothers house. relief as the loved ones are reunited. fatima saidi, nazira's mother, had been waiting for her daughter and grandchildren with no news. >> ( translated ): we spent almost two months without even going home waiting for my

children to arrive at the beach. >> reporter: back on pemba's beaches, it's not just people arriving by boat. cabo delgado is a key point along international drug trade corridors. drugs arrive in pemba's port on cargo ships or are transferred to small fishing boats and brought to shore. one drug dealer was willing to speak with us under the condition of anonymity. where do the drugs come in from? >> if we talk about heroin, it's coming from pakistan. and cocaine, sometimes can come from brazil or colombia. >> reporter: can you give us details about when they come in at the port? >> they pack in something like, the same bag of rice, the same bag of sugar. they're bringing it by ship. they're using the sea. and they load in pemba, then they divide in different countries. >> reporter: heroin is estimated to be mozambique's second largest export.

huge quantities of drugs are transported down to south africa and on to europe, and analysts blame high-level corruption. >> it's not possible to make a business like this without the involvement of the mozambican big man from the government and om the army. >> reporr: interest in preserving this secretive black market economy makes cabo delgado fertile ground for the insurgency to thrive. we wanted to ask the government about the marginalization of miners, the drug trade and multinational business interests, but the cabo delgado regional authorities declined our request for an interview. in july, rwandan troops deployed to mozambique to help the government regain control. and they now claim to have taken back most of the territory once held by the insurgents. but many who have been displaced by the conflict won't feel safe going home until security is

restored. luisa vior is still living in a host community a hundred miles away from her village. >> ( translated ): sleep? we sleep on the floor. we have no mat. we have nothing. nothing. i just want to go back home. >> reporter: that's what everyone we spoke to said they want. in a region shattered by war, it seems the interests of big business has jeopardized the security of the people of cabo delgado. for the pbs newshour, i'm neha wadekar in cabo delgado, mozambique. >> woodruff: it's the famous lightbulb-going-off story every school kid learns: how james watson and francis crick discovered the structure of d.n.a., and cemented their place in scientific history. but as william brangham explains, a new book paints a more troubling picture of how

this famous discovery came about, and who else deserves some credit. >> we are at the national academy of sciences, which is where the most celebrated scientists in america are members. it's pretty much, for a long time, an old boys club. >> brangham: old white boys club. >> old white boys with very gray or white hair. and that's because that's the way science was socially constructed. >> brangham: howard markel is a doctor and medical historian, and in his new book, “the secret of life,” he tells the famous story of james watson and francis crick, who won the 1962 nobel prize in medicine for their discovery of the double- helix shape of d.n.a., which revolutionized the study of genetics. >> that catapulted them into the pantheon of great scientists like albert einstein. but watson and crick in their i'll bet if you took all the nobel prize winners, i bet everyone could say einstein. but next would probably come watson and crick in terms of fame. >> brangham: but in the book,

markel tells how watson's and crick's discovery was based in part on the work of a researcher named rosalind franklin, and how franklin's contribution was downplayed and denied for years, in what markel calls “one of the most egregious rip-offs in the history of science.” the “secret of life” opens with that famous moment in 1953 in cambridge, england, when watson and crick have just made their discovery, and rush to share it with the world. >> and they ran from the cavendish laboratory out towards free school lane, 100 feet, literally 100 steps; i counted; to the eagle pub, which was a favorite watering hole of many cambridge students and professors. and the way watson described it, crick winged into the eagle and said, "we have discovered the secret of life!" >> brangham: a lot of people think that they do know this story, but remind us of these central... these two central characters. who were these guys? >> well, watson was a young postdoctoral student. he had gotten his phd at indiana

and got a b.a. at u. chicago. he was d.n.a. crazy. and long before other people thought d.n.a. was the genetic principle. now, crick was a full time graduate student, a permanent graduate student as we used to call the he was very loud. he had a loud laugh and he was brilliant and he was so brilliant, he would figure out your research questions before you did. so nobody really wanted to talk to him. >> brangham: before we get to the central tension of your book, can you just remind people who haven't followed the science why their breakthrough was so astronomical and so important? >> well, prior to 1953, no one really understood heredity, genetics, how we pass on traits to our children or grandchildren, not to mention all the issues that d.n.a. led to in terms of r.n.a. and m.r.n.a. viruses and vaccines and all the other stuff that we use for medicine today. >> brangham: revolutionary things to this day. >> yes, i call it a light switch moment because once that switch was turned on, nothing was ever the same.

it changed everything. it was a major discovery. the problem is that it wasn't entirely their discovery. >> brangham: rosalind franklin knew and interacted with watson and crick back in the 1950s. she was at nearby king's college, doing similar d.n.a. research. she was one of the world's top she was an expert in x-ray crystallography-- the use of reflected x-rays and complex calculations to work out the structure of incredibly small objects. markel documents how, without her knowledge, james watson was shown one of her key x-ray diffraction patterns and crick was shown one of her progress reports. armed with that information, the two men figured out that d.n.a.'s structure had to be a double helix, as francis crick later admitted. >> he said we didn't do the double helix because things go in pairs or some dreamy like that. we did it for a reason. because we had rosalind's data. the reality is, is that if life was fair, which it's not, it would be called the watson-

crick-franklin model. >> brangham: is that right? do you think that it's at all clear that they would have gotten there absent her data? >> they absolutely would not. it would have been very hard for them. they might have eventually. the more interesting question is that francis crick said, "of course, rosalind would have figured it out in a few weeks. it's just that we figured out faster." >> brangham: you also document in your book a very extensive campaign that those two gentmen and others went to, to hide the fact that her data had en this aha moment for them. why were they so set on denying her that recognition? >> i think they never thought of rosalind as a serious competitor of their level. i think it was chauvinism to the nth degree and was very common in science, academic science on both sides of the atlantic ocean at that time. >> brangham: because as you do document in the book, she was a tough person. she didn't suffer fools. she was quick to point out your mistakes. >> yeah. >> brangham: and she wasn't necessarily the nicest person in

the world. >> no. >> brangham: but as you also say, had she been a man, those character traits would have just been written off as eccentricities. whereas with her, they condemned her for it. >> brangham: yes, she didn't suffer fools gladly. she was very intense in her work and didn't like to be bothered. like a lot of scholars, they get almost jarred when somebody interrupts them. and that was part of her... that's how she worked, you know, because she really did have to focus on things. she was a difficult person that said these other guys were rather difficult and odious in their behavior. so nobody's talking about that. >> brangham: there are so many heartbreaking moments in this book. rosalind dies of cancer, likely maybe because of the work she was doing and being exposed to x-rays. >> at 38-- >> brangham: at 38. she also doesn't really find out how central her data was to their discovery and their nobel prize, and she doesn't find out about this campaign that was waged to hide that from her. >> right. because she died only five years after the events. this conspiracy, and i call it

that because it wasn't just watson and crick and wilkins, their bosses were involved, too. the story is that she never knew and i asked her sister, jennifer glynn, about this a few years ago and she said, "oh, if rosalind had known, there would have been a big fight over that, of that i am sure." >> brangham: at the very end of your book, and i do not want to give this ending away, but after building this very convincing case of the stolen data and the cover up of the of the theft, as you put it, you are able to confront james watson and put these questions to him. i mean, it's a very, very striking ending. >> yes, it's the best ending of any book i've ever written. and i guarantee it will keep you on the edge of your seat as it kept me on mine. i challeed him about the whole rosalind franklin credit issue. now, his response was not pleasant. >> brangham: to say the least. >> and was quite definitive in his mind. i don't agree with it, but it was an interesting moment in my interviewing career. yes. >> brangham: we'll leave it to the readers to see. the book is "the secret of life: rosalind franklin, james watson,

francis crick and the discovery of d.n.a.'s double helix." howard markel, always great to see you. >> always good to see you. >> woodruff: the creek fire in central california burned across 380 thousand acres for three months in 2020. the u.s. forest service this summer said the cause of the fire was "undetermined", but the most probable cause was a lightning strike. in a new documentary, valley pbs of fresno explores efforts to fight the fire and the impact on the surrounding community. >> i remember getting on the the radio, operations division mic, "go ahead. we're priority traffic. we have 200-foot flames, the fire is moving towards the east, and we're going to have

structure impact in the next hour in the community of schaeffer. and, copy. i need every additional resource that i >> woodruff: "afterburn, the creek fire documentary" airs tonight at 7:00 p.m. pacific on valley pbs and streaming across pbs digital and social platforms. and we want to take note tonight of one of our own. calvin solomon worked as a graphic artist at the newshour for 33 years. in fact, he was the first african american art director of a public broadcasting news program. in 2018, he was diagnod with a brain tumor. calvin solomon died yesterday at 63 years old. our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family, especially his wife crystal. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.

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hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & co." here is what's coming up. >> this document, the constitution of the united states, has held these millions of people together, a vieery diverse group. >> a rare interview with a sitting supreme court justice. i speak with stephen breyer about the danger zone when politics interferes with the law. a furniture salesman and a tel heist. we go inside the world in a novel "harlem shuffle." it's not over. trump is out there. >> bob woodward joins walter