ng. i hope you're ready. 'cause we are. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: abortion battle. the supreme court agrees to quickly hear challenges to a restrictive texas law, which remains in place for now. then, brooks and capehart. david brooks and jonathan capehart analyze how cuts to the president's spending plan impact the bill's path ahead. and, cuban lens. one of cuba's most prolific painters finally gets his due in the united states, decades after the revolution cut his career short. >> he is saying yes, there are rules, but the rules are there to be broken, and this is my contribution. >> nawaz: all that and more, on tonight's s newshour.

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accountants and advisors. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank yo >> reporter: the controversial new abortion restrictions in texas remain in effect tonight but the u.s. supreme court will review it again in a matter of weeks. the high court issued an order today and the justices opted not to block the abortion law in the

interim, abanning most abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy. to explain, we turn to amy howe of scotus blog. welcome back to the "newshour". thanks for being with us. a lot of back and forth on the law, so clarify in plain terms what exactly did the justices decide to do today? >> reporter: the one thing they didn't do, as you mentioned, is they did not, at this point, grant the biden administration's request to block enforcement of the law. they said we'reot going to act on that right now, we're going to wait at least until the oral argument on november 1. the second thing they did was they granted requests by the biden administration and a group of texas abortion providers to leapfrog the proceedings in the court of appeals and to go ahead and act on their challenges now without waiting for the court of appeals to act, which is a relatively rare maneuver. and then the third thing that

they did that the case before the justices, when they hear oral arguments on november 1, the question appears to be a little bit narrower than the broad question of whether or not this law sb8 is constitutional. it's not crystal clear from the orders that the justices issued today, but it appears that they're going to focus on whether or not the federal government can bring this lawsuit in federal court to block enforcement of the law in the first place, and then on this unusual enforcement scheme that the law has that deputizes private individuals to bring lawsuits in state court against people who provide or aid and abet abortions. >> amy, we should mention this isn't the only abortion case they were set to look into. there was another mississippi state law set well, set to come december 1. but this november 1 review, this

expedited review they granted the texas law, that is extraordinarily fast. what does this say to you about how the court is viewing this issue? >> reporter: a couple of things. they obviously view this as incredibly important. they rarely grant this before certiorari judgment, and fast track it like this, this is one of the fastest tracks they've had in a case since they've heard oral argument since bush haves gore in 2000. they're perhaps not ready to weigh in on the constitutionality of sb89 at this point. they have, as you said, this lawsuit challenging the mississippi law that they are going to hear oral argument in december. that's a challenge to a mississippi law that bans almost all abortions after the 15 15th week of pregnancy.

it's a case in which the state of mississippi has asked the justices to overrule the supreme court's landmark decisions in roe v. wade and planned parenthood vs. casey establishing a fundamental right to abortion but without this sort of procedural wrinkle of this unusual enforcement scheme that's present in texas law. >> we'll be following it all and your work as you cover it. amy howe of scotus blog. thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me. in the day's other news, pfizer announced its low-dose covid vaccine is nearly 91% effective in 5- to 11-year-olds. federal approval could come within days. meanwhile, the nationwide booster campaign is growing. the c.d.c. has now added moderna and johnson & johnson vaccines to the approved booster list.

>> we are ready to get booster shots in the arms of tens of millions of newly-eligible americans. boosters are available at over 80,000 locations across the country, including more than 40,000 local pharmacies, as well as thousands of doctors offices, community health centers, rural health clinics, and community- based vaccination sites. >> nawaz: we'll return to the booster expansion, after the news summary. president biden huddled today with democratic leaders, trying to wrap up a deal on his build back better agenda. party moderates and progressives are negotiating the package of social and climate initiatives, now worth $2 trillion. house speaker nancy pelosi said today that a deal is "very possible." a federal jury in new york has convicted lev parnas, a former associate of rudy giuliani, of making illegal campaign contributions. parnas used money from a russian tycoon to support republican groups, including one backing then-president trump. separately, parnas aided

giuliani's efforts to have ukraine investigate hunter biden, during his father's 2020 presidential campaign. giuliani is still under investigation. china insisted today there will be no compromise on the status of taiwan-- and it also warned the u.s. to watch what it says. last night, president biden said the u.s. is committed to defending taiwan, if the chinese attack. that seemed to go beyond a long-standing u.s. pledge to help taiwan defend itself. the white house quickly said there had be no change in policy. defense secretary lloyd austin sounded a similar note today, when he spoke after a nato meeting in brussels. >> nobody wants to see cross-strait issues come to blows, and certainly not president biden. and there's no reason that it should. we'll continue to help taiwan with the sorts of capabilities that it needs to defend itself, and so we'll stay focused on those things. >> nawaz: beijing claims taiwan as part of its territory, and

has recently sent record numbers of warplanes into the island's airspace. china's debt-ridden property developer, evergrande, has avoided default-- for now. the company made an overdue payment today of $83.5 million to bondholders. evergrande is carrying more an $300 billion in liabilities, and a default could send financial shock waves across china and beyond. environmentalists rallied across several continents today, demanding urgent action on climate change. they turned out ahead of the upcoming u.n. climate summit in scotland. in germany, thousands of protesters-- including hundreds of young people-- crowded berlin's brandenburg gate, and they pressed german officials to do more. >> ( translated ): i think, especially because we are in the process of forming a government in germany, we really have to send out a signal that the climate targets, which are so urgently needed, will not be softened again. that's what we're afraid of. >> nawaz: protesters also turned out in sweden, uganda,

bangladesh and india. back in this country, actor alec baldwin expressed shock and sadness after a fatal incident on a movie set in new mexico. it happened thursday outside santa fe, when baldwin fired a prop gun. the film's cinematographer was killed, and the director was wounded. baldwin called it a tragic accident. the investigation is continuing. an audit of wisconsin's 2020 presidential election results has found no evidence of widespread fraud. the non-partisan review was commissioned by a state legislative committee. a series of recounts and court rulings has confirmed that president biden won wisconsin by 21,000 votes. the justice department is launching a new effort to stop red-lining, the practice of banks refusing loans in minority areas. attorney general merrick garland said the focus will be on mortgage lending, and patterns of racist policies. it's the first such crackdown since the obama administration. and on wall street today, the

dow jones industrial average gained 74 points to close at 35,677. the nasdaq fell 125 points. the s&p 500 slipped five. still to come on the newshour: on the border. crossings into the u.s. from mexico reach an all-time high, as an alarming new report details claims of abe by immigration officials. david brooks and jonathan capehart break down the state of play over president biden's spending bill. a cuban lens. one of the country's most celebrated avant-garde painters gets his due in the united states. and much more. >> nawaz: as we reported, beginning today, covid-19 booster shots for both moderna

and johnson & johnson are available to eligible populations. the c.d.c. issued that guidance after an advisory committee unanimously approved it yesterday. the f.d.a. also authorized mixing and matching vaccines and boosters. to help viewers understand more about what they should consider, i'm joined by dr. leana wen, emergency physician, and public health professor at george washington university. dr. wen, welcome back to the "newshour". always good to have you here. before we get to the booster news, i want to ask you about something else related to young children and vaccines. we know pfizer submitted data to the f.d.a. showing its vaccine is highly protective for children age 5 to 11. what does this mean for potential f.d.a. approval for children getting the vaccine that young? >> well, the f.d.a. is going to be reviewing all these data tuesday when they meet and then the c.d.c. is going to be reviewing it the week after. right now the date are encouraging. they're showing that in addition to the vaccines being safe so far in the 2000 or so 5 to 11-year-olds being studied, the

vaccines produce a strong antibody response and we have data coming out of pfizer showing that the vaccines also appear to protect well against symptomatic disease, almost 91%. it will be up to the f.d.a. and c.d.c. to weigh the risks and benefits and to say are they going to make as full-throwed a recommendation as they will for older individuals, as in might they make a more limited recommendation saying only high risk children get the vaccine, we don't know. we shall see when they review the data next week. >> nawaz: we'll be following that next week for sure. back to the boosters, americans have three possibilities for vaccine boosters, and there's new information ability mixing and matching, let's walk through a few scenarios. if you got the moderna or pfizer vaccine, meaning the dual mrna doses, should you stick with the same brand for a booster if you get one? >> most likely, yes. almost under all circumstances, we should say the pfizer-moderna

vaccines are generally interchangeable, there's no particular reason to switch from pfizer to moderna to one of the others, and really there are very few circumstances they should switch to a j&j vaccine. but let's say you have a severe reaction to a pfizer or moderna and let's say you also have had a prior case of myiocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, in that case you might switch to the johnson & johnson vaccine. buff otherwise sticking to the same brand sounds fine, unless the other is more available in your area, switching is okay, too. >> nawaz: the johnson & johnson, how should people who first got the single johnson & johnson look at boosters? >> this is very different, and i should say i am one to have the 15 million americans who got the one dose johnson & johnson vaccine. for women under age 50, which is the category i am in, i would not recommend that they get a second johnson & johnson booster. i would recommend that they receive one of the pfizer or

moderna vaccines, one of the mrna doses because the johnson & johnson vaccine has been associated with a very rare but very serious blood clotting disorder. this is not a run of the mill blood clot. this is a serious dsorder that can be fatal. again, very rare, but for younger women, there is an tion, another option of pfizer or moderna that is not associated with this particular side effect and, so, for those individuals, i would definitely recommend a second mrna dose instead of the j&j booster. i should also recommend the f.d.a. and c.d.c. are essentially saying though they haven't explicitly said this, but are essentially forecasting the j&j vaccine should have been a two-dose vaccine from the start. unlike pfizer-moderna where only individuals in a high risk category should be getting a booster six months after their first two doses, for the johnson & johnson vaccine, anyone after two months, regardless of risk, should be getting a second dose of something. >> nawaz: so there's a much

broader category or people who got the johnson & johnson who should be getting the booster. you mentioned the timeline difference. also difference in guidance in terms of who should be getting the booster with the moderna and pfizer vaccines. who should be considering that now. >> two categories. one category recommended to be getting and then a much broader group that is allowed to if they should so choose to. the group who should make an appointment are individuals 65 and older or 50 and older with a chronic medical condition who got the pfizer or moderna vaccine at least six months ago. they should make an appointment in the next six weeks. then anyone over age 189 who has occupatial exposure or high risk in a living situation, they can choose to get a booster six months after their pfizer or moderna vaccine in consultation with their physician. again, very different from johnson & johnson. everyone who got the j&j vaccine if they are more than two months out from their initial one dose vaccine really needs to get

their second dose now. i have already gotten my booster dose. >> nawaz: dr. leana wen, complicated stuff. thank you for walking us through us as people maybe make plans for the weekend ahead. thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> nawaz: new furled numbers late this afternoon show detentions and arrests and american's southern border hit an all time high in 2021. william brangham explains. >> reporter: according to data out from u.s. customs and border protection, more than 1.7 million migrants were detained at the border in the 202 is fiscal year. 60% of those were expelled under the public health policy known as title 42. about a quarter of cases were repeat crossings. those those numbers come as human rights watch released internal d.h.s. files of more than 160 reports of alleged misconduct

and abuse of asylum seekers by d.h.s. officers. these included claims of molestation, and physical and verbal abuse. for more on all this, i'm joined by gil kerlikowske. he served as commissioner of u.s. customs and border protection under president obama, and before at, he was director of the office of national drug control policy. gill kerlikowske, great to have you back on the "newshour". let's start with the human rights watch report. i should indicate this is not human rights watch reporting, these are internal documents they got of complaints that were made of this awful behavior by d.h.s. agents against them. what do you make of that? >> a couple of things. one, you have to understand that it wasn't really until 2014 that customs and border protection actually got their own robust, internal affairs that had been outsourced, and, so, you need accountability, you need

investigations, and you need to be able to do discipline, and that is still an ongoing issue. but the number of complaints is certainly concerning. you have to remember, too, that boarder patrol has over 20,000 agents. they have had literally, during the time that those numbers came forward, millions of encounters with people crossing the border illegally. some are just families. some are willing, more than willing to surrender immediately, but there are other people that aren't quite as willing to surrender. >> reporter: i hear everything that you're saying, but the critics would argue that this tells us something about the culture withinside those agencies. what do you make of that? >> so i think there's another culture inside of the agency and i got to see it firsthand in the summer of 2014 with 68,000 unaccompanied children being handled by the boarder patrol. i saw them bringing in t-shirts

and clothing from their own kids at home, i saw them microwaving burritos, all without the support of other parts to have the u.s. government. so, you know, there is certainly that. remember, too, that the boarder patrol is one of the most -- the is one of the most diverse, particularly with hispanic officers in the country, so there is probably only about one degree of separation. so i think that these complaints are serious, they need to be investigated thoroughly and disciplined where appropriate needs to be taken. >> reporter: okay, so let's turn to this seeming record number of people coming across the border from a large range of countries. why do you believe this is occurring? because the critics of the biden administration argue that it is this administration's policies and this administration's more sort of open-ended and warm-hearted language that has

invited this large number of people to come. >> well, i think, as the nominee for customs and border protection said in his hearing the other day, the law needs to be enforced, but it needs to be enforced humanely. and, frankly, during the last four years under the trump administration, i think that there was not the attention being paid to enforcing the law humanely, and i think that that is beginning to change. if that's as a result of president biden and his seemed openness to people coming into the country, but, again, the law is still the law. >> reporter: another argument made by the critics of this administration is a lot of the migrants that are coming across the border are coming with covid 19 and that they're carrying enormous amounts of drugs with them. is there any evidence that those accusations are true? >> certainly the covid issue has changed the way the border patrol and other parts of cbp

interact with people, not only title 42 you mentioned, but remember cbp lost over 50 employees that have died as a result of covid. i think part of the drug issue, though, is that it comes through our ports of entry. the drugs that kill people in this country, methamphetamine, fentanyl, et cetera, come through the ports of entry, they aren't being carried by a number of people trying to cross the border illegally between the ports of entry. >> reporter: vice president harris was asked about this today and she, in part, blamed some of this on an asylum process that she argued was broken under the prior administration, that it just wasn't functioning that well and that is partly why we're seeing this issue on the border. is that an accurate criticism? >> well, the asylum function hasn't worked very well for a long number of years. the number of immigration judges, the backlog of now close

to a million people awaiting asylum hearings. the other thing that i think the general public doesn't understand is most people who apply for asylum never reach that threshold, they are denied asylum and, therefore, they are returned to the country. but, if they can't get the asylum hearing, that really tells you the process is not working very well if at all. >> reporter: all right, gill kerlikowske, former head of u.s. customs and border protection. thanks as always for being here. >> thank you. >> nawaz: the fate of president biden's domestic agenda seems to be reaching a critical point, amid heightened negotiations with moderate senate democrats and his own party's leaders in congress. at stake, some of the president's top social and spending priorities. and that brings us to the analysis of brooks and capehart.

that's "new york times" columnist david brooks, and jonathan capehart, columnist for the "washington post." welcome to you both. good to see you. >> good to see you, too. >> nawaz: before we jump into that, i want to ask you about voting rights because there was news in the senate this week and from the president last night. on wednesday we should note senate republicans blocked the voting rights bill for the third time on thursday, the very next day president biden spoke at the tenth anniversary to have the dedication of dr. martin lutedder king's memorial and said this. >> today the right to vote and rule of law are under relenting assault from governors, attorneys general, secretary of state, state legislatures and they're following my predecessor, the last president, into a deep, deep black hole and abyss. >> nawaz: jonathan, an abyss, framed as an existential threat. what's the president prepared to do about it? >> first, the president's remarks yesterday were not new. he has been sounding this

alarm -- this is probably at least the third time he has talked about voting rights in this way, and, yes, as an existential threat, almost apocalyptic. but the problem is that's all the president can do. all of the power resides in the senate, and it resides in, you know, senator manchin, senator sinema and the other senators hiding behind them who don't want to reform the filibuster. that is the only way this is going to happen. the third failure to have the voting rights bill is a bill that senator manchin put together, tried as hard as he could to get ten republicans to vote for it, and no republicans voted for it. let's also be clear about another thing -- this wasn't a vote on the bill. this was a vote to allow the bill to be debated. the world's most deliberative body won't on anything, but won't debate a

bill on voting rights. >> so, david, senator manchin was behind this new bill, right? it has been pared down so he and republicans could back it. he went to get their support and they didn't support it. president biden indicated last night, the strongest support he's shown, he might be able to reform the filibuster to move this ahead, he might be willing to do that but is senator manchin? >> i can't read senator manchin's mind, i would be surprised if he wants to bend the filibuster even given what he's done on the the voting rights stuff. i think what the republicans are doing in georgia is terrible because it sends a terrible signal given about where we are in this country and voter discrimination. through two big methods and voting rights and laws, the first myth is that when you change the voting laws you depress turnout. this has been studied up -- well, a lot. and the overwhelming evidence is

that you can do what georgia did and make it harder to vote. voters vote. they find a way to vote, and, so, it just is not true that changing the law will depress turnout, by and large. second, the second myth which is believed by both republicans and democrats, which is if you increase turnout, that's somehow good for democrats. people have study is ited it, there's a book called the turnout myth and they look at centuries of data on higher and lower election turnout. it has no partisan effect. we have these mythologies about how turnout actually works and they cause people to do, in the case of the realms in the state house, pretty terrible things. >> okay, i need to jump in because of this isn't just a turnout issue here, what's happening in georgia, what's happening in texas. >> they're making it harder to vote. if you do jump that hurdle to be

able to vote, they might not count your vote. it might get discarded. if your vote somehow gets counted -- and this is the most important thing -- the law in georgia, and i also believe it's also in texas, that if they don't like the result of the election, they can change the result of the election, and that is what makes what's happening in the states right now super -- well, terrible, and why the president is speaking in the way he's speaking. it's not just suppressing the vote, it's not just trying to squash turnout, it's about changing free and fair elections because republicans, because that's who's doing this, republicans are afraid that they can't win any other way. >> is there any way this moves forward with the democrats unless they change the filibuster rules? >> i don't see how. >> nawaz: let me ask because the president gave the town hall to cnn and spoke plainly about a number of things and asked about the filibuster, he said ending it would have to wait until after his spending bill passes. we should note speaker pelosi

said earlier today that 90% of that bill is now agreed to and written. i want to bring people up to speed on the build back better proposal. the overall price tag is under $2 trillion. paid family leave is down to four weeks instead of twelve, free family college is removed, and the latest move, senator sinema has been imposing the income and corporate tax rate increases. we know this because the president spoke plainly about this. >> i was stunned he was so open. they're still in the middle of the negotiations and presumably every source on the himself says a lot can change, but he said what's in, what's out, maybe as a way to prepare people who are going to be disappointed. what happened when they first drafted it, everybody got everything, it was christmas in rich people's homes, and they have to make choices now.

some choices are quite unfortunate. they put at risk the size to have the child tax credit which is the single best thing in the whole bill which does reduce childhood poverty to a great degree. some choices could be very good choices. they've lost the core to have the climate change. but senators like the democrats from oregon has struck a carbon tax and that would solve a lot of things, would help reduce carbon emissions and raise revenue to pay for this stuff. so i still think a lot is still under negotiation, and i'm looking for is there a theme to what they leave in and take out, do they have an overall theory of the case. in my view, we've spent the last four years funnelingoney to rich people with college degrees. we should funnel money to people without college degrees who are in the working class. that would be my theme. not quite sure i see it. >> nawaz: i want to play a quick clip of the bay

president biden talked about the concessions when it comes the paid family leave and community college. take a listen. how much time off would parents actually get under your proposal because at one point you're taking about twelve weeks. >> it is down to four weeks. the reason it's down to four weeks, they can't get 12 weeks. here's the the deal, so far mr. manchin and one other person has indicated they will not support free community college. >> nawaz: jonathan, he says i just can't do it but he mentions that one other person, that we assume is -- >> right, he says one other person. >> what are they saying about her opposition? >> i don't know. and if you asking anyone on the hill they don't know what he wants and doesn't want. right now it seems like we're in the eleventh hour and the fact that the president was so specific and in the weeds about what he's doing and what he wants and what's in the bill tells you how engaged the president and the white house have been all this time. but i think the sense of urgency

that the president has and that democrats on the hill have is that he's going to europe for the climate conference and he wants to have something in hand, but, also, lurking in the background is the virginia governor's race on november 2. terry mcauliffe has been saying for weeks now pass the dang bill, get it done, he wants the infrastructure bill done so he can go to folks and say, look, this is done, democrats are at large know how to govern and can get things done, so i think those are the two deadlines that are reel really driving this. >> nawaz: you are making my segues for me. i want to ask you both about the virginia governor's race. schools have become one of the main messaging points particularly for the republican candidate glennyunken, he's framing it as a fight over government's roles in the classroom and parents' rights to be involved in the classroom, more about how race and racism are taught more than anything

else. david, who is he talking to in all of this? >> a lot of parents and terry mcauliffe made a foolsh statement in his debate when he said parents shouldn't be in charge of their kids' education which is going to set parents' teeth on edge. this is a bad issue for the democrats. a lot of things people don't vote on, but when they think their kids are being indoctrinated with this or that, they will get angry and they're getting very angry. there are people who go to the school board meetings but there are more angry stable people and they will rebel. and the underlying cause of what's happening here is people in the median education school, they've gone -- not significantly in the further left, the median parent has not gone significantly further left. so there's a culture gap in values in the way we talk about history, sexual education and gender issues, the gap opened up between the people who tend to be teachers and parents and that

gap is creating this conflict over whose values are going to be in the classroom. so it's become a culture war, and i do think parents are extremely sensitive about this. >> nawaz: jonathan, what do you make of this? >> glenn yunken and republicans are filling the gap with fear. glenn is talking about critical craze theory. critical race theory is not taught in elementary, middle or high schools anywhere in the united states. if it is taught at all it is taught in law schools, so way far away from any parent's care. yes, terry mcauliffe walked right into it by saying what he said at that debate and handed yungkin. all of the history that needs to be taught that makes white

parents uncomfortable. put your finger on it, this is a conversation about race and youngkin is using race and fear as a way to garner votes, pull out trump voters, pull out squishy republican voters who might not want to vote for him but they view this as an issue, you know, something that makes them angry, you're trying to indoctrinate my children, as opposed to we're trying to teach your children the true history of this country. that's what all of this is about, and there are people who are afraid of that. >> nawaz: i have 30 seconds. this is clearly resonating. we saw the pictures. that was a school board meeting. those are parents on the floor there. are we going to see more of this in 2022. >> yes, this is going to be a gigantic issue nationwide and i have more to say. >> nawaz: we'll reconvene. good to see you, jonathan capehart, david brooks. >> thanks, amna.

>> nawaz: one of cuba's most celebrated avant-garde painters, mariano rodríguez, was a prolific 20th century artist whose exposure in the u.s. was cut short after the cuban revolution. but now there's a resurfacing of his work at the mcmullen museum of art at boston college. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston has our story, for our arts and culture series, "canvas." >> reporter: cuban painter mariano rodríguez was a painter of scenes, mining the richness of island life, the beauty of its women, the abundance of the land. >> he looked to everything that was kind of descriptive of his experience of his world in cuba. >> reporter: especially embodied throughout his career in this recurring, feathered image. a rooster that became synonymous with mariano, as he preferred to be known. >> the rooster is a bad boy. and the rooster really is

all about male virility and the countryside and battle. but he never left the peasants, and he never lost the female. he was reinterpreting these themes. elizabeth thompson goizueta is the curator of "mariano: variations on a theme" at boston college's mcmullen museum of art. >> it's pretty amazing. it's pretty amazing. >> reporter: the show, she says, is an exploration of how the artist focused on the same subjects, but through myriad styles over his 60-year career. >> reporter: launching his career in the 1930s, mariano like many artists of his generation, looked and traveled to mexico for inspiration. >> mexico had been this kind of center to national conversations on the beauty of the indigenous people, the beauty of what was simple and what makes mexico >> reporter: but, the mexican

influence was short-lived when mariano discovered new york. that's where he had his first exposure to artists like matisse and picasso, and where his work began to bear threads of their own. >> while he was here doing that, looking at the museums, and these different styles that he was absorbing and adapting and translating into his own language, he also was exposed to what was beginning to be this nascent movement of abstract expressionism in the united states. >> reporte which is how mariano continued his exploration-- returning to his themes of nature and women, but through an abstract lens. and this is where mariano left off in america. as u.s. relations with cuba disintegrated after the cuban revolution, which mariano supported, his work faded from view in the u.s. >> this is-- emotionally, this is very important. it's a deefeeling for me. >> reporter: speaking to us from the dominican republic, alejandro rodríguez is the

artist's son. he recently toured the exhibition, seeing some works for the first time, like this sprawling crucifixion painting. >> i saw my father beside me, it's complicated to separate the father from the artist. when i am in this room, those persons come together. >> reporter: rodriguez says his father was always working, even when he wasn't. >> always working. he's a workaholic in the arts. he had a pencil and a painter at dinner, always >> reporter: the painter's most striking variation came in the 1960s, when his marriage began to crumble. he found inspiration in late 18th century painter francisco goya, who often dwelled in darkness. mariano did the same. elizabeth thompson goizueta calls these works "the grotesques." >> what is he doing with the grotesques? >> that's what i asked myself when i saw these really

hallucinatory figures, the voyeurism, the exaggeration. i think he was beginning to ask himself, what am i about? and what-- what are my paintings about? he says, goya taught me how to be free in my painting. and i think he wanted to be free of what he had been doing before. and i think he wanted to explore something radically different looking at both attraction and repulsion. >> reporter: attraction, though, ultimately won out. moving toward the end of his life in the 1970s and '80s, mariano often found artistic solace in sensuality-- his figures becoming ethereal. same for the once solidly- rendered rooster. and, in what he called his "masses" series, mariano imagines cubans merging together as one whole.

aesthetically, it's a far cry from any other point in his career. >> he is saying, yes, there are rules, but the rules are there to be broken. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen in boston. >> nawaz: on our "bookshelf" tonight, judy woodruff's special conversation with newshour's old friend and former longtime media correspondent, terence smith. his memoir, "four wars, five presidents: a reporter's journey from jerusalem to saigon to the white house," is out this week. >> woodruff: terry smith, welcome back to the newshour. >> well, thank you. i like the way you're keeping up the place. yeah, it looks fine. >> woodruff: we do, too. we do, too. so, the title says it all. and, you know, it's easier to name the stories that you didn't cover, over the 50 years you were a reporter, than it is to

name what you did. new york city politics. the middle east. you were-- you were in vietnam; washington for many years. what was it about this life of yours that made it the-- what it was? >> you know, it's an interesting question. one, my desire to go overseas to be a foreign correspondent started early, when my parents took me to europe, when i was, i don't know, 11 or 12 years old. and i looked around and i became fascinated by how people, the different ways peoe work out their lives, solve their problems, do different things. and it just-it gave me a wanderlust that has never gone away. >> woodruff: and you were the son of a-- of a famous sportswriter, red smith. so, you came from a family of newspaper people.

some we see, some people turn away from whatever their parents did, but you embraced it. there are so many great stories in this book, and i'm thinking back to when you were just a cub reporter. you were in new york city, and covered-- there was a meeting about who was going to run for mayor. and you were listening through a vent. yeah, in a hotel >> that's called journalism. that's-- that's hard-hitting journalism. but they insisted that i had bugged them, when, in fact, by happenstance, it was in a hotel room-- hotel conference room. i was in the next room, and i heard, "my lord, it's coming through the vent!" and those voices, nelson rockefeller, raspy voice, and john lindsay's very patrician yale accent. you couldn't miss-- you knew who was saying what. i was taking notes furiously. >> woodruff: so then, a few years later, you're in the middle east already. still-- it is still a young man, of course. back in the united states,

robert kennedy is assassinated, and you get the word. you're in jerusalem. >> yeah. and you're told that the person who they believe has done this is sirhan sirhan, who has family there in the west bank. father. you go and find his father. >> so i go to the his father's house at 10:00 at night. it's dark. i knock on the door. i go in, i explain who i am, a reporter for the "new york times," and i ask him if he's heard about the assassination of robert f. kennedy. he said, oh yeah, i heard about it, terrible, terrible story. and i said, did you hear the name of the assassin? and he said, no, i went to bed. i didn't hear a name. so i said, you have five sons, right? right down on my reporter's notebook. the fourth name sirhan sirhan, jr. hmm.

so i put my finger on that name and i said, that's the assassin. he switched, like a-- like a metronome, and went over and he said, if he did it, he should hang. he should hang. >> woodruff: one of your many overseas assignments, of course, was-- was to be in asia, in southeast asia, at one point. you were-- you had a trip to cambodia later. you were in vietnam during the war, and a moment that truly changed american history. >> well, it certainly did. i spent two years as the "new york times" bureau chief in saigon. but before that, just a month or two before that, i was in cambodia. and in november of 1968 and i went, i interviewed prince norodom sihanouk, the head of state, and he told me word for word exactly what was going to happen in vietnam, that we would have to go, that the vietnamese

would not give up, that it was their country and not ours, and we'd be wise to pack up and go home. this is 1968, judy. this is tens of thousands of lives short of what happened by 1975. and yet, he predicted it on the money. i put it in the "new york"-- >> woodruff: you reported that. >> and no doubt it was read in the white house, and washington paid no attention. >> woodruff: you and i met during the jimmy carter campaign. you covered his administration. anything about covering presidents, or people at that level, that-- that has left you thinking, "there's something good about our democratic system," or not? >> oh, it's a mixed bag, you know that, judy, i mean, it's it's-- but, yes and no, i'm afraid it's the right answer. the five presidents in the title, you know, beginning with richard nixon and then jimmy carter and ronald reagan and

then clinton and bill clinton and george w. bush-- w. bush, not h.w.-- and those are the ones i covered. three republicans, two democrats, all interesting, all different, very different. and the presidency evolved in those years as well, as you well know. and so, it's extraordinary. then, of course, comes donald trump, and rewrites the whole book. totally different. >> woodruff: after 20 years at the "new york times," you then spent what, 20 years in broadcast television news? you were at cbs covering the white house again, among other things. and then you ended up being interviewed by jim lehrer, who, of course, is our beloved co- founder here with the newshour. the best job you ever had? >> absolutely. jim-- jim had gotten a-- a terrific grant to create a media unit. inside this broadcast, the newshour, to cover the news like

news. >> woodruff: what is your assessment today, in 2021? >> absolutely more vital. absolutely more troubled. the blending of opinion and fact in-- in reporting, that's supposed to be straight, is a problem. the news literacy in this country, the burden of knowing whether what you hear is true, has shifted to the reader or the viewer to decide. and so i think that's a tremendous change. that's a function that editors once performed. and then, of course, the internet and the-- the absolute spread of information. so in one sense, it's the best of worlds, right? we have every-- we have all this information at our fingertips. but in another sense, it's hard to discern truth from fiction. and that's been especially true in the last five years. >> woodruff: one of the-- one other thing that's changed,

terry, is-- is, and you know, this is a foreign correspondent, because back in the day, it was all white men who were overseas, covering overwhelmingly other countries covering wars today. there are so many extraordinary women-- >> doing the best work. >> woodruff: --war correspondents like jane ferguson, marcia biggs, monica villamizar, to name just a few. >> clarissa ward. >> woodruff: why do you think it's taken so long? >> now the people you just mentioned did the most-- to me, the most courageous and outstanding reporting coming out of kabul as afghanistan fell, and as the united states pulled out. i mean, look who was doing it, and they were doing it in a world that is not very accommodating to women. >> woodruff: terry smith, thank you so much. the book is "four wars, five presidents: a reporter's journey from jerusalem to saigon to the white house." very good to have you back with us. >> judy, a great pleasure for me to see you.

thanks for keeping the lights on and making it all go. >> woodruff: thank you. >> nawaz: among the 200 or so breeds of goats across the united states, the san clemente island goats are one of the rarest. as nebraska public media's dennis kellogg reports, one nebraska couple is doing what they can to save them. >> welcome to willow valley farms, welcome. we're going to take you guys on a goat walk. >> reporter: chad wegener is a modern-day goat herder. >> time for breakfast. >> reporter: the goats are like family to him. he's gotten to know each one, since he left his corporate job to take care of them full-time. >> i'm part goat. maybe that was my calling, to do this. >> reporter: there are fewer than 1,500 of these san clemente

island goats. threatened with extinction, the largest herd, 250 of them, is located here in gtna, nebraska. >> it's a nice relationship. i like to keep these guys as feral as possible, as wild as possible, because that's in their nature, and there's something beautiful about it. >> the goats, used to be as many as 18,000 of them, but after they overran the island's natural now, more than 1,000 miles away now, on a 40-acre farm, chad and his life partner, john carroll, are doing everything they can to save the breed. >> so, ihink it's really important that these animals were able to survive on their own for 100, 125 years. so, they know how to survive. >> reporter: john and chad are working with breeders across north america. they call this their "passion project." do you feel a responsibility, like you're the last hope for

this species? >> i do somewhat, yes. because, if not us, who? and what we're trying to do is on a larger scale-- not just breeding, but on a larger scale, to show the world that these goats can have a value. and that's why we want to do a commercial goat dairy. >> reporter: they think the dairy would be the first-ever commercial milking dairy for the san clemente island goats. it would include a storefront, cheese room, and a milking parlor. >> and we feel like if we can do this, we're going to find an outlet for these goats, to save them. that if they can actually become a dairy goat. but for those that want to make a boutique niche cheese. the butterfat is very high and i think it actually will make a really high-quality cheese. >> reporter: they'd also like to build an education center where the main subject would be san clemente island goats. >> so, bring different groups and educate them, whether it's children, at-risk children, l.g.b.t.q. youth, local elementary kids.

bring them in and let them see us cheese, let them help us milk and do some of that in this area. >> reporter: john adds, preserving the genes of these goats could also provide a potential protein source in the future. >> right now, we're focused on beef. we're in nebraska, and you eat cows, but we also see our demographics changing, and a lot of cultures do eat goat and sheep. >> reporter: whether it's through meat, milk, or cheese, john and chad are determined to prove the skeptics wrong. >> we just got to figure out how to make it happen. and it takes money and learning how to do it, and all that. so we're just inching our way. >> "why are you doing it?" "what are you doing that for?" "why are you spending all that money on it?" and i think that one day we'll prove them wrong. when i have that goat dairy up and you and i are sitting there eating goat cheese, maybe drinking a glass of wine, we'll toast to this interview and say, "told you so." >> reporter: for the pbs

newshour, i'm dennis kellogg near gretna, nebraska. >> nawaz: join yamiche alcindor and reporters on washington week. the g.o.p. blocking voting rights legislation and another busy week for the january 6th investigation, that is tonight right here on tomorrow's edition of pbs newshour weekend looks at how an internet cooperative is building a low-cost wifi network for under-served new yorkers to help bridge the digital divide. and on sunday, in our continuing series "exploring hate," a conversation about one of the core ideologies motivating white nationalist movements. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online, and again here monday evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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♪ >> hello, everyone. wel welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> my biggestear is that we'll get a phone call from someone i caragua that says that our father died in jail. >> crackdown on the opposition as an authoritarian strong man destroys democracy in america's backyard. nicaragua's daniel ortega in power since 2007 wants another term. we speak to top journalist carlos fernando chammoro. you conducted the largest airlift in history in just 17 days. >> while america pats itself on the back for its after gan evacuation, what happens to all those left behind? we look at the extraordinary private rescue of one of