judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, the aftermath -- grieving families search for answers about whether law enforcement responded quickly enough to the elementary school shooting at in uvalde, texas. then, covid in north korea -- the isolated nation scrambles to contain a coronavirus outbreak while still trying to flex its power with new missile tests. and, building with a vision -- the first black winner of the pritzker prize for architecture discusses his community-focused designs. >> there are more elements that can contribute to architecture than in the past. the social component is being

seen as something that is important. climate issues is important. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> fidelity dedicated advisors are here to help you create a wealth plan. a plan with tax sensitive investing strategies. planning focused on tomorrow, while you focus on today. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in

education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: there were growing concerns today about how police responded to the deadly elementary school massacre in uvalde, texas, that left 21 people dead, 19 of them children.

police indicated the school doors may have been unlocked when the gunman entered, and that he managed to stay inside for an hour before he was killed. amna nawaz is in uvalde. and she joins us now. amna, you have been talking to people there all day long. tell us about the questions that are now being raised about the police response. amna: judy, that's right. two days after the massacre here at robb elementary school, the pain is still very raw, still very real for so many here, those mourning the loss of those 19 children and two teachers. but authorities now are beginning to fill in some of the details as their investigation continues about exactly what happened and when, even as there are a number of details they still cannot or will not answer. as you mentioned, a couple of key details they revealed today for the first time. one, the biggest question has been, how did the gunman get into the school in the first place? officials saying today it appears that the door was just unlocked.

they have been sharing details that they're going through video and additional interviews as well. they say that detail could still change. but, right now, that is what they believe to be true. the other thing they mentioned is, despite earlier reports that the gunman as he approached the school building was confronted by and engaged by a school resource officer, who would be an armed police officer assigned here at the school, officials today say that was not true. there was no engagement, no confrontation outside of the school between the gunman and anyone else. in fact, officials would not even confirm that there was a school resource officer on site. so it appears, jy, we now know, between the time that gunman shot his grandmother, crashed a vehicle near the school, and made his way into this elementary school, he did so almost completely unobstructed. judy. judy: and so, amna, after talking to so many people there, are you getting a sense of what the main focus is now of the police investigation of this? amna: judy, the biggest

question, of course, is motive, if the school was targeted, why it was targeted, why these children in particular. but there are also really big questions about the timeline that remain, in particular, an hour-long gap authorities have not been able to fill in. they say the gunman entered the school a11:40 a.m. and confirmed it was an hour later that the tactical teams arrived, were able to enter, engaged him, and ended up killing him. now, border patrol officials have confirmed to me there was a group of what they call a stack, so-called formation of fr border patrol officers who ended up entering the building, engaging the gunman, and killing him. but there are a number of questions about why more and other law enforcement who officials say were on site four minutes after the gunman entered the building, why they didn't do more. in fact, i spoke to some residents who live here around this school, one man in particular who shot video from outside the school with residents here yelling at police officers right after the shooting, begging them and pleading with them to go inside and do more after hearing those shots fired, a sense of

frustration that we hear in that video. and that man tells me he shot that video between 12:15 and 12:30, wch means it was at least 35 minutes after the gunman had entered the building. so there are a number of questions about why law enforcement didn't do more to go in sooner. and, if they had, could they have done more to save the lives of those 19 children and two teachers. judy. judy: so disturbing to look at that video, which has now been circulating. amna nawaz, who is in uvalde. and now we want to show you the tape, the reporting that amna filed just moments ago. amna: in the early morning light of a new day, two rows of crosses stood in front of robb elementary school. amid the mourning, there are new questions about how police responded to tuesday's shooting. in the chaotic scene that unfolded, parents and local residents stood outside, frustrated, as the minutes ticked by. >> you are scared to get shot? i will go in without a gun. >> hey, we got guys going in to

get kids, ok? amna: texas department of public fety regional director victor escalon today said the 18-year-old gunman, salvador ramos, appears to have walked into the school unobstructed at 11:40 a.m. on tuesday. law enforcement, he says, was on the scene within four minutes, but that an hour elapsed before tactic teams arrived and killed him. victor: during this time that they're making those calls to bring in help to solve this problem and stop it immediately, they're also evacuating personnel. when i say personnel, students, teachers. there's a lot going on, a lot -- complex situation. amna: despite multiple questions from reporters, escalon would not confirm any additional timeline details. dr. roy guerrero was at the hospital when many of the children arrived. dr. guerrero: there's doctors, nurses, every kind of health care worker everywhere, blood on the floor, kids in the hallway bleeding, surgeons working on

patients in the room amna: dr. g, as he's known, has cared for hundreds of uvalde children since they were babies. dr. guerrero: and the first thing i thought was like, oh, crap, is this onof my kids? and, lo and behold, it was, and not just one, two, or three. at this count, so far, it's five. amna: five kids? dr. guerrero: five kids. amna: that you treated? dr. guerrero: that i have seen since they were newborns. amna: guerrero described the scene that confronted medical staff at the hospital. dr. guerrero: it was probably the most horrible thing i have ever seen in my life, with basically not recognizable, with the majority of his facial features and head missing at that point. and then you cover that part back up, you can just recognize a little boy below that with a cartoon shirt, cartoon shoes. this is a kid that was just at school doing their normal daily thing. so, i think that was the hardest part of my day. amna: among his patients, an 11-year-old girl who survived the shooting. dr. guerrero: in a nutshell, this kiddo just said that she was in a room where her teacher got shot.

she actually explained how her teacher yelled out, asking for help, and asked her to call 911. and this kid was smart enough to cover herself with blood that she had found on the floor to basically, so the shooter would not identify her and shoot at her. amna: this little girl thought to do that? dr. guerrero: she did. she did, 10, 11 years old, and can think like that. amna: as the names of the victims were confirmed, dr. g remembered one in particular, amerie jo garza. dr. guerrero: i have known her since she was basically a newborn, right? so, this kiddo was yours all this time. you saw them grow up, and now they're gone. and we don't understand why. i think it's the finality of that, right, that you can't change it, no matter what -- no matter what you do. amna: for the second straight day, peoe in and around uvalde turnedp for one another, lining up here for a blood drive. keric: you can't do anything else. you can't give money to the families. you can't -- maybe you can't bring food, but the little thing

you can do, like donate blood, and we do that. amna: keric hill drove from his home 6miles away and took the day off from work in order to donate. keric: you all cover all this now. but, in two weeks, a week, the next event, all the cameras will be gone, and all these families will still be going through e same thing. everybody will be changed here. there's no way something like this can happen in this kind of area, with the way these children have seen things, the way law enforcement, everybody had to clean everything up. and it just -- there's no way this isn't going to last. amna: texas gubernatorial candidate beto o'rourke, who's long called for gun control measures, also gave blood, and spoke to reporters afterwards. congressman, these kinds of attacks continue to happen. is there any sense that this time is somehow different in any way, that something will change? beto: it is up to us. it's up to all of us.

these kids, their parents, with whom i have met, didn't choose this. we, the people of texas, though, have a choice. we all know that we can change this. we all know that we have the power to change this. we all know that it's going to take a long time. >> we're here for you. amna: with grief still through the community, hundreds streamed into a vigil last night. locals filled the stands to the rafters, spilling onto the dirt floor. a space typically reserved for roos last night was a house of healing. >> i cry a lot. and i cried a lot today and yesterday. i may cry some more here as we speak. you may cry because our hearts are broken. we are devastated. amna: the prayers and powerful messages belie the deep pain many here are still carrying.

roy and dora sotelo brought their two daughters to the vigil. as the girls' schools went on lockdown during the shooting, little sister leia texted big sister chloe. chloe: i opened my phone and i went to facebook. and i saw the police department post an active shooter on -- at robb school. and the first thing i did was text some friends and, like, ask if their siblings are ok. and then i texted my sister, because she texted me. she was like, i love you. if anything, just remember that. and i texted her, like, you're ok. like, you will be fine. amna: you sent her that message? leia: yes. amna: why did you send it? leia: because i didn't know what was going to happen. i didn't know if it was going to be my last day or not. roy: i have a lot of friends that lost their kids, and it's hard. you want your kids to bury you. you don't want to bury them. so, it's hard.

it's hard. amna: residents here in uvalde are still very much in mourning, feeling that loss and the grief. and even as we stand here today outside of robb elementary school, community members continue to show up to bring flowers and memorials for the 19 children and two teachers who were killed. funeral preparations are now under way. and two funeral homes have confirmed to us they will be providing those services free of charge to the families. but, judy, we should also mention there's a growing sense of outrage over why moreas not done and could more have been done by law enforcement responding to the shooting on that day to possibly save the lives of those children and teachers. judy. judy: oh, amna, it's clear that community has come together, but it's so hard, so hard to listen to these families you spoke with. thank you, amna. this latest attack has once again raised questions about how to prevent these kinds of tragedies. and here in washington, a bipartisan group of lawmakers

met today to discuss what, if any, potential solutions could earn the necessary 60 votes in the u.s. senate. carl hulse is the chief washington correspondent for "the new york times." he joins me now from capitol hill. carl hulse, welcome back to the “newshour.” your piece that you wrote this morning was headlined, why republicans won't budge on guns. and you quoted a comment from north dakota senator carl -- i'm sorry -- kevin cramer. tell us about that exchange and what he said. carl: well, senator cramer -- i give him credit for being pretty forthright -- was engaged in a discussion, said, well, i'm not -- i don't want to take things off the table. i'm going to consider things. and i asked him, i said, what would happen to you, how would your voters respond if you backed gun control? and he said, they would probably throw me out of office. and i think that kind of sums up where a lot of republicans are

on this issue, judy. unfortunately, we have been here before. there's a terrible, horrific mass killing, pressure on capitol hill to do something about it. talks start about doing something about it, but they don't really lead anywhere. i mean, there's a little bit of optimism this evening that this bipartisan group could get somewhere. the members say things feel different this time. but it's hard to imagine in this environment, in a midterm election year, them finding any really significant agreement. so we're just going to have to watch it. congress left today, the senate, until -- for about 10 days. and that could take momentum out of these talks, too. so a little bit of hope, but not much optimism, if those two things can go together. judy: and we have heard in the past a little bit of hope after these kinds of incidents, but, most of the time, it's faded after. i do want to ask you, carl,

where this opposition comes from, since there are public opinion polls that show a large percentage of americans favor some kind of regulation, background checks, for example. so where does this opposition come from? carl: right. it is an interesting thing. it's overwhelmingly popular, but these members here, they're -- the republicans, they're from conservative states. people take their gun rights very seriously, certainly in north dakota, south dakota, those states that -- where these votes would have to come from. and they -- members just worry that the backlash is going to come from those people. it's almost a single-issue voter-type suation, where, if they go ahead and agree with some kind of gun control, that that's going to be it for them. of course, the nra is still -- it's wounded and weakened, the nra, by some internal scandals, financial improprieties, but it

is still a force in republican politics. no republican wants to be attacked by the nra. it can bring a primary challenge. of course, a lot of the primaries are already done this year. judy: right. carl: but that doesn't change the calculation. a lot of republicans really think that gun -- gun rights just have to be unfettered, and they're going to act that way. it's hard to see -- as you said, it takes 10 -- it's going to take 10 votes from republicans to break a logjam or a filibuster on gun rights. it's hard to count to 10. judy: so, just to be clear here, you're saying that, even if there weren't the nra out there lobbying -- and, of course, they're a powerful organization, and they give a lot of money. different gun rights organizations give a lot of money. carl: right. judy: you're saying, even without that, because of the grassroots support for gun rights, you believe the republican numbers would be what they are? carl: yes, i do believe that. i think they're responding not only to the nra, but to their constituents. they hear this from their

constituents. there's a lot of fear in that community that the federal government is really out to take their guns. of course, that's not correct. and even with the limited universal background check that people are -- would like to see put in place, americans have a lot of opportunity to buy guns. but it's just this ideological issue, and they're not moving away from it, even in this setting. however, these talks might produce something. there are some new developments. setor john cornyn, who, of course, you know from texas, former member of the leadership. judy: yes. carl: he seems to be taking part. it's his home state. people are saying that he's someone to look at here. it's possible. but chris murphy, senator from connecticut, newtown, who's been a big leader on gun control efforts in congress, said today, it's like, we're going to try, we're going to give it a little time, maybe two weeks. but if there's no agreement,

we're still going to force votes on the senate floor and get everyone on the record. judy: yes. and we actually spoke with senator murphy here on the "newshour" last night. what is so interesting is seeing this opposition to any regulation stay so strong, despite these rapid-fire military-style weapons that are being used. carl hulse with "the new york times," thank you so much. carl: thank you, judy. judy: well, the horror of what happened in texas is leaving yet more families, friends, and community members grieving, even ones. it's an experience that many survivors and families know all too well from previous attacks at sandy hoo aurora, parkland, columbine, and too many others to count. john yang talks about that with a survivor of the parkland shooting. john: judy, in february 2018, 17 people, 14 of them students, were killed and 17 others wounded in a shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school in

parkland, florida. it remains the deadliest high school shooting in u.s. history. survivors, families, and friends of the dead and other parkland residents have dealt have dealt with their pain and grief, and many are now activists. aalayah eastmond is one of those survivors. she's on the executive council of team enough, a youth-led movement working to reduce gun violence. she's also a student at trinity college in washington, d.c. aalayah, thanks so much for joining us. having survived the horror of that high school shooting, i imagine it's ry difficult for you to hear about, to learn about the shootings inhe past couple of weeks, buffalo and now the shooting in texas. help us understand, what have the last two weeks been like for you? aalayah: well, honestly, i can't even remember half of my week because all i have been focusing on is these shootings, because

they keep happening back to back. and we have to also acknowledge the everyday gun violence that we're seeing in our communities in inner cities as well. so my mind has just been on go. and it's just been filled with trauma and flashbacks relating to my shooting that i experienced in 2018, when i was only 16. so it's just a lot of numb feelings, a lot of anger, a lot of disappointment, and, honestly, a lot of shame, because i think the issue of gun violence is something that we should be ashamed of in this country. john: if you had a message for the people who were in that grocery store in buffalo, and especially the children who were in the school in texas, what would it be? what would you want to tell them? aalayah: honestly, i would just say, i am so sorry that we couldn't prevent this from happening since parkland. i feel like parkland should have been the last. sandy hook should have been the last. columbine should have been the

last. like, we keep seeing these shootings happening year after year after year. and not enough is being done to prevent them. so, i honestly -- as a fellow survivor, i would just apologize, because i feel like this is preventable and this shouldn't be happening. and especially, especially elementary school children shouldn't have to deal with being gunned down in their schools. john: and what would you tell them to help them prepare for the days, the weeks, the months, the years ahead? aalayah: yes, i mean, for me, grief and trauma is different for everyone. for me, it got a little harder for me as i went to college after high school. and i decided to go to college out of state. so it was hard to be away from family. but i do want to emphasize that it gets a little easier when you know how to function in your new normal. a lot of times for gun violence survivors, especially from my high school, we look at life as before the shooting, and then after the shooting. so, acknowledging what life was before and trying to get back into that happiness or that

groove is somewhat helpful, but it's difficult, and it's different for everyone. but i would just emphasize staying with family and friends and being around loved ones, and just knowing that the rest of this country is standing with you, we support you, and we're always here to support you in whatever endeavors you have coming forward or in anything that you need support with. john: if history is any guide of the future, the survivors of buffalo, the survivors of uvalde, texas, are going to have weeks like you have just had, of having to hear news reports of these things again and again. is there anything you can say to help them prepare for that? aalayah: yes, mean, it's different for everyone. i think having the power or the tools of social media makes it a lot harder to separate yourself from these tragedies, because we're seeing it consistently every single day on our cell phones, on our tv's.

but one thing that i and other survivors from my high school like to do is, when we see things that are happening, and it gets overwhelming, it's ok to put your phone down. it's ok to turn off the tv. it's ok to just take moment -- take a moment to be with your family and be with your friends, because, especially when tragedies are happening, it's like a flashback for survivors. it's a moment to remember what you experienced. and that can be hard, especially when it's like a normal, random weekend and you hear another mass shooting happened. so just taking time for yourself is ok and just surrounding yourself with people that love you and support you is the best advice that i can give. john: you talked about wanting to apologize to these people for that -- that it happened again, that it happened to them. does that -- the fact that nothing really has been done or very little has been done since the incident at your high school, does that make you angry? does it make you frustrated? do you -- are you resigned to nothing happening? are you hopeful that something

will happen? aalayah: i'm disappointed, angry, literally all of the abov especially as a young woman, growing up in this generation where we have to fear for our lives because of gun violence. and it doesn't even matter where you are, where you're located, what you're doing. it's one of those things that can happen to anyone anywhere at any time. and it's honestly scary. and i am just so disappointed in this country and the leaders of this nation for continuing to turn a blind eye to this issue, and not listening to the young people that are crying for help, that are crying to not have to worry about going to school and being gunned down, or family members going to the grocery store and being worried about getting gunned down in the grocery store, or even churches, or just anywhere. it's just, honestly, a disgrace. and i think leaders of this nation should be ashamed of themselves. and they need to step up and do action now, because this will continue to happen as the years

go on. john: aalayah eastmond, a survivor of the shooting at the marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida, thank you very much. aalayah: thank you. judy: the massacre in uvalde is again driving heated debate about the millions of guns owned by americans, and how some clearly disturbed people can get those weapons and wreak havoc in an instant. william brangham has more on what we're learning about how to interrupt that process. william: that's right, judy. there is a technique known as behavioral threat assessment that tries to do just that, to recognize the warning signs that someone is about to commit a violent act and find a way to effectively step in and head off disaster. i'm joined now by two people who know a great deal about this work. mark follman is an editor at "mother jones" and author of “trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america.” and marisa randazzo is the executive director of threat assessment at the security firm ontic.

she used to be chief research psychologist at the u.s. secret service. thank you both very much for being here. and, mark follman, to you first. a lot of your book looks at the research and implementation of these behavioral threat assessments. could you explain what they are? what are they looking for? how does it work? mark: yes, so this is a method that brings together multidisciplinary expertise in mental health, in law enforcement, in education, in other fields to work collaboratively to evaluate specific individuals who are raising concern that come to the attention of authorities, to try to figure out the level of danger with threatening comments or social media posts or other concerning behavior, and to try to figure out what the root problems are with the individual, so as to step in and intervene constructively, essentially to get the person the help that they may need. so many of the people who commit

these attacks are people who are spiraling into crisis, suffering from rage and despair and developing violent ideas, and th planning to carry them out. so, that presents opportunity to intervene before it's too late. william: marisa randazzo, you have been helping develop and implement some of these types of practices. it sounds like this research both punctures some of the myths that we have about these types of attacks, that someone just snaps in an instant and goes on one of these rampages, but also that there is, as mark was just mentioning, a sort of recognizable pathway leading up to these events that we could intervene in. can you explain a little bit more about that? marisa: yeah, sure. research that i have been part of and others at the secret service and the fbi and elsewhere for the past several decades has actually shown that these types of shootings are thought out in advance, planned out in advance, that the planning behavior is observable

to other people around them, and i'd say probably most importantly that the would-be shooter tells other people beforehand about the violence that they're planning to commit. so there's information out there which, from a behavioral threat assessment standpoint, means we have an opportunity to uncover someone on that pathway to violence, and to move them off that pathway to violence before they can do harm. william: so, mark, picking up from that, let's say school officials, law enforcement, parents, whomever it is that are doing these assessments do make those identifications that someone is in trouble. what happens then? mark: well, what a team will do is develop a plan to then manage the person of concern and to try to help them and, as marisa said, get them onto a better path. this is a process that takes place over time. i was able to go inside a number of these cases over a period of many months a community and oregon, a school district there that has a robust version of

this model. and, often, what you see is, by extending troubled student help with counseling, with individual educational support, with working closely with the family whenever possible, these troubled people can be helped. they can be moved on to a different path and do better. and there are successful cases like this that are happening quite a bit around the country. the public doesn't hear about them because the result is good. there isn't a violent outcome. and so it's good that we don't hear about them. william: right. we so rarely hear good news about these kinds of things. it is good to know that those things are happening. marisa randazzo, i wonder if you could talk a little bit more what you were mentioning before, which is the things that we know are warning signs. i know that there's a lot of parents, a lot of family members out there who are thinking, is what i'm seeing in this young person in my life just natural

teen angst or is this something more problematic? like, can you tick off some of the things that really do stand out as warning signs of trouble? marisa: well, one of the things that's really important is that students are likely to be the ones who hear long before and adult notices any concern. students are likely to be the ones who have heard about these ideas, these plans of violence, maybe someone's sort of starting to joke about it, talking about researching previous attacks. so, any students, any peer who sees something directly, sees it on tiktok, on youtube, on instagram, wherever it may be, if they hear anyone mentioning, engaging in, thinking about, planning for some type of school shooting or some type of violence, it's really important to bring that information forward. so that's a big piece that our students can help in terms of safety. the other piece is, one thing we often see and we miss is that, especially for boys and young

men, depression looks quite different than what we see kind of from the hollywood script. so, depression in boys and men often comes across as an act of anger, rage, an attraction to extremist ideology, attraction to hate. and we may just dismiss that not as a clinical concern, a mental health concernbut as a boys will be boys or it's just a phase. it actually might be a symptom of an underlying clinical depression. so a parent who sees that in their own child, some -- a teacher who sees that, it's important, again, to get this to your threat assessment team, or get this information to someone who's in a position to take a look at this clinically, even if it's a pediatrician, and say, hey, i'm concerned about this. could this be a sign of underlying clinical depression? william: mark follman, your book "trigger points" has several examples of successful interventions that you touched on before. can you briefly give us just a sense of one example where people saw a particular case, a

young person, and what they saw and how they acted? mark: sure. well, one story i tell in the book is the ca of a high school junior who i call brandon. this is in the salem-keizer district in oregon. and he made a series of threatening comments or what could possibly be threatening comments that were overheard by peers. he talked about bringing a gun to school and shooting up the school on a friday. one student who overheard it wasn't sure if he was joking. this is a pattern we see in a lot of cases with school threats and shootings. with the buffalo shooter and with the shooter at oxford high school in michigan, there were these sort of feints about just joking. that's an important signal to a team, especially with a series of comments over time. and so the team discovered that there was a lot of other things going on with the student that were concerning. he was starting to deteriorate in some ways personally. he was failing out of classes. he quit a drama club that he'd

been very engaged in. so these were, taken together, a picture of a student in crisis. and coupled with threatening comments that he was making, they took a serious look and moved to intervene quickly. they first had to determine, did he have access to the gun he was threatening to bring to school? it turned out the answer was no. but then the question was, how do you manage this over the longer term? and so the team made a plan for that, and worked with teachers that they could connect him with more closely. that's an important principle of this work too. often, there's a lack of connection with at-risk youth who are starting to think about violence of this nature. and by taking this series of steps over a period of months, i was able to see how this really helped brandon into a better place and was no longer thinking about violence and planning violence went on to graduate. william: that's really -- it's what we need to hear more of. marisa randazzo, you touched on this before, which is, in the

case that mark is talking about in texas, in buffalo, and in all of these other cases that we now know, unfortunately, by name, these are young boys, these are young men who are largely committing these mass shootings. do we know why? what is the connection between being a young male in america and being the overwhelming preponderance of mass shooters? marisa: one big piece that is often not talked about is the fact that the vast majority of these shooters are at a point of being despondent or even suicidal when they carry out these attacks. some of them have actually planned to kill themselves, to take their own life at the end of the attack that they were engaging in. a lot of the tools that we have available to us that we know helps someone who is feeling suicidal are actually quite appropriate for managing cases like this, where their thought is about taking other lives before taking their own. that's a big piece of what's

motivating it. there's often these underlying problems that they now feel overwhelm their ability to solve them, overwhelm their ability to cope. and they may start to look at suicide as a solution, may start to research it and discover others who've engaged in a homicide/suicide situation, particularly these mass school shootings. and so they start to look at it as a viable option. when we can uncover someone who is starting to think along those lines, figure out what that underlying problem is, why are they feeling overwhelmed, why are they feeling despondent, and like they have no options left, they don't want to live anymore, that's where we can get in, find solutions, connect them to support and care, and get them off that pathway to violence and keep them off that pathway to violence. william: so important to know that this work exists and it's had some successes. marisa randazzo, mark follman, thank you both very much for joining us. marisa: thank you. mark: thank you.

stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. russia insisted that ukraine understand, quote, "the real situation" and accept moscow's demands. those include ceding swaths of land. inastern ukraine, russian fire pounded dozens of towns, leaving debris and smashed homes. ukrainian officials conceded their troops face an extremely difficult time. >> as of today, the aggressor conducts intensified fire along the ole line of contact and the positions of our forces in the donetsk operational region. the situation is difficult and there are signs of escalation. the enemy has used all resources to capture our territory and surround our forces. stephanie: separately, russian president putin suggested his

naval blockade of ukraine's ports could ease if western sanctions are lifted. the blockade has largely stopped ukraine's grain exports. the biden administration called today for the bloc of nations confronting russian aggression to join in challenging china. secretary of state antony blinken criticized beijing's aggressive moves abroad and increaserepression at home. he said china poses an even greater danger to global order than russia does. sec. blinken: while our policy has not changed, what has changed is beijing's growing coercion, like trying to cut off taiwan's relations with countries around the world and blocking it from participating in international organizations. and beijing has engaged in increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity. stephanie: at the same time, blinken said the u.s. is ready to work with china on climate change and other issues. meanwhile, china's top diplomat began a tour of eight pacific island nations. it came amid growing concerns over beijing's spreading military and financial influence

in the region. the chinese foreign minister led a large delegation to their first stop, the solomon islands. the two nations have signed a sweeping new security pact. the ousted prime minister of pakistan, imran khan, called off a mass sit-in outside parliament today. thousands of protesters had clashed with police in islamabad, calling for the new government to resign. khan demanded new elections, or warned he'd be back with three million supporters. imran: i am giving the government six days to announce a new election date, announce elecon dates in the month of june, dissolve assemblies. if you do not, then i will come back to islamabad with all of my men. stephanie: the current prime minister signaled he is open to talking with khan, but he said any decision about elections has to be made by parliament. back in this country, a state appeals court in new york ruled that former president trump must

answer questions under oath in a civil probe of his financial dealings. his son donald junior and daughter ivanka are included in the order, first issued by a lower court. mr. trump could still appeal to the state's highest court. he also still faces a parallel criminal investigation. the centers for disease control said it has identified nine cases of monkeypox across seven states. some of the cases in the united states are being rorted in individuals without a history of recent international travel, although officials say the risk of widespread transmission is low. new census data shows that eight of the 10 largest american cities lost population in the first year of the pandemic. new york dropped by more than 300,000 people. los angeles and chicago also madehe list. san francisco lost more than 6% of its pre-pandemic population, the largest rate of decline. and actor ray liotta, best known for his roles in “goodfellas” and “field of dreams,” has died.

his publicist says he passed away in his sleep overnight in the dominican republic, where he was filming a movie. ray liotta was 67 years old. still to come on the “newshour”" why north korea conducted missile tests shortly after president biden's trip to asia. and the first black winner of the pritzker prize for architecture explains his innovative work. >> this is "pbs newshour" from ta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: this afternoon, the u.s. confirmed that north korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this week. that announcement was made in the security council, where china and russia vetoed a resolution that would have imposed new sanctions on north korea. all of this coincides with the country's first admitted outbreak of covid-19.

nick schifrin has the story. amb. thomas-greenfield: the provisional agenda for this meeting is nonproliferation. nick: in new york today, a failed attempt to further isolate north korea. amb. thomas-greenfield: we cannot let this become the new norm. we cannot tolerate such dangerous and threatening behavior. nick: the security council rejected a u.s.-led resolution to sanction north korea and deliver humanitarian aid, because of russian and chinese vetoes. through a translator, chinese ambassador said sanctions would punish the people of north korea, whose official acronym is dprk. amb. jun: additional sanctions against dprk would only add to the misery of the dprk people and, in this sense, neither right nor humane. nick: the vote was a response to north korea's testing three missiles on tuesday, including what the u.s. says was the sixth intercontinental ballistic missile launch just this year. the response wn't only diplomatic. hours after the north korean test, south korea and the u.s.

launched short-range missiles and displayed dozens of american-made fighter jets. already this year, the u.s. says north korea has conducted 23 ballistic missile launches and is trying to build an arsenal that can survive a u.s. attack. jean: we have seen hypersonic missiles. we have seen submarine-launched missiles, so really making and creating missiles that are harder to detect. nick: jean lee is a senior fellow at the wilson center and a former journalist based in pyongyang. she says the tests' timing is no mistake. pres. biden: president yoon and i committed to strengthening our close engagement. nick: immediately after president biden's first asia trip and a synchronized message from south korean president yoon suk-yeol to north korea. pres. suk-yeol: president biden and i shared serious concerns and agreed on the need to prioritize them over any other issue. jean: it's hard not to see this as a kind of rebuke or response to that show of strength. interesting that it wasn't timed to take place during the visit,

but just after the visit. nick: what's the significance of waiting, i suppose, until biden left? jean: perhaps there's a little bit of a signal there that he wants to raise tension, but i think he does eventually want to get back to negotiations. nick: four years after north korea's last nuclear test, u.s. intelligence officials are also worried pyongyang is excavating demolished tunnels at its nuclear testing site and preparing another test. je: the developments and advancements that every test makes in terms of those nuclear devices, ty get more and more powerful each time. each of these tests gets them closer to perfecting this technology, refining this technology. nick: but north korea now faces a different test and the military a new mobilization. last week, army medics helped treat what the country calls cases of fevers. workers in hazmat suits spray buildings with disfectant. health workers visit residents suspected to be sick.

and the equivalent of dr. fauci gives daily updates. ryu: we are aggressively broadcasting informative programs, as residents want to know about this epidemic disease clinical course in medicine treatment. nick: those programs tell citizens to make gargles with salt, drink herbal tea, and take painkillers. and they promote homemade cures. >> i disinfected the room with alcohol, burnt the plant mugwort, and circulated air. i think it can be treated like a regular cold. nick: covid is now openly discussed because kim jong-un himself declared a national emergency.ialsay more than 2.5 million, 10% of the population, got sick. dr. park: i think it's a major, major outbreak. and it's also nationwide, nick. it is in every province of north korea. nick: dr. kee park is a neurosurgeon who has been training north korean doctors for mo than a decade. he says the country's health infrastructure is ill-prepared. dr. park: i'm quite concned about the capacity of the north korean health system to absorb

the surge of patients. i think there's just a handful of ventilators. i worry about things like oxygen, which is a critical component of treatment of this condition, and then basic medical needs like drugs, i.v. fluids. nick: north korea had shut down its borders and, until recently, claimed zero covid cases. but the country partially reopened this past january and increased trade with china. this week, officials said cases were dropping. but the population of north korea is vulnerable. 40% are undernourished and nobody is known to be vaccinated. dr. kee park: you have got the virus that came in ripping through the country, and you have a population that was unprepared, in two ways, actually. one is, you have got a vulnerable population that's undernourished. on top of that, you have zero vaccination, and then no inherit immunity within the population. nick: so far, north korea has rejected all offers of vaccines, including from the u.s. and u.n. but admitting a crisis might mean north korea is open to receiving help, says lee. jean: to cement his legacy, that it would be a different focus

for kim jong-un and that he would start looking at foreign policy and i think that also means at looking for a way to signal to the outside world that he's ready to start engaging, that he's ready to start reaching out. nick: what north korea is perhaps not ready for, fighting a virus that it's only now admitted it can't control. for the "pbs newshour," i'm nick schifrin. judy: the biggest international prize in architecture, the pritzker prize, will be awarded tomorrow in london. it is going to an architect known for his work on buildings that address social needs, particularly in african countries. this year's prize also makes history as francis kere becomes the first african and the first black architect to earn the honor. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and culre series,

canvas. jeffrey: a primary school built in 2001, the first in the village of gando in the west african nation of burkina faso. its very existence, plus its use of local materials, natural light and ventilation, have made it a game-changer for its community, for the field of architecture, and for its designer, diebedo francis kere, who had to leave his home here at age seven to attend school in a nearby town. diebedo: going to school is still a big, big dream for millions of young people in africa. this is still a big dream. and so, i was very, very lucky. and i felt privileged to be able to attend school education. what do you do if you are privileged le i am to be one of the very first from my community to attend school education? so i went back trying to build a school for the other kids. so that was how i started my career.

jeffrey: that career, after a scholarship later allowed kere to study in germany, where he continues to work, has now won him the pritzker prize, architecture's highest honor. but he's never forgotten the experience of sitting in dark, stifling classrooms as a child. diebedo: you had very tiny little openings, and you had no light inside the classroom, while outside you had the bright sun. so i wanted to create a school in my village to allow other kids to stay in the village and be able to attend education. education is so important for human development. but i wanted to have better classrooms. i wanted to have well-ventilated classrooms. i wanted to have bright person. i wanted people to feel happy going to school. jeffrey: last year, a "new york times" survey named the school he designed in gando as one of the 25 most significant works of postwar architecture. and kere, now 56, has continued to define and refine an architecture of social purpose, schools, housing, health care

centers, and more, mostly in africa, always working with limited resources, and using simple materials such as wood and clay. kere often works closely with community members, at times including them in the building, and even helping raise funds for projects through a foundation he first created to help build the school in gando. this doesn't sound like the normal activities for an architect. diebedo: yes. yes, this is right. it wasn't that easy. it was not the normal way. i needed to create this structure in order to raise the needed money to be able to build the school. and we succeeded, honestly. i think it was good. you know, it's a great experience. for me, it was the best thing that i could do. jeffrey: why has it been so important to involve the community, even having them help build some of these buildings? diebedo: yes. no, it's really important. it's about, how do you transfer knowledge?

if you build a school and you have the community be involved, there's two things that are happening. first, you are getting the community to really become proud, the common sense. it is we. it is our school. and they will protect it. so, the second thing, most important, is knowledge. you are diffusing, you are transferring knowledge. and then you're making your community even stronger. at the end of the day, i am the one that gained a lot from that. i have a happy community that had a school and i'm very happy. and i am getting even to talk to you, to talk to you, jeffrey. can you imagine? jeffrey: kere's firm designed the serpentine pavilion in london in 2017. and he's shown a whimsical side in so far limited work in the u.s., colorful towers for a 2019 installation at the coachella music festival, a structure called xylem at the tippet rise art center in fishtail, montana.

among his recent or ongoing projects, the benin national parliament, now under construction, the goethe institute in dakar, senegal. a community playground soon to open in kampala, uganda, and in the design stage in germany, a bridge in mannheim, and a kindergarten in munich. at the heart of every project, he says, are the people he's building for, especially in his home region. diebedo: i realize, wow, i have not just only created the structure, but i am changing the game, how people see things, you know? people in my place, they love the west. you don't know that. they love the west, they love your culture, and they want to have it. but, often, we don't have educated people to get our people to benefit from all these achievements in science, in design, in economic innovation. and i did -- with architecture, i did this for my people.

jeffrey: how much does that translate to work that you do in europe, in the u.s., in work that you will do? diebedo: first off, all my work is transporting optimism. and it is looking how we can learn from past and to creat something th is refreshing by apying materials that are not causing a heavy burden to the environment. so these issues are not just for the poor, the poor community. it is worldwide. jeffrey: another way in which this prize is important, kere is the first african and first black architect to win the pritzker in its 44-year history. diebedo: it's just history, and i am part of it. so, i take it. it's a great, great honor, a big privilege, if it can inspire others. but about the field of architecture, there is something we have to know. studying architecture is very expensive. and access to ankind of

education in africa, where you have most black people living, is also not easy. jeffrey: and then there is the cost of building itself. but kere believes that an increased focus on the kind of work he does can help change the larger field of architecture. diebedo: in the moment, there are more elements that can contribute to architecture than in the past. the social component is being seen as something that is important. climate issues is important. and so i am very happy that my work has become where this was needed. but i wish that the world will create more schools in africa, so that we see, in the near future, more inspiring examples from africa. and i hope many of them will win pritzker. for sure, they will. [laughter] jeffrey: all right, diebedo francis kere, congratulations again, and thank you very much. diebedo: thank you. thank you very much. and i hope to see you soon. thank you. judy: i love that he says he

wants his work to project optimism. and with that, 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. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "newshour."

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