captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, monumental battle-- the biden administration expands national monuments at the center of debate over cultural heritage, and national resources. then, the trump effect-- prominent republicans embrace the former president on the campaign trail, with an eye toward the midterm elections. and, race matters-- we explore the efforts underway to address violence and systemic issues in one of america's toughest cities. >> we believe in imagining something radically new. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: drugmaker merck formally asked the f.d.a. today to grant emergency authorization for its anti-viral pill to treat covid-19. the company reported that the medication cut hospitalizations and deaths by 50% in mild to moderate covid cases. appral could take weeks, but if cleared, it would be the first covid treatment in pill form. southwest airlines is working to restore operations after canceling some 2,000 flights since friday. the airline blamed the disruption on air traffic control issues and severe weather. tens of thounds of passengers were left stranded over the holiday weekend, waiting in long lines as they struggled to re- book flights. >> my concern is we had no explanation, really, that was, i feel, very legitimate or believable. and the weather and the traffic controllers, i don't think were the real issue. and so we're frustrated.

i'm missing a day of work. i own my own business and i'm canceling appointments, so it's kind of frustrating. >> woodruff: the federal aviation administration questioned southwest's explanation since it was the only airline to experience major cancellations and delays over the weekend. both southwest and the pilots' union denied reports of a sick-out to protest the airline's covid vaccine requirement for employees. the central u.s. is recovering today from a band of severe weather that left thousands of people without power. tornads and baseball-sized hail struck parts of oklahoma overnight, damaging homes and buildings but sparing lives. the same storm system also brought heavy rain and strong winds to arkansas, kansas, missouri, and texas. in southern california, huntington beach reopened its waters today, just over a week after an oil spill from an offshore pipeline contaminated the shoreline.

surfers returned to state and local beaches after test results showed no detectable amounts of oil associated toxins in the ocean. preliminary results a day after iraq's parliamentary elections showed a record low vor turnout, suggesting widespread distrust in the vote. the bloc led by shiite populist cleric muqtada al-sadr held a solid early lead. the election was held months ahead of schedule to appease anti-government protesters calling for change. but many were still disappointed with the outcome. >> ( translated ): we are about to have the same members of parliament, the same bloc in control, the same sectarianism, and the same approach, so that is why the new government will not deliver anything new. >> woodruff: there was no immediate word when the final results would be announced. iraq's prime minister announced today that his country's security forces captured one of the islamic state's top leaders in a cross border operation.

samiaseem oversaw the group's finances, and served as the deputy leader of isis under abu bakr al-baghdadi, who was killed in a u.s.-led raid in 2019. three u.s. based economists will share this year's nobel prize for economics. canadian david card of the university of california- berkeley was honored for his research into how the minimum wage, immigration, and education impact the labor market. israeli-american joshua angrist of the massachusetts institute of technology and dutch-born guido imbens of stanford university were recognized for finding alternate ways to study economic issues. stocks tumbled on wall street today as investors awaited this week's company earnings reports. the dow jones industrial average lost 250 points to close at 34,496. the nasdaq fell 93 points. and the s&p 500 shed 30.

and, the pandemic-delayed boston marathon returned today after a 30-month hiatus. benson kipruto of kenya finished in first place. fellow kenyan a claimed the women's prize. large crowds cheered on the 18,000 runners, down from more than 30,000 before the pandemic. still to come on the newshour: amy walter and tamara keith discuss former president donald trump's continued hold on the g.o.p. how a historic northern california town plans to rebuild in the aftermath of one of the state's largest fires. one woman's brief but spectacular take on surviving breast cancer. plus much more.

>> woodruff: the biden administration recently restored three national monuments, just ahead of indigenous peoples' day. they include the northeast canyons and seamounts marine national monument, as well as utah's grand staircase-escalante and bears ears. the white house said the move protects land sacred to native americans and preserves cultural and scientific wonders. williabrangham has our report. >> brangham: back in 2017, the trump administration reduced the size of the bears ears national monument by 85%, and cut grand staircase-escalante's size in half. both are in utah. those moves were supported by ranchers and republicans who have long pushed to open the monuments for mining, development and drilli. the biden administration has been working for months to undo those moves, and just announced them on friday.

joining me now is nick martin. he covers indigenous affairs at high country news. he is also a member of the sappony tribe in north carolina. >> brangham: nick martin, great to have you on the "news hour." as i mentioned, the biden administration has been working on this for quite a while, but they announced it right up on the edge of indigenous people's day. is that timing significant or not? >> i think it is more of a happy accident, let's call it. i think it is something that is very clearly going into the biden administration, tribal leaders had expressed, in termof our national goals of the indian countries, and how the needs need to change, the bears ee ears reduction was a

major thing. the tribal leaders would have loved to see it happen day one or two, but everybody a happy the way it turned out. that it happened on indigenous people's day, we'll call it a happy accident and a wonderful public policy play. >> brangham: for people who don't know what these locations are lie detector locations are like can you give us a sense of what these places are like? >> tey hold many things. that can mean something as complex as spiritually important sacred sites, that hold importance to the pueblos, and the navajo youth, it is something that generates a lot of emotional connectionpoint. connection point. and where you leverage your political power as well. i had an opportunity to

speak with former chairwoman of the tribe, regina lopes on friday. sthis is where her grandmother grew up and attended boarding school. and when she escaped, she walked all the way back to bears ears because that's where her family was. that familia connection is under girded by thousands of years of connection to this place, the bones of your grandmother's and ancestors, and it holds tons of historical acknowledge. it shows the indigenous ingenuity that has existed throughout time, and it feels like something that is protecting them, and was always going to be a major priority for the tribal nations.

>> brangham: the trump administration undid why the obama administration has done and now the biden administration has undone what the trump administration has done. given the tenuous nature of that, and the long history of treatiebeing signed and violated by the u.s., is today considered a victory, or is this still considered a eeting thing that could disappear in a few year's time? >> i think both of those things. we can celebrate the fact that this is an administration recognizing and acting upon the relationships with the native people, but we cannot be cynical, but be realists in the sense if a republican takes the white house in 2024, what affectively that we've done is play the game of ping-pong for 16years. years. you want policies in place that will hold regardless of who is in office. >> brangham: from the governor on down to the

congressional delegation have condemned this move. what is it they don't like about it and do they have the power to undo this? >> in the short-term. this executive action that biden took is going to hold through at least to the ends of this current term. the major reason -- it is kind of like you said at the top of this segment, which is that this is an instance where you have folks who are a little more pro-development and would like to see the land put towards ranching and mining and drilling and resource extraction and development, opposed to something of a wider protection area that just creates a lot more kind of hurtles to be able to come tou frt-tn.m,it no.io but, obvisly, again, this is something that is going to be an executive -- it is going to be at the executive level and not the legislative level, they yes. but in the next six to

eight years you could actually see this go back to the trump era cuts. >> brangham: nick martin of high country news, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you so much for having me. >> woodruff: it was his first political rally in iowa as a former president. but donald trump spent much of this weekend's visit spreading a false message: sowing doubt unjustifiably, once again, about last year's presidential election. and as yamiche alcindor reports, some of the state's most ominent republicans were in attendance. >> alcindor: it's a familiar sight from past campaigns -- but this time, he coupled grievances against democrats with yet more lies about the 2020 election that he lost. >> they rigged the election, and now based on the rigged election, they're destroying our

country. this is about the american people having their country taken away from them, that's what it's really about. >> alcindor: present for these latest claims were some of iowa's highest-profile g.o.p. elected officials. there was governor kim reynolds... >> senator chuck grassley has my complete and total endorsement... >> alcindor: ...and chuck grassley, the longest-serving republican in the senate. last month, he announced that he's seeking an eighth term in office. earlier this year, when the senate put former president trump on trial for inciting the january 6 capitol attack, grassley voted to acquit him. but in a february statement about the riot, grassley sharply criticized the former president. at the time, grassley wrote of president trump, “the reality is, he lost. he encouraged his own, loyal vice president, mike pence, to take extraordinary and unconstitutional actions during the electoral college count. president trump's language was extreme, aggressive, and irresponsible.”

this weekend, though, at the des moines rally, grassley enthusiastically accepted trump's support for re-election. >> if i didn't accept the endorsement of a person that's got 91% of the republican voters in iowa, i wouldn't be too smart. i'm smart enough to accept that endorsement. >> alcindor: president trump still enjoys robust support from rank-and-file republicans nationally, as well. a survey last month from the pew research center found that two- thirds of republicans and republican-leaning independents still want the former president to remain a major figure in our politics. and just under half want him to run for president again. in recent months, he has tried to exert his influence over policy debates. last week, even chastising senate minority leader mitch mcconnell for agreeing with democrats to delay a clash over the federal debt ceiling. but on the topic of the 2020

election, the number-two house republican, steve scalise, repeatedly sidestepped a question this weekend about the legitimacy of the vote. >> i understand you think there were irregularities and things that need to be fixed. do you think the election was stolen? >> and it's not just irregularities. it's states that did not folw the laws set which the constitution says they're supposed to follow. >> alcindor: that drew a quick response from congresswoman liz cheney, one of the few vocal critics in the g.o.p. of the former president's false election claims. she said of scalise's tv appearance “perpetuating the big lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic.” the former president is openly supporting a primary challenger who is trying to unseat cheney yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: and that brings us to politics monday. i'm here with amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter. and tamara keith of npr.

she joins us from dayton, ohio. hello to both of you, tam, in dayton, and amy walter right here in the studio. amy, let's pick up where yamiche was reporting. what does it say that senator chuck grassley, longest-serving republican in the senate, who back in february said that president trump was irresponsible, and i'm quoting here "encouraged his own vice president to take unconstitutional actions." now in october, he is happy to have his endorsement? >> amy: he gave you the answer. i wouldn't say no to someone who has a 91% approval rating among republicans in this state. donald trump easily won the state of iowa,ven as polls during the end of the 2020 campaign showed it may be a lot closer. the senate rce showed polls being close, ended up not being close at all. he knows exactly what he needs to do to win.

and that's where this energy that we're seeing on the republic side is coming, the primary base, people who will show up, go to conventions and primaries. if you're a republican and you're running and you have other republicans in a primary running against you, you cannot afford to not be with the president. >> woodruff: tam, what about that? can any republican who wants to be re-elected stand up to former president trump right now? >> tamara: there are very few of them out there that exist. so i guess if liz cheney is able to win her primary, maybe that will be one case. but the reality is that this donald trump's party. and as he continues to lie about the outcome of the election to spread misinformation about irregularities that have already been debunked, the reason that so many republicans believe what he says is, one, they'll believe almost anything he says, his true supporters, but because there are so

many members of his party around him who are either willing to look past it, try to sort of talk around it, as steve scalise did, or gladly accept his endorsement. i do think, though, these mid-terms will be a test. the former president has endorsed a lot of candidates, he will continue to endorse more. the question will be whether his candidates come out ahead, and whether if they lose, they accept that they lost. >> woodruff: amy, you were telling us today that when you look at the republican voters, the voters who identify as republicans, not all of them say they want him to run again. >> amy: right. that was the poll that yamiche was referencing in that set-up piece. 60 some percent of republicans say they like that donald trump is the public face of the party, we want him to stay

involved in the partly. a lot of them want him to run. but only 44% said i definitely want him to be the nominee. but this is -- that's today. i think a lot of these voters know what a general election could look like with -- maybe it might be a close outcome. maybe they believed the election last time was rigged, but president lost by 7 million votes. so it is something of a risk to put up a president who never hit 50% in terms of job approval ratings to put up to run once again. at the same time, you say who is going to beat donald trump in a primary? who is going to run against donald trump in a primary? who could raise that kind of money and who could withstand the donald trump sort of bulldozer effect like he had in the 2016 election? >> woodruff: so many voices weighing in on this, tam. you spoke, in the last few days, with s stephanie

gresham, and she has written a book? >> tamara: yes, she was press secretary for about nine months. who many americans may not recognize because she never once held a briefing. she was incredibly loyal to trump and first lady melania trump. and now she has written this book. and part of what she said in our interview is that she is genuinely concerned both about 2024, if he runs and wins. she says there are a lot of things that he wanted to do where he was held back because, well, he had to run for re-election. and he had to worry abo what voters would think. she says if he wins and 2024, what is to hold him back? there is no running for re-election. and she has hereyes on 2022, and just how many of his loyalists can be put into congress or into secretaries of state roles and others. we have to say, the second

she turned on trump, trump and all of trumpism turned on her. so she is a person in exile who doesn't really have a huge audience, necessarily, because, i mean, people who support trp don't like her anymore, ad liberals already hated her. >> woodruff: but she is out there talking and making those points. >> amy: that's why she wrote the book, she said. >> woodruff: that you're just sharing. meanwhile, amy, we're looking at other polls that have to do with president biden. and he is slipping. >> amy: yeah. he is struggling right now. and we started to see it over the summer as the delta variant was taking its toll. and then, of course, the pullout in afghanistan and the chaos that ensued there. and now, of course, divisions within his own party. this is not unusual for a first-term president. they go through a tough time. you get a little bit of a

honeymoon, reality sinks in, expectations are not met, and the question is: where can you be by this time next year? where the party needs him to be by this time next year is at least 50% approval rating. right now her is somewhere around 45%, 44%. it is not a dramatic a jump that he needs to make, but he needs to start improving. a lot of it will rest with how well is the economy? how well are we at -- what i think is happening is a sense of voters feeling frustrated we're not back to so-called normal yet. whatever normal was to you after covid. i hear this so much from voters and focus groups, the sense of i thought things would be better by now. whether that means he will be able to do more on the things that are important to me, or i thought by now this covid thing would be behind us, and we wouldn't be yelling about masks and mandates, and i wouldn't

still be waiting for shipping back logs and things are costing a lot of money. >> woodruff: tam, you're in dayton, ohio. have you had a chance to hear what voters are saying about the president? >> tamara: well, i am still getting my feet on the ground here. but i will say that what i'm looking into in my reporting is the american rescue plan. that thing passed back in the spring, when president biden was still in that honeymoon period. it is this huge covid-19 relief legislation that a lot of people have forgotten about already because biden and democrats have moved on to the infrastructure proposal and the build back better plan and these other things that they're pushing to try to pass, and sort of struggling to pass. meanwhile, this massive infusion of cash, much of it hasn't actually hit yet. some of it has, but a lot of it hasn't yet. and the political question is whether biden and his party will get credit for it, or whether by design

having the money sort of ll out slowly in some places, whether it is designed for sort of maximum impact but minimum political credit. >> woodrf: well, we will be looking for your reporting d asking you all about it in days to come. tamara keith, amy lter, thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> you're welcome. >>oodruff: for over two months straight this summer, the dixie fire ravaged northern california. it burned nearly one million acres before firefighters were able to put out the flames, and one small historic town was nearly destroyed in its wake. special correspondent cat wise traveled to greenville, in plumas county, for a closer look at what remains after the dixie fire. >> i really wanted to see what was in here. >> reporter: in the ash-strewn

lot where her home once stood, pam courtright finds a precious talisman. >> look it, it survived. >> reporter: every charred possession she uncovers from the debris tells a story. >> that's funny... i see a beer stein, from germany. >> reporter: the home where their family made a lifetime of memories is just one of so many that was leveled in a matter of minutes by the ferocious dixie fire, the second-largest in california's history. the fire destroyed about three- quarters of all the buildings in the small mountain town of greenville. courtright remembers rushing home from her office just before the fire reached her doorstep on august fourth. >> i literally packed up my stuff and said, ¡i'm leaving. my house is going to burn down.' even though we didn't think it would happen, we were ready. so, yeah, so we left out of town and it was pretty much on both sides of the highway. >> the hillside ahead of us was

basically 100 feet flames coming down. >> reporter: chad hermann is the undersheriff of plumas county, which includes greenville. >> there were spot fires occurring everywhere and it just incinerated the town in a matter of 30 minutes. >> reporter: nearly all of the town's residents evacuated, and no lives were lost, but this is the scene theyame back to. >> i came through the following day leaving quincy, going to i went through roughly at 7:00 at night and it was extremely smoky. there were still active fire burning, but it was devastating knowing what this town used to be. >> reporter: robert deschler and his wife, michelle, were returning to take in the destruction for the first time. the loss was overwhelming. >> we've been coming here for 40 years. >> reporter: it's not e first home they've lost fire.

in 2017, october 9th, i think it was, we were affected by the tubb's fire. we lost our home in fountain grove in santa rosa. and so that was pretty devastating, you know, and so from there, we moved to skyhawk. and a year ago it had burned. and i think there was like 15 homes that burnt 300 feet from us. so we almost lost that house. this is going to choke me up a little bit. >> reporter: greenville was a tight-knit community before the fire. residents took pride in the historic buildings here that dated back to the gold rush era. now, those buildings are gone. and residents are scattered around the area, staying with friends and family, and in r.v.'s as winter approaches. at 9:30 a.m., kevin goss would normally be opening the local pharmacy that stood in the center of town. >> the village drug was the oldest building in town, or at least one of them. and the way station across the street. 1800s gold rush town. so, yes, it's got a lot of history. we did, unfortunately, lose a

lot of history and we're going to try and save everything that we possibly can. >> reporter: as the fire tore down this hillside toward greenville, goss rushed in to save the pharmacy's computer, and the health records of all his patients. >> we bought that in 1988. a family owned business, and it really was heartbreaking, truly heartbreaking. >> reporter: the town's main street stands silent and largely deserted, save for inspection and cleanup crews. but even now, goss is greeted warmly by the few who remain. >> the pharmacy is near and dear to me, but this whole community is near and dear to me, and that's what really broke me. not just this, it's the whole thing as a whole. all the peoplehat came into the pharmacy over the years that i knew that we served to make >> reporter: goss also serves on the plumas county board of supervisors. he says many in this working- class community didn't have the safety net of insurance. and even families that did, like pam and andy courtright, are

worried about the future. >> we had really good insurance before. we won't. we won't next time. more than likelynobody in this community will have good insurance, will have to do the california fair plan. so and i don't know how exactly it works, but it's very difficult to pay that bill. >> reporter: the state of california has issued a moratorium that will prevent insurers from dropping homeowners in wildfire-scorched areas ov the next year. and the california fair plan is supposed to ensure that all homeowners, including high-risk ones, have some basic fire insurance. but barriers remain. >> insurance is always a problem. homeowners insurance and some of these lks could not afford the higher rates that these insurance companies are having to charge to insure these homes. >> reporter: it's only the beginning of a long process of cleaning up, but kevin goss says that, so far, they've gotten the help they need, because this

small town sits at a crucial waterway. >> they are actually moving at a pace that is urgent as we are the headwaters to the feather river that feeds oroville, which is one of the main water sources for the state of california. so this debris, they do not want to go into that water system. >> reporter: these green waddles are supposed to keep that debris from contaminating the water system. still, chad hermann says the aftermath of a wildfire in a rural community like greenville is a far different picture than when fire strikes wealthier california enclaves like malibu, >> when you look at the fires that they had down in sonoma, you have an infrastructure with a fantastic money base between the wineries and industry and the real mountain communities, you don't have that. so we're not a rich county. so when you have a group of people who have very little to begin with and they lose everything, it makes it very difficult to come back from that. and we still have people without adequate housing. so we have people that are still

in tents and travel trailers. >> reporter: kevin goss is hpeful that the town he's known all his life will rise again, with better “fire-wise” planning and more resilient construction materials to prevent the town from burning again. >> i think some folks, the trauma is going to be too much for them to come back. and it's just, you know, it's permanently seared in their brain and they don't want to go through that again. folks like myself and others are going to say, hey, you know what? we're going to build this thing back to where it can survive a fire like this. most folks want to come back to their home. mean, even though it looks like this, it's still their home. it's their piece of property. it's there where they grew up or where they've had all these memories. >> reporter: pam and andy courtright don't know what they'll do next. for now, they're living in an r.v. on a friend's property. and the memories of the home they lost feel more real than a future without it. >> i walk through every room in my mind.

>> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in greenville, california. >> woodruff: abdul qadeer khan, father of pakistan's atomic bomb and proponent of nuclear proliferation, died on sunday after a lengthy battle with covid-19. he was a figure mired in controversy who launched pakistan's nuclear weapons program, but also admitted to sharing nuclear technology secrets with iran, libya, and north korea. nick schifrin has our report. >> schifrin: he was once one of the world's most dangerous men, shunned even by his own government. but this weekend, he was hailed a hero. on sunday, pakistan hosted a state funeral for dr. abdul qadeer khan, known as a.q. khan,

who helped create pakistan's nuclear weapons program and the muslim world's first nuclear bomb. >> today a great man died. he was a great scientist. he served this country, he served this country with emotion, dignity, respect and with hard work. >> schifrin: in the 1970s, a.q khan was a metallurgist working for european companies that designed centrifuges, equipment that c create nuclear fuel. by then, pakistan had lost a portion of its territory when bangladesh became independent. by 1974, india tested its first nuclear device. khan started stealing centrifuge designs for the pakistani military. by 1998, they were ready. he and pakistan's leaders tested their first nuclear weapon. for pakistan, he had helped assure the country's survival. just days before, india had tested its own nuclear devices. >> a.q. khan was acting as a patriot as he saw himself, a person who could help his own

>> schifrin: rolf mowatt-larssen is a senior fellow at the harvard belfer center. in the early 2000's, he ran the weapons of mass destruction unit in the c.i.a.'s counterterrorism center. that's when a.q. khan's other legacy became public. >> a pakistani arms merchant. merchant of death, some have called him. to enable other rogue states that wanted to follow pakistan's secret path. the unique aspect of a.q. khan's network was first, how sophisticated it was. he had unique contacts, unique sources, unique supply chain that i don't think we had ever seen in any other proliferation network. >> schifrin: iran's program started as a virtual copy of pakistan's program. north korea already had a plutonium program, but khan provided a second path to the bomb, through uranium enrichment. and libya's muhamar qaddafi, who gave up khan's network, and the centrifuges bought from khan, after the invasion of iraq. >> a.q. khan seemed to be willing to sell to the highest bidder, but with one obvious

exception, which is what you were so focused on, right? al qaeda? >> it was on everybody in the terrorists because we had information that nuclear scientists in pakistan were in contact with al qaida. we ended up finding several sources that it looked like al qaeda had never benefited from any assistance from the a.q. khan network. >> schifrin: but the u.s. confronted pakistani president gen. pervez musharraf about khan's proliferation, and musharraf confronted khan. khan went on tv to say he had gone rogue. >> there was never ever any kind of authorization for these activities by the government. >> schifrin: do you believe the pakistani military knew and endorsed what he was doing? >> the scale, the number of years he went about doing this activity is hard to believe. first, that he could get away with it without people having knowledge of what he was doing. and second, that he wouldn't have hadt least the confidence that he had the endorsement of the pakistani government to some level. >> schifrin: but he never told

that story in full. for the last 15 years, khan was prevented from engaging with the world, the world prevented from engaging with him. which means he died saturday from covid-19 at 85 years old, likely carrying some of his secrets to the grave. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: of all the cities with surging murder rates last yearchicago was among the worst. homicides were up 56% from the year before. but there are efforts underway to address systemic issues that feed the violence there. award-winning rapper common and his pastor, the reverend otis moss, iii, of chicago's historic trinity united church of christ, discussed some of their ideas for change recently with

stephanie sy as part of a larger program produced by the peace studio in partnership with the wnet initiative "exploringha ." the conversation is part of our race matters series. >> sy: there again has been another summer of gun violence and homicides in chicago and chicago, bring me there. what is happening? >> anytime you talk about violence or economics, it always starts spiritually because economics and actions of violence are spiritually connected and chicago, especially where we live, has not had the investment in these communities. you're looking at spaces in the city that when african-americans migrated from mississippi and arkansas, all of a sudden you had these incredibly gifted people and the powers that be

saw them as a threat and pulled back the investment for social control. >> sy: there was literally discriminatory policies put in cities like chicago to keep people of color down and you see the legacy of that today. >> absolutely. matter of fact, even the police department was utilized by the city of chicago, specifically for social control. people were policed one way in one community and policed another way. so one community got public health and public safety and another community got repression, and that was our community. and so we believe in imagination, your new song talks about imagine. >> imagine, yeah, yeah. >> your new song imagine. we believe in imagining something radically new. >> sy: talk about that song and how it relates to what reverend moss is saying. >> i grew up on the south side of chicago, i was not poor, i was not rich. my mother's an educator. my stepfather's a plumber.

but we were a middle-class home. but in my neighborhood, there was gang culture. i could have been on the wrong path, but what was it that allowed me to see myself as valuable and work towards that and dream and think about things? well, one is for surely god and spirituality. another is my mother making sure that that was reinforced in her love and showing me that, "hey, ese are opportunities that you can seek out and have." and i bring that up because it was at a young age that i was imagining doing something and becoming something. and i think, i don't have the one solution to the violence and many times we get asked, "what is it?" and i do believe, on a deeper level, it is a lack of the

spiritual connection where you do, because anytime, even in the most difficult situations, if i see the god in another human being, i'm not going to look to destroy them. you know? and i think that's one of the keys to us healing our city >> sy: your music has always put into context the violence that's current in chicago. and i just want to... i won't be able to rap this. maybe you can. but from, i hope i don't put these beautiful lyrics to shame and these searing lyrics from black america. now we slave to the blocks, on em we spray shots, leaving our own to lay in a box. black mothers' stomachs, stay in a knot. we kill each other. it's part of the plot. >> yes. >> sy: part of the plot. what does that mean? >> well, what i meant from that is that america, when it comes to black life, has never allowed

black life to have its presence where it's like, oh, a human being that canave great education, health, even pursuit for themselves. it's like, if you think of the foundation of america, i mean slaves, we were enslaved people. our people were enslaved and dehumanized. and that has been the mentality that has been passed on generation through generation. but we still got jim crow laws, and we still got mass incarceration. and now, the plot has been, "man, we are in fear of the equality and rise of black people. so we're going to figure out ways to make sure that they don't come up. we going to push you down and we'll do it indirectly. we'll do it subconsciously. we'll do it directly by shooting you in the streets. and until people who are leading

the country say, "man, that plot is no longer acceptable." that mentality, it won't be healed as we said, the right word is healed because it's wounds on black people and in the country. >> sy: i'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a black kid living in a pocket of violence in chicago that seems inexorable and i'm feeling that i would feel anger. and i wonder, how do you speak to that? >> i think the first thing is that you have to tell them the truth, that we fail in america so often to speak the truth about what people experience. so as a young african-american male or young african-american female, you have people who sugar-coat or lie to you about what you experience and see

every single day. we need truth tellers. the art of what common is doing, he is a truth teller and scripture says, thtruth will set you free. the other piece is that we no longer can frame black lives solely as tragic. there are tragic moments, tragic experience, but we have such depth of spirit to always rise above the tragic. that's why we write the blues, but the blues isot about necessarily hanging my head. it means that i'm experiencing something existential, but at the same time, i see something powerful in the future. that's what happens with the black experience. >> sy: and i hear two things from what you're saying all in all, if i could sum up, you're focused on the practical and the spiritual. >> yeah. >> it's both ends. jobs stops bullets, education will prevent prison and love creates community.

>> sy: reverend otis moss and common, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: today, october 11th, is the international day of the girl. and tonight we hear from one girl, a young afghan poet, who left her country a few years ago with her family for security reasons. aryan ashory now lives in germany in a refugee settlement. she shared her thoughts and writing with the newshour's student reporting lab as part of our arts and culture series, canvas. >> writing poem, it makes me to feel free and to empty my pains and my stress that all hide in my body. i just take my pen and i took my notebook and i try to write

something down to thinking about issues about like, for example, about what's happening in my country, what's happening to me right now. don't kick us like a ball. try to be one of us for a day. try to understand us, we are not a game for you that when you get tired, you can leave us. try to feel us. we are tired of this much moving from place to place. try to be one of us for a day. i'm sure you cannot understand how our days are nighting. i'm sure you cannot expect to see your children held back from education and playing with the garbage all around. i know you cannot. i know you cannot be one of us, even for an hour. me as up as a refugee girl, personally, i see my soul like a 35 year old.

i'm not old but the stress of living in a country makes me old. our destination is a question mark. i just wish. and i just wish that no one's life should be a question mark. i just wish and wish that no one's life should be carried in a backpack all around. i'm not different, but i am a refugee. i'm not a terrorist, i'm just forced to be in your country. forced to leave my beautiful homeland. i could say my biggest hope is to see my family living in one place, not to just move around. it's really damaged our mental health. if we do not live in central-- in specific place, we are like always carrying our live in our backpack from place to another place. so it's very difficult for all

of us. and it's one of my hopes for a future to have a specific place to live inside. >> woodruff: after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis, healthcare journalist kate pickert began conducting extensive research to become more informed about her own treatment. her book "radical: the science, culture, and history of breast cancer in america" chronicles her findings a personal story. tonight, she offers her brief but spectacular perspective on surviving breast cancer. >> strangely, the day after my cancer diagnosis, i had a job interview that had been previously scheduled. and i remember saying to my husband, i don't think there's any point going to this job

interview today. and he said, why? , well, i'm going to die. why would i go to this jobidsa intervieanw? and he said, well, maybe you won't die. so i went to the job interview and i nailed it. and i think it was because i was just, i felt so incredibly alive. when i was diagnosed with breast cancer, it came as a total surprise. i was 35 years old. i was the mother to a three- year-old daughter and my husband and i had recently moved to california. i think that because i was a healthcare reporter and i was always wting about other people, this work made me feel sort of invincible. the period of getting my diagnosis was the most stressful period in my life. it sort of felt like the worst case scenario kept coming true. i was constantly aware of my daughter's presence and staring at her all the time. and as difficult as a treatment for breast cancer is, it was nothing, really, compared to the sort of mental toll that, that first month of diagnosis took on my family and me. when i would tell people that ia

d nodi cse strong urge to relate. they would tell me a story about someone they knew that had had cancer that had passed away. and when i talk to other people who have been recently diagnosed, i try to be a good listener. i try to also acknowledge how much it stinks. i think the only thing that really calmed me down was understanding my disease and understanding my treatment. having the science explained to me, reading the studies myself, because that gave me faith that the treatment would work. the other thing i learned very quickly after my diagnosis was how much i had misunderstood breast cancer. for all the awareness and all of the pink ribbons, there are so many things that most people know nothing about when it comes to breast cancer. for example, breast cancer isn't even really one disease. it's a collection of different diseases. they have different prognosis, they're treated differently. our understanding of breast cancer was really ke, it was li frozen in 1995. it created this understanding that was true then, but is no longer true now.

i would say within like two weeks of my diagnosis, i knew i was going to write something big about this. there are parts of the book that are about me personally, and those parts i really had to report out just like i would be reporting on another person, which i think was both helpful mentally for myself. and, i hope, allowed me to also write a pretty honest account of what it's li to be a breast cancer patient in the modern age. my own story with breast cancer, i hope has ended. i finished my treatment in february, 2016 and i have not seen any signs of my cancer's recurrence or continued existence since then. i'm sort of hesitant to call myself a cancer survivor because we really never know if that's true. breast cancer for myself is something i think about all the time, although less and less every day, thankfully. my name is kate pickert, and this is my brief but spectacular take on breast cancer.

>> woodruff: kate piccard, thank you so much for sharing your story. you can find all you can find all of our brief but spectacular stories at: pbs.org/newshour/brief. tomorrow night here on pbs, a look at what's behind the lack of affordable child care in the u.s. >> nawaz: for many... it's out of reach. >> i was in tears. we're going to do. i can't find daycare. >> nawaz: often scarce and costly. >> i kept saying to myself, it's got to be a better way. >> nawaz: a dilemma that's sparked a national debate. >> quality, affordable childcare. >> we can't have everything. >> nawaz: and will impact americans for generations to come.“ raising the future: the child care crisis.” a pbs newshour special report. tuesday, october 12th at 10:00, 9:00 central >> woodruff: and on the newshour online, americans of the sikh faith have lived in the united states for more than 125 years, but since 9/11, the community has fought for understanding and fair treatment, while advocating

for peace and compassion toward others. that's on pbs.org/newshour. 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. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the landscape has changed, and not for the last time. the rules of business are being reinvented, with a more flexible workforce, by embracing innovation, byooking not only at current opportunities, but ahead to future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and again, for whatever happens next. >> people who know, know b.d.o.

a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions

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♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "cook's country," i'm making carne guisada, and toni is going to explore the origins of the dish. adam's testing oven mitts, and christie's making green chili chicken enchiladas. it's all right here on "cook's country."