♪ john: good evening. i'm john yang. geoff bennett is away. tonight on "pbs news weekend"... a shortage of pilots causes headaches for airlines and travelers across the country. and... with public hearings on the capitol attack now underway, a look at the wider impact of january 6 on american life. hakeem: this was about much more than a perception that some election had been stolen. this was a kind of racial backlash. john: then... the implications for professional golf and for geopolitics from a new competition financed by saudi arabia. all that and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend." ♪

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening. we begin with today's headlines... and the second gathering of the student led march for our lives rally. thousands in cities across the country gathered to demand action on gun control. in the nation's capital, speakers urged the crowd to keep up pressure on lawmakers to pass new legislation, and not allow recent mass shootings in uvalde and buffalo to fade from public attention. among the speakers, raymond whitfield, whose mother was killed in the buffalo grocery store mass shooting. raymond: and yes, this time, this mom happens to be mine. but what of the next time? and, rest assured, there will be a next time. ten days later, from texas to

tulsa, or just another weekend on a chicago west or se, souid countless others that we've all lost count ohave died. when will enough be enough for decent, law abiding americans to muster the courage to stand up and demand that our public servants begin to reflect what the greater populace has long since embraced? common sense gun laws. john: today, president biden said democratic senators are "mildly optimistic" about reaching an agreement with republicans on new gun laws. summer won't officially begin until later this month, but temperatures across the southwest pushed records today, heading past 100 degrees in many areas. tens of millions of americans are under heat-related advisories. and the hot conditions are expected to shift east by next week. and in new mexico, dangerously hot and dry conditions have made it difficult for firefighters battling 1000 square miles of wildfires.

this afternoon, president biden arrived in santa fe to receive a briefing on the fires. the two largest blazes in the state's recorded history still burning. hundreds of homes and structures have been lost, and thousands of residents have been displaced. it's the news drivers across the country hoped would never come -- the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has now hit an unprecedented $5, according to aaa and the oil price information service. it's the most expensive gas has ever been. and, spicy food lovers everywhere have cause to be concerned. the maker of the popular sriracha hot sauce says poor weather conditions have led to a bad chili harvest this year. production of the popular condiment has been suspended. many orders are being put on hold until september. still to come on "pbs news weekend".. a look at the impact of the capitol attack beyond the

politics. and... a saudi-backed golf tournament creates a hazard for professional golf. ♪ >> this is "pbs news weekend" from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs. john: with summer travel forecast to be high, even by pre-pandemic standards, passengers are having to dl with thousands of flight cancellations. major carriers have the plains but don't always have the pilots to fly them. when demand for air travel plunged during the pandemic, airlines offered furloughs and early retirement, and are now struggling to meet demand. miles o'brien joins me to discuss this. there was a talk about a pilot shortage even before the pandemic. how quickly and easily can this be solved?

miles: if you waved a magic wand and said pilots don't absolutely positively have to retire at age 65, which some people would agree is not the best line in the sand for a lot of individuals. they get checked out by a doctor thoroughly twice a year. you could do it on a more case-by-case basis. that would leave a lot of the very experience, some of the best pilots on the job. the other individual is the 1500 hour air traport pilot requirement. this came in the wake of the buffalo crash of 2009. congress decided to raise the bar for beginner pilots. they have to have this phd of flying and 1500 hrs. it costs well into the six figures to get all of those hours and ratings, and what you get?

a job at a regional carrier that pays about $20. for some reason, people are lining up for that. if you raise the pay and maybe came up with a little more margin or wiggle room on that 1500 hour requirement, and raised the retirement age, you might be able to solve it pretty quickly. john: those things need legislation to solve, right? to change those requirements? miles: legislation or faa rulemaking. this is when things slow down, as you know. there is pressing demand. people want to fly. the pandemic hastened all of these retirements. the airlines are in a bit of a fix. the honest-to-goodness truth is if they paid their people more, we probably would not havehis brings along. i'm never going to say a

65-year-old guy is unsafe to fly, but yes, there are cases where people should be -- for medical reasons, told not to fly anymore. but you can do this on a case-by-case. they are seen by doctors already and an evaluation can be made on an ongoing basis. there could be some wiggle room. as far as the hours, there are hours and then there are hours. are they strict academic hours? if you go to one of the aviation schools, you don't have to do the full 1500 hrs. that tells you the kind of hours you are getting are at or quality. maybe there are ways to make those hours more valuable and increase the training value. the other thing never addressed in the wake of the buffalo crash is the regional airliners, the small airplanes. they look like they are the big players but they are run by small companies, which duty bare minimum for safety requirements and training. the legacy carriers go above and beyond.

maybe the bar should be set where the legacy carriers put it for the regionals as well and that safety issue won't be as big an issue. john: the big pilots union says there is no shortage, that there are plenty of qualified pilots for the vacancies at the airlines. what is the difference of how they look at this? miles: i think there are plenty of qualified pilots if you raise the age, if you look at lowering the number of hours, for example, to allow people to come in. what does qualified mean? where do you set the lines? how many hours do you need to get in and how many years are too much at the end? these are debatable lines we draw in the sand. with regulations, you have to pick numbers. but often many qualified people are told to go home. that is probably not good. john: you mentioned regional carriers.

is this having a disproportionate impact on small, regional airports and service to those airports? miles: absolutely. this is where you get your first job after you spent to get your 1500 hrs. you sign up for a regional player to fly the smaller jets on the so-called commuter routes. that's where the real trouble is. this is where the initial hiring into the system gins. they will always be the leading edge indicator. john: miles o'brien, inc. you very much. miles: you are welcome, john. ♪ john: the january 6 committee will hold its next public hearing on monday morning. and while the panel's focus is on president trump and his closest allies, future witnesses are expected to draw a link between the trump white house and extremist groups. hakeem jefferson is a political

scientist at stanford university. mr. jefferson, thanks for joining us. the committee is describing president trump and his false claims about a stolen election as the catalyst for these events. but you see a lot more going on than just unhappiness over the election. is that right? hakeem: certainly. i recall very vividly sitting in the same exact spot, having watched the images coming out of d.c. on january 6, 2021. and what was immediately clear to me was that this was about much more than a perception that some election had been stolen. this was a kind of racial backlash, a kind of uprising in the face of perceptions that white people were losing status, that power was being taken away from them, and that donald trump's loss of the 2020 election was but the biggest sign of that loss of status. john: because you talked about

sitting and watching those pictures. the pictures were also a sea of white faces. is that right? hakeem: it wasn't some kind of magic that the faces that we saw on the screens before us, the fas of those who were climbing barricades and attacking police, were overwhelmingly white americans, white americans whom donald trump had told -- donald trump and the other republican elites, both in politics and in the media, that told these white americans that their country had been taken away from them, that they were being replaced in the -- being replaced. john: do you see evidence of these forces still at work or at work since in the culture wars, january 6 the social divide that we have been having since the? hakeem: almost certainly. you can't understand the movements of american politics, certainly, and the spectacular form that it took on january 6. but you can't understand state legislatures implementing laws that ban certain kinds of books

or that make it illegal to teach certain kinds of lessons about america's racist past without understanding that a lot of white americans, not all white americans, to be sure, feel that their power is being threatened. these battles are not merely battles over what's being taught to children in schools. it's a battle over the power of narrative. and that's the kind of power that white americans have long wielded. john: you mentioned that the racial makeup of the crowd on january 6 was not random. i've also been struck and i wonder, is it random that so many people are apologists for january 6 make comparisons to black lives matter protests? hakeem: i mean, this sort of retelling of history, this recreation of narrative is not new in american life. right? there is a retelling of the period of enslavement still by some.

so we shouldn't be surprised that in the face of really hard facts that are being rendered again by way of the committee's primetime hearings, that some would tell different stories, but i think the american people, at least many of us, are reasonable enough to find the falsehoods very present there. john: is there a risk if these factors are overlooked in the analysis or revisiting of january 6? hakeem: race is the central organizing feature of american politics, and nothing else comes close. and what we lose in not attending to that reality is that we miss the core of what we've seen, that these white americans aren't merely upset that donald trump is not in office. they're upset that his defeat symbolizes a change in the

racial order and the racial hierarchy, that a multiracial coalition of voters went out to the ballot boxes and elected joe biden, who said that he was fighting for the soul of a kind of multiracial america. it is that reality, the reality of race and american racism that is at the core of january 6. these other aspects of american politics that we are observing. john: hakim jefferson of stanford university, thank you very much. hakeem: my pleasure. thank you. ♪ john: finally tonight... the intersection of sports and geopolitics. today was the final round of the first ever liv golf series in london. the new competition is backed by the saudi government and its leader crown prince mohammed bin salman. saudi arabia's human rights

record has been criticized over a number of issues, including the war in yemen, the treatment of lgbtq people and the murder of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. now khashoggi's fiancée is weighing in, saying the participating golfers should be banned from major tournaments. "usa today" sports columnist christine brennan is here to talk about this. thank you for being with us. first off, just the basics. what is this new tournament and why is it so controversial? christine: what's happened is a man named greg norman, major champion winner from the past, has been working for quite a while with saudi leaders and certainly saudi money to come up with an alternative golf series to the pga tour. this i know means is that competitive in terms of the actual number of players. it is much smaller, only 54 holes.

but it is all about the money. and what has happened the last few weeks, 17 pga tour players have now been suspended at the pga tour because they have decided to play in the liv golf series. it started in london, ending today, and there will be tournaments around the united states, and there are several others. it is almost an exhibition. it is not leading to anything. it has a team competition and it is different than what we are used to. but with all of that saudi money , they are making quite a splash and the controversy as you described because of the connection with the murder of jamal khashoggi and many other transgressions and terrible things they have done, it is gaining all of the attention that these golfers, many of them americans, including phil

mickelson and others, decided to be in business with the saudis. john: is money the main motivation? christine: absolutely. it is certainly not the quality of the competition because they are leaving the great competition. they are leaving the pga tour, the best players in the world, and going on their own. it's almost like retirement. they play and there is no consequences if you play poorly, and they are getting so much money up front -- sure people have seen, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of advance money. the prize money almost doesn't matter, although that is huge as well. that is certainly one of the reasons for the criticism. john: the pj suspended the players who participated in this. what does this mean for golf moving forward? the p.j. doesn't set the field for next week's u.s. open -- pga doesn't set the field for next week's u.s. open, but what are the implications going forward?

christine: it's a crisis for men's golf. it is a broadside because of the money the saudi's have and the controversy inherent with taking saudi money. you've got one of the biggest names in the history of the sport, phil mickelson, who was decided to leave the pga and do this. golf doesn't need a civil war, and yet it has come upon them and it is something they have to deal with. and yes, the u.s. open, which is in boston next week, they are going to allow the saudi players to play because they have already qualified. the question on the table is the british open in a month and the masters next april, will they allow these men taking saudi money to play in their tournaments? if they do, the saudi guys can say i can make all of this money and still come back and play the majors. this is a big problem for golf structure. the chickens have come home to roost because all of these years of elf being so incredibly --

both being so missing on cultural issues, now the fact that they seem to have no spine and no leadership that can really clampdown, now they have to deal with something they have never had to deal with before. john: beyond golf, refer to this as sports washing, saudi arabia's reputation. what do these playersay when they are asked about the saudi much less the killing of the washington post columnist. christine: there are talking points that have been revealed, that they have been told what to say when they are asked these questions inevitably by journalists in london or wherever. i will see them at the u.s. open and have to ask these tough questions as well. phil mickelson talks a good game. he says of course the killing of jamal khashoggi is

reprehensible. then he goes into, but we will help grow the game. that is ridiculous. they will help grow his bank account. that is really the sports washing. obviously i am a columnist and this is my opinion, but there is no doubt that the idea that they will do good things is all about trying to help the saudis. john: the families of the victims of 9/11 are now speaking out. christine: they are. there is reporting about that today in the new york post, that they sent a scathing letter to phil mickelson and the others, basically how dare you take this money and be part of anything that was part of the terrible tragedy, the saudis leading the way on the attack on 9/11. i'm sure other people would say saudi arabia had a tournament recently, the lpga played there.

a tournament is one week. this is phil mickelson going into business with the saudis. this is part of being part of the saudi government and investment. it is much more than just playing somewhere where they put the tournament that week. this is a choice he has made to go into business with these people. john: christine brennan, thank you. christine: john, thank you. ♪ john: and on "pbs newshour" online... the challenges of advocating for gun control in a gun-friendly state like oklahoma. all that and more is on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that's "pbs news weekend" for tonight. on sunday, mothers in somalia fight drought and famine to feed their children. i'm john yang. join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

for all of us at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending part of your saturday with us. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- ♪ 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

hello. i'm greg sherwood. and here in northern california we're used to emergencies or every kind. in recent years we've dealt with severe drought and massive fires and we've learned the painful but necessary lessons about how to prepare. but we all know another emergency is coming because major earthquakes that can strike at any time are central to our history. we all know another one will hit, and over the next half hour we're going to look at the latest science and explain how you can be proactive and protect yourself and your loved ones. we're going to be talking with our first guest in a few moments, but first we'd like to invite you to support kqed and take a big step in your emergency planning at the same time. now, we've got two levels for you to consider. so take a look and then make a pledge at kqed.org/donate or give us a call at 1-800-568-9999.