♪ judy: good evening. tonight, the masking question. parents remain divided on face coverings in schools as more states repeal their requirement amid declining covid infections. then, america addicted. a new report details the scale of the opioid crisis and the daunting challenge of cracking down on drug trafficking. rising prices. how inflation is disproportionately affecting senior citizens but also young professionals trying to make ends meat. >> you look at your electrical bill. look at your gas bill. especially now, food bill. it is ridiculous. judy: all that and more tonight

on pbs newshour. ♪ >> maj funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> leading our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> consumer cellular.

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after the latest headlines. three more large states, new york, massachusetts and illinois are dreading the move to end some indoor mask mandates. york state announced today the mask requirement expires tomorrow except at health care sites and public schools. illinois will do the same at month's end. the cdc said it is working on new national guidance and wants to be flexible. >> we have always said these decisions are going to have to be made at the local level and that policies at the local level will look at local cases. they will look at how local hospitals are doing should and they as i understand it in many of these decisions are using a phased approach. not all of these decisions are being made to stop things tomorrow. stephanie: massachusetts announced plans to lift its public school mandate at the end of the month. canadian officials insisted today anti-vaccine protests at u.s. border crossings must end before they do serious economic

damage. traffic is stalled between port huron, michigan and sarnia, ontario. in two bridges linking detroit and ontario have been clogged since monday. the mayor of windsor, ontario said today it has to stop. >> i'm not saying that to suggest we bring in battering rams and 1000 police officers. that may not be the solution but there has to be a resolution. stephanie: the protests are affecting production and forcing plant closures at automakers including forward, toyota and gm. russia's military moves kept the pressure on ukraine today. moscow released a video showing a convoy in belarus transporting an air defense system should the russians planned joint military exercises with belarus tomorrow. the british foreign secretary flew to russia in the latest

diplomatic effort to defuse the situation. iran has unveiled a new long-range missile reportedly capable of reaching israel. they tv said today the weapon is highly accurate and can defeat missile shield systems. it can fly 900 miles putting it in range of u.s. bases in the middle east as well as israel. in meta-gas card, the death toll has reached 92 with more than 100,000 people displaced after a tropical cyclone last weekend. most of the casualties came in and isolated rural district of the island nation some 300 30 miles from the capital city. many homes in the area were made of earth and collapsed in heavy ooding from downpours. now, survivors are pleading for help. >> our tv, my cd player, all of our clothing, everything is gone. we don't have athing to eat and i am jobless. i: the international community to help us because the government will not be able to

find solutions. stephanie: back in this country, the national archives is asking the justice department to examine former president trump's handling of white house records according to reports. request comes after 15 boxes of records were found at his mar-a-lago residence in florida and that material given to january 6 investigators had been torn up and then taped back together. a congressional committee subpoenaed peter navarro who was president trump's white house trade advisor pick he pushed false claims of election fraud and the committee says he has information directly relevant to the causes of the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. lawmakers in congress have agreed on a spending framework for the fiscal year that began four months ago. there were no details today but the bipartisan deal could jump -- could jumpstart legislation on domestic spending the government is operating on temporary stopgap funding. the owner of washington

commanders dan snyder is facing a new sexual harassment investigation. an independent probe will focus on a former team employee's claim snyder groped her. a previous investigation found a toxic culture at the franchise. at the winter olympics, the u.s. claimed its first gold-medal. lindsey jacobellis one gold in snowboard cross. this evening, american snowboarder chloe kim will compete in the women's halfpipe final. she took hold in that event four years ago. nathan chen,he american figure skater, is a heavy favorite in tonight's free skate event after breaking a world record in the men's short program earlier this week. still to come, a divided congress finds common ground on post office reform and other major legislation. a sharp rise in murders of journalists in mexico prompts calls for change.

a group of black scuba divers investigate the wreckage of slave ships. plus much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: so far, at least seven states announced this week they will lift mask mandates for schools. the timing of the changes varies considerably. it is clear by the end of march many school districts will no longer require masks. some public health experts and parents are concerned those decisions are being made to quickly without clear metrics for doing so. >> massachusetts is one of those states. governor charlie baker spoke today about the decision to lift mask mandates for k-12 schools on february 28. >> given the extremely low risk

for young people, the widespread availability and the proven effectiveness of vaccines and the distribution of accurate test protocols and test, it is time to give our kids a sense of normalcy and lift the mask mandate on a statewide basis for schools. covid, like many other respiratory aziz as we are fully or with will be with us for the foreseeable future. >> as we heard earlier, cdc direct your dr. rochelle walensky says some of these moves are happening to quickly. mercedes carnethon is a professor of epidemiology, pulmonary and kregel care at northwestern university feinberg school of medicine. welcome to the newshour. thanks for making the time. massachusetts the latest in a growing list of states to announce when they will end the mask mandates in the weeks ahead. is this the right call for them to be making? >> i have significant concerns about the timing for making this call. what i am hearing are lowered

rates of disease in the community as a justification. when really the cdc announced they are -- there are many communities across the unit states that still have high transmission and our schools are not separate from our communities but are part of them. if we see spread in the community, it is ao likely we will see spread in schools particularly when we take away the one strategy that we have and we know works to prevent spread. >> let me ask you about that spread in communities. the cdc director said masking should continue in areas where high transmission persists. when you look at the map across the country nuc county by county transmission rates, red is meant to demarcate areas of high transmission. it is almost the entire country. 99.1% of those counties. transmission is something the cdc director mentioned. what are the metrics you think leader should be paying attention to when they make a decision about if and when to lift those mandates? >> i do support and offramp from

asking but it needs to be based on the data. one of those metrics needs to be the rate of transmission in the community. another metric needs to be the percent of the population who are vaccinated. not just children but across the age range because children live in communities. if they contract illness in their schools, they can bring it back to community members who may be more vulnerable. the third metric i think is critically important is how well our medical systems managing if there is a surge. >> if they are making the decision to move ahead, what are you word could happen? >> i worry we will see a repeat of what we saw in some of the southeastern regions of the united states in september and august of 2020. repeated in 2021 when we had the delta surge. that was that we had outbreaks in schools to when these outbreaks happen, it compromises

of the progress we have been making toward lowering our overall rates. i fear if we do this now and we are starting to see a glimmer of hope and then have to revert to going back to mask wearing, we are going to further frustrate and confuse the public and inconvenience a great number of families and compromise educational continuity for our children. >> let me put to you what some folks are pushing to end the mandate sooner say. they say we are not in 2020 or 2021 anymore. th we have letters of protection we did not have them. we have vaccines for kids. higher vaccine rights across the country. they say because we now know the overwhelming majority of kids who get sick are not severely ill, why mandate masks for all kids? are they wrong? >> i have concerns about that sentiment. it is driven by what we actually do see. we are in better position than we were before from early

because we do have vaccines available to most children who fall within the ran of k-12 education. what we do not have is widespread uptake among families of children of that age. when we look at vaccination rates, they are the lowest in young adults and in early middle-aged adults who are most likely to have children in this age range. removing the mask protection in schools, a place where children spend eight to nine hours a day, really puts them at risk of contracting it. well most healthy children will not suffer extreme illness requiring hospitalization, there are children in schools who are immuno compromised or who have family members who are vulnerable to we need to consider what we risk by making children vectors to reinfected our vulnerable members of our community and our school staff. >> i will put to you what i've heard from other folks in this debate.

they say those parents should continue to have their children mast. teachers who are word should have their -- she continue to mask what do you say to that? >> let's consider how much children value the input of their peers. i have two elementary school aged children. if i were to send them to school and insist they wear masks yet they saw the majority of the class was not, do i place that on their teachers to assume one more responsibility to follow my wishes? that is not fair to teachers and staff who do not have a voice. >> lastly, this is a difficult moment for parents to vigate. we continue to recommend -- the cdc says we continue to recommend universal masking inside. for parents who want to keep their kids safe, how to they navigate this moment? >> some of the voices we are hearing the loudest are those saying unmask our children. we need to hear from those parents who won their children to stay in school safely. we want to hear from those

parents who would be grossly inconvenienced eher financially or for health reasons when their children are out on frequent quarantine and isolation due to contracting illness. it is a privileged position to say if they are only out for five days, it is not that much of a problem. it is a problem for people who are paid and work hourly or people who cannot work from home or have the capacity to educate their children. it becomes an issue of educational equity. even if the argument around maskg for reducing severe illness is not compelling, let's lean on the educational equity argument. >> that is professor mercedes carnethon. thank you for your time. >> thank you for the opportunity. ♪ judy: this week in congress,

something happened that has been relatively rare in recent years. there was bipartisan agreement on multiple pieces of legislation. those tackling the u.s. postal service's financial struggles and a major issue raised with the #metoo movement are moving forward with support from both sides of the aisle. am joined by our congressional correspondent. is it really true? is this happening? let's talk -- >> it is really true. judy: but stalk about e piece of legislation that does seem to be moving forward quickly and that is the one addressing sexual harassment, sexual assault. tell us what is in it and what is bringing the two sides together for it. >> this is an important bill in many ways not least of which the fact it is not marginal. it is a sweeping bill that addresses one of the major issues addressed by the #metoo movement. workplace sexual harassment and sexual assault. i want to help viewers

understand the system as it sets. in america, many countries -- many companies require their employees when they sign up for the job to agree any harassment claims will go through something called arbitration pin that employee signs away their right to take those claims to court to that is forced arbitration. the employee is silenced. their claims are not heard in public. it is clear what has happened in many of these workplaces is that culture of harassment has grown in that kind of silence. those who have been harmed by it , we know by the american association of arbitration, they say 1.6% of the time to those people claiming harm get any payment because they are not permitted to go to court. this is the system right now and it is a problem many have raised. congress last night in the house passed a bill that would wipe away that system.

here is what this system -- this bill would do. it would banhe idea of forced arbitration in sexual assau and sexual harassment claims. it would allow any of those people who are making those claims to sue in court. it would also cover not just work place harassment but it would also cover contracts that you and i would sign every day including when we take -- in phone app or some of the agreements people sign when they're hiring moving companies pay no one could force someone into arbitration over these claims. this is of a that has made a lot headlines but i went to bring it he to what this has meant to some of the people affected it i want to play sound bite of a woman who spoke at a hearing last year about what she went through in the work place when the founder of her company harassed her and actually assaulted her and she was not able to speak out publicly till

she was subpoenaed by congress. >> forced arbitration is the reason he is able to carry out retaliation against me, my family and other victims could as i speak here, i am afraid of the consequences for my family that will arise. have ptsd. i have nightmares paid used to be a very social person and i knew longer am. the person who change my life forever continues to abuse me because forced arbitration gives him the power to do it in a secret. >> how did this happen? i want to show you the dealmakers who negotiated across partisan lines to reach a deal on this. any the house, we have cheri bustos of illinois. she reached out to virginia republican pin -- republican. these are not people who agree on many things peered wedded

republican get on board? gretchen carlson of fox news was a major factor. she had a problem with forced arbitration herself. she reached out to republicans including lindsay gray asked who knew her and said this is something congress has to deal with. we expect this bill to pass the senate and moved to the president as soon as tomorrow. >> and other bill that is receiving bipartisan support, postal reform. tell us where that stands and what it would do. >> i will run through this quickly but the post office is obviously facing a tremendous amount of red ink. here is what is going with this bill. it would save the postal service some $50 billion and it would move postal retirees into the care system. it would protect a six day delivery, which a lot of americans ly on. this bill has good prospects in the senate. no timing on that yet. this is a difficult issue congress is moving on quickly.

judy: some other significant bipartisan bills this week. >> you reported on one. the spending bill. the ominous -- the omnibus appropriations bill. publicans and democrats agreed on how much we should spend on defense and nondefense. also the violence against women act. it has set in limbo. it languished for three years unauthorized and now there is a deal to renew the violence against women act. th announced today. judy: and finally as all this is coming together, we know on a personal level there have been some tensions at the capit. >> that is right. yesterday, represented joyce beatty who is the head of the congressional black caucus asked a republican how rogers of kentucky to put on a mask when they were riding on a subway car. he refused and he poked her in the back and he said to her kiss

my -- and he used a word that begins with a and his three letters per of course she was insulted and demanded an apology. he did in fact apologize later but this is the kind of disrespect and cultural change that i have not seen in congress until recently. he is someone who is generally polite to reporters in the hallway. the fact he was so disrespectful to a high ranking member is significant to me. these personal tensions are very real. judy: thank you, lisa. ♪ the opioid overdose crisis killed more than 100,000 americans. the most ever. it is being called one of the

most pressing national security and public health challenges facing the u.s. these overdoses are costing the nation an estimated $1 trillion a year. we talk with one of the chrs of the national commission looking for solutions. > a mority of those overdoses are being driven by the highly potent synthetic opioid fentanyl manufactured abroad and trafficked into the u.s., it is sold by itself and mixed into various street drugs or counterfeit pharmaceuticals where the potency turns deadly. overdoses kill more people than car crashes, firearms, suicide or homicide. how do we address this? representative david truman's cochair of the national commission on combating synthetic opioid trafficking. great to have you on the newshour should your report lays out ways to address the supply of these drugs and the demand. i want to talk about the supply

issue first. as your report points out, mexican cartels are largely manufacturing the fentanyl and shipping it into the u.s. but they are relying on a steady stream of precursor chemicals to make those drugs from china. what do you think we ought to be doing vis-a-vis china to stop that flow? >> we certainly can disrupt the flow and we need to get china to enforce know your customer laws. they have a huge petrochemical industry. they have a handful of middlemen buying these drugs and shipping them to the two major cartels of mexico. we can put pressure on china to know where the product is going peered unfortunately, the precursors and pre-precursors can be readily found elsewhere once we do slow down from china. it is kind of whack a mole. if we stop it there, it can move to india, which has a major

chemical industry also. we end up back in mexico who is vertically integrated this whole business with the cartels. >> as you mentioned, the cartels in mexico has enormous political power. they are incredibly intimidating in mexican society. do you think the mexican government idoing enough to address this? >> the mexican government has had a very difficult time with corruption. it is a $100 billion business, the drug business. it is over a third of the mexican gross domestic product is controlled by the cartels. mexico unfortunately has adopted for survival of the individual's a hugs, not bullets approach. they are not going after the cartels because they don't want a civil war. the cartels are armed to the teeth.

there are 40's -- there are 36,000 murders last year. less than 1% were solved. >> let's turn to the demand side, which your report addresses specifically. these drugs are coming because there is some appetite for them in the united states. the report talks about the need to ramp up proven medically-assisted treatment for people suffering from addiction. argument as a society for years. i wonder why you think we have been so slow to ramp up that treatment that we know can work. >> a lot of folks are concerned abou giving the drug to stop the craving for another drug. medically assisted treatment works. you have to empower more doctors and nurses to prescribe these drugs. they can be a big win. as covid begins to recede, we have got to turn our attention to this or it will be another

million deaths by 2029 according to the latest research effort by stanford. that is kind of scary. >> like many of us, i know this issue is deeply personal for you. your nephew struggled for many years with adction and eventually died of an overdose. as you have commented publicly, this touches so many pple in this country. republicans, democrats and everybody else. do you think the bipartisan nature of addiction will help us finally start to address this for real? >> i think you hit the nail on the head. i came out of the business world. we never asked republican, democrat or independent. it is how we get the job done. this commission was formed to be bipartisan. senator tom cotton, a concert of a republican and myself -- a conservative republican and

myself a progressive democrat. we have been great partners peered senator cotten has been there every step of the way. recommendations on supply but mostly demand because i don't think we can stop the supply. it is demand. we are right there with this editor. now we have got to give this report life. not let it sit on the shelf. take it out and move actions through congress and also executive actions. >> i don't mean to sound pessimistic but these kinds of ideas have been circulating for a very long time. one of the recommendations you make to elevate the drug czar to a cabinet level position. why do you think it has taken us so long and so slowly to get -- to address this issue? >> we just cannot seem to get their consistent focus to keep our eye on the prize as john lewis talked about it. it was a cabinet level position

until 2008. 1993 to 2008 it was in the cabinet. president obama took it out. i don't understand why. since then, it is an l-shaped increase on deaths across our country. it is shouting. senator biden when he was in the senate on record supported it to be a cabinet level position. that is an important recommendation to organize all of government response and that is what our commission wants. executive, outside experts, republican, democrat. we are better than what we have shown so far. we cannot just let this continue and continue to have another million deaths by 2029. that is not who we are. we owe it to each other to step up and take action and put the talk to the side and work as a team, as a country.

>> representative david truman of maryland, thank you for being here. >> appreciate it. ♪ judy: we are going to get the latest u.s. government report on inflation tomorrow. once again, many economists believe the spike in prices is going to be high compared with a year ago. the inflations bite has been pronounced with some groups of americans pay include seniors living on fixed incomes and millenials who had already lost ground during the financial crisis in the great recession. our economics correspondent reports. >> at the south end senior center in hartford, can get, rising prices have seniors like hyacinth feeling the burn.

>> we look at your electrical bill. you look at your gas bill. especially now, food bill, it is ridiculous. >> retired utility worker mark demeo. >> it is up a dollar a pound so i cut back. >> in kennard dale, pennsylvania where backwoods broadband is intermittent should >> i live in the country so that happens sometimes. >> 34-year-old hannah says she cannot cut back on formula for her nine month old but the price -- >> it used to be $35 peered know we are paying 50 up to that is $15 in nine-month. that is crazy. >> in greenville, south carolina, a fellow millennial got a rude awakening in december shopping for used car. >> i did not realize how expensive it was. i said hold on, that is around the same price as 2015.

>> a car she needed for her sidekick as a ride-share driver. >> because of what is happening in our economy right now. >> what is happening is inflation. more money bitting up fewer goods and services. covid inflation pay the government printing and rolling out more money to prevent a pandemic collapse. covid clogged supply chains providing fewer goods. workers afraid to catch covid staying home providing fewer services. no surprise prices have shot up and no surprise pay -- folks who live paycheck-to-paycheck especially the old and young are the hardest hit. >> it has become more difficult to sustain myself. dark in riverside, california, antonio said his two part-time jobs in retail and for the county were paying less then his pre-pandemic job as a state election worker.

you have been blindsided by the increase in prices? >> yes, thinking i would still be able to get by or manage myself the same way in the past. dark in that regard, he is a typical millennial pin >> they are used to stable prices for their entire working career. >> allie wolf, herself a millennial. >> for the past 15 years, they have had roughly 2% inflation. that is what they are used to. costs go up a little bit. wages go up a little bit. purchasing power has roughly been stable. the pandemic head and it turned to the dynamics upside down. >> case in>> point, 38-year-old alexandra. she shares an apartment in santa fe, bikes to her job as a restaurant server yet struggles to make ends meet. >> i'm angry peered i'm still in this situation. i have to make do. get a second job. eat one meal a day. >> so you eat one meal a day on

your night shift at the restaurant and that is it? >> yeah and we have had pounds of rice and pasta. >> but you can affordhe fruits and vegetables? >> absolutely not right now. i'm a vegetarian. these are abstract issues to me. >> some millenials have resorted to more desperate measures. >> last month i was in dire straits. i had to donate plasma twice a week to afford rent. >> how much do they play for plasma? for newcomers, you get a bonus. anywhere from 100 to >> we are pre-planners so we stock up pretty well. >> even the most self-sufficient millennial we found was feeling the pinch could >> ammunition is super expensive. the box of shells used to be maybe 20 books. they are 40 now. >> what do you hunt?

>> deer, bear, turkey in our backyard. >> you don't kill bears in your backyard. >> you bet europea -- you betcha. get all the fat off of it. it is not too bad. >> what about dear? >> it absolutely delicious we have shot deer out of our living room window. >> it is now more expensive because ammunition has gone up in price. >> welcome to the country. >> she drives into town to work as a nurse. has your salary going up? >> not to match the prices. >> her plate is representative of average american workers. incomes rose 5% last year. inflation was at 7%. >> wages are going up but they are not going up as much as we have seen the inflation rate. >> inflation is not just out running worker paychecks.

. how about retired seniors living on fixed income? ? they cannot get out and get themselves a big job that can pay them a lot of money. >> some do get small jobs. this 71-year-old works part-time at the senior center to help cover her rising food costs. >> i am diabetic i have to have certain diets. >> the social security payment went up this year. not that much. >> payments from social security, which provides most of the typical seniors income went up five .9% in january. the largest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years. inflation was 7% last year and therefore says the senior citizen league's mary johnson -- >> the cost-of-living adjustment is not keeping up with the other

rising costs. >> rising costs like a $21 and $.60 increase in the monthly medicare part b premium from $148 entity cents to 170. a 15% indy -- 15% increase deducted directly from social security checks. >> medicare part b has increased over the years three times faster than the annual social security. that has been true for decades. >> decades in which prices for other essentials did not go up as rapidly as now. putting the squeeze on seniors like 76-year-old retired house painter robert. his social security about $1300 a month. more h hundred $35. -- mortgage 800 $35. >> my water is $100 a month.

i'm hoping that goes down since i fixed the toilet. >> when you subtract is medicare part b premium of $170, he is underwater by more than $100 a month sustained by snap benefits, food stamps. he says he cannot afford the senior center. these fos want to know what we all do. how long will the current inflation last? it provokes furious debate among economists including a famous one loudly unconcerned a year ago. >> i was relaxed about the inflationary outlook. >> nobel laureate paul krugman has been humbled in retrospect. >> i was wrong. it tns out inflation has come in way higher than i expected. >> he now asks, what is the cure? >> is it simply let up on the gas, tap the brakes or slam on the brakes? >> there are too many unknowns

to know it seems. supposedly, forecasts are difficult especially about the future. but hey, we will be living that future sooner and later. ♪ judy: in the first 40 days of this year, four mexican journalists have been murdered in targeted killings. even for a country that was already the world's deadliest for journalists, the surge has sparked calls for better protection and fundamental reforms. a war on truth and why mexico is unable to stop it. >> the report on corruption --

to report on corruption in mexico is to risk your life. a photographer killed by gunmen on january 17 in tijuana. one week before in veracruz, hosea stabbed to death. i cameraman and editor shot to death. on january 23, a broadcast journalist found murdered in her car. in between 19, she warned mexico's president her life was in danger i come here. . as well to >> >> ask for your support, help and just as at my workplace because i fear for my life. >> he announced three people had been arrested in her murder but of the 133 journalists killed since 2000, more tn 90% have gone unpunished. names and faces of murdered colleagues filled the interior gate. to discuss this, i'm joined by the committee to protect

journalists mexico representative. welcome to the newshour. why do you think we have seen this bike? -- this spike? dark i think what we are seeing now is the logical result of many years of negligence by the mexican state both in being able to protect journalists and combating impunity. mexico has long suffered from the prolifation of organized crab in much of its national territory. journalists are in a unique vulnerable position. they are hugely especially in the smaller towns and communities a very small pool of journalists so they are easily identifiable and very often local authorities colluding with organized crime are also involved in these attacks. it is incredibly difficult to report these crimes and to turn to anybody who might protect them. >> localization of violence is on that i asked a security

expert in mexico city earlier today. let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> journalists are more at red-p are the ones covering local news. stories about local corruption, local ties between politicians and quote unquote at actors. 20 years ago, drug traffic and organized crime was interchangeable terms or know you have a much more diversified set of criminal actors. u have a more fluid ecosystem . >> has that made journalists more dangerous? >> they spend their days basically chasing violent incidents, shootouts, bodies being dropped next to roads, accidents. what we hear very often is when

these reporters are covering these kind of incidents, they are threatened by gangs. there are threatened by family members of victims. there are threatened by police officers prayed sometimes followed by some cases this may lead to attacks near their homes. it is right what he was saying and given the fact many mexican organized criminal groups have fractured and become much smaller. it becomes increasingly more difficult to combat these groups and for journalists to know where the dangers might be coming from. >> police investigations, prosecutions, they are often weak and corrupt in mexico. is that why we are seeing a near impunity in terms of those who commit violence? >> absolutely. there is the very obvious collusion between agents of the state and organized crime or the fact that many authorities in mexico are willing to use extreme violence against journalists and human rights defenders.

there is also a lack of interest from authoties both federal, state and municipal to properly investigate these crimes. any of the cases we have been investigating have these elements of police officers not showing up, not taking reports seriously, not applying even the most basic due diligence that you would expect authorities to apply. all of that leads to a situation which is almost guaranteed a crime against a journalist is never solved. with disappearances, murders, it is almost 100%. it is the same thing with nonlethal crimes. > what about protection? is the government doing enough to protect journalists? >> there are a few institutions on the state and federal level that have been created to protect journalists and human rights defenders. most of the state agencies are only rudimentary. they exist in name only. they did not have their own

budget. hardly have any staff. have to work together with many of the police forces that are often accused of being the ones hind attacks against reporters it on a federal level, the situation is slightly better. we are talking about an institution that has very little in terms of money, resources. it has very few staff to their works for mexico city meeting it does not have any regional spread. no regional representatives and often does not have the knowledge, the know-how to deal with these situations. >> i wonder in terms of the president himself and his senior officials is how they talk about, how they treat about -- treat journalists creating a culture that makes their lives and work more dangerous? >> i think the relationship between the president and the press has been extremely tense and strained since the beginning of his administration. he assumed office three years ago. he spent most of his time attacking reporters.

disqualifying them, calling those who are critical, he calls them corrupt. he calls them right wingers. he calls them opponents of his political project. that has two very disconcerting effects. he gives a sign to his own institutions journalists are not people who should be taken seriously as victims of crimes. at the same time, he makes it harder for organizations like the committee to protect journalists to convey the urgency these crimes need to be addressed because he still has a very large support among the mexican population. anywhere between 40 and 60%. most of those people, they trust the president more than they trust most media. what he says about the media, what he says about journalists is true. >> thank you very much. ♪

judy: the middle passage refers to the stage of the atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved africans were forcibly transported to the americas across the atlantic ocean. one group is taking a literal deep dive to discover more of that history and to raise awareness of the implications for people today. jeffrey brown has more for our race matters and arts and cultures series canvas. duck under the sea, a magical world and also if you look hard enough and i'll test good dive, a living link to america's tortured past. >> combining the importance of history and ancestral memory and understanding how that applies today combining those things

with scuba diving, that was a match made in heaven. attention come everybody. make sure you know, you are close to and with your buddy. >> he has part of diving with a purpose. a group of primarily black drivers -- black divers who love to go underwater but have a larger mission, defined finding research sunken ships from the international slave trade. duck of the stories we tell are important. more importantly, the untold stories. these stories, the guerrero and many other ships as we got more involved in the search for the ships, became exciting because most people have not heard the story including myself. >> diving with a purpose was founded in 2003. to join an ongoingffort to find the remains of the

guerrero, a ship that wrecked on the reef of the florida keys in 1827 after a battle with a british warship trying to enforce anti-slave trade laws. of the enslaved africans on board, 41rowned. a national geographic explorer and storytelling fellow has written on the slave ships, the people on the mende divers looking for them in story -- in story. >> most people know the name of the mayflower, the ship that brought the pilgrims to the americas. but who knows the names of the guerrero or the henrietta marie? it is helping bring those lost souls back into memory and honoring them and acknowledging them. >> her life changed she says

when she first sell a photograph of dwp divers in the smithsonian national museum in washington, d.c. >> seeing a picture specifically of black women on this boat in wetsuits, i don't know what it was about them. they looked so free and so joyous. they reminded me of superheroes. i wanted to be like them. >> in 2018, she quit her job with a d.c. nonprofit and joined the dwp divers. according to slave wages.org, a database of decades of research by scholars at a consortium of universities, more than 36,000 transatlantic voyages were made between 1501 and 1867 carrying some 12 and a half-million captured people to ports any the americas. it is believed 1.8 million lost their lives and of the journey known as the middle passage.

around a thousand shipwrecks have been recorded. fewer than 10 have been located in studied. diving with a purpose as part of the project. international group of researchers and institutions hosted by t museum of african-american history and culture. combining maritime archaeology with training and engagement. she recalls coming up an anchor when she dove water believed to be the wrecks of two danish ships that sank off the coast of costa rica in 1710. >> it is very surreal and then to see this artifact from the 1700s and to know the history attached to the artifact. this is an amazing moment to actually put my eyes on this piece of history. >> it really is i would call

spiritual. >> he has made more than a thousand dives at several sites around the world. >> going down and searching for the ship, we are like a crime scene investigator because slavery is the biggest crime in the history of mankind. dark on of the best-known racks is the flow tilde, some purposefully by the owners in alabama's mobile bay to hide the evidence of its illegal voyage and 1860. it is the subject of renewed interest with a national geographic documentary, a book on its history. and another documentary that recently premiered at sundance focusing on the descendants of the more than 100 enslaved abroad on the ship from west africa. it is the continuing connections these wrecks have today that motivate those in diving with a purpose.

roberts has a new six part national geographic podcast titled into the depths to explore past and present. >> i wonder if black divers would notice different details if they would focus on finding artifacts that help us understand the full humidity of the captive africans. i hope that people come away knowing some facts that they did not know before. i hope that they fall in love with these divers in the same way i have paid i hope people are inspired to be a part of the work. >> did some outstanding work. we are going to recognize our new advocates. >> getting a new generation involved is key. diving with a purpose runs programs for young people across the country as well as in mozambique and costa rica. >> the hook is diving. scuba diving is so exciting. once they start diving, we give them a purpose.

we say how about learning about history? and then, the world is their oyster. >> is there an understanding a lot will never be found? >> yes, there is. the important part of this entire journey is literally telling the untold american story. if we do not find a ship, that does not mean we do not tell the story. as long as our young people take the mantle and tell those stories, that is what is important. >> for now, researchers and divers including members of diving with a purpose continue to search for the guerrero and other ships. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. judy: let's hope they find them one day. fascinating. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you.

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