amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, landfall. hurricane ian slams into florida with fierce winds d deadly storm surges. then, uncovering violence. as more mass graves are found in newly liberated parts of ukraine, a u.n. investigator outlines the evidence he's gathered of russian war crimes. and occupational hazard. firefighters battle to save to their own lives after years of being exposed to dangerous chemicals on the job. >> they are treating us as expendable people, and that's just not acceptable to me. amna: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪

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♪ >> the walton familyoundation. working for solutions to protect water during climate change, so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at mac found.org. and with the ongoing support of these 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. amna: the state of florida is under assault tonight and the damage is likely to be catastrophic. hurricane ian blasted ashore today near fort myers, on the gulf coast and began a slow trek

toward the atlantic. it packed sustained winds of 150 miles-an-hour and knocked out power to more than a million homes and businesses. john yang is in jacksonville, florida, and begins our coverage. john: early this morning, hurricane ian quickly escalated into a near-category 5 storm. across florida's gulf coast, residents braced for a brutal impact, boarding up businesses and stocking up on supplies and gas. bruce henry, a longtime resident of port charlotte, had a message for his fellow floridians. >> don't panic. use common sense and level head and just do what you got to do. john: the massive hurricane slammed on-shore this afternoon north of fort myers avoiding a direct hit on the much larger city of tampa. forecasters warned that storm surges could reach up to 18 feet across more than 200 miles of the gulf coast. the storm is expected to track

across the state, dumping as much as 18 inches of rain on areas like orlando in central florida and jacksonville on the atlantic coast. ian's outer bands brought flooding even before landfall. more than 2.5 million residents were advised to evacuate. florida governoron desantis. governor desantis: and while most people did leave, they had a swarm of people that just wanted to hunker down. and at the end of the day, that's a decision they made knowing that they had the ability to evacuate and knowing what the stakes were. nevertheless, safety, life safety operations will commence as soon as it's safe to be able to identify people who may be in harm's way and who are in need of assistance. john: tampa resident renee correa took the warnings to heart. >> i've been here 45 years, and this is the first time i left for a storm. the water just really scared me, and as well as the path.

it was very confusing and i didn't want to risk it, so i -- risk it. john: in washington, president biden pledged federal assistance. pres. biden: i made it clear to the governor and mayors that the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible. we will be there to help you clean-up and rebuild, to get florida up and moving again. and we will behere at every step of the way. that's my absolute commitment to the state of florida. john: as ian battered southwest florida, cuba struggled to recover after the storm wiped out power across the entire island on tuesday. electricity was restored in some eas but by this afternoon, much of western cuba was still in the dark, relying on small generators. >> i am uninformed, i have no charge on my phone, i have nothing. they took away the electricity and so far it has not come back. john: in florida, residents have not seen a hurricane thistrong in decades.

all across florida, shelters like one in jacksonville, are ready for lots of visitors, stocked with snacks and water, fans to keep things cool and cots for sleeping. jacksonville native brenda kinsey and her husband, james, arrived at this shelter more than five hours before it was to open. do you ever get used to hurricanes? >> no, no. they are all unpredictable. you never get used to them. it mht be this, it might be that. to be on the safe side, everybody should come to a center. john: for the millions of people in the storm's path, the impact could be catastrophic and life-changing. for the pbs newshour, i am john yang in jacksonville, florida. amna: for more on hurricane ian's trajectory, and the risks ahead, let's turn to jamie rhome, acting director of the national hurricane center in miami. welcome back to the newshour. let's start with what we know. where is the storm now, what do

we know about its impact, and where is it headed next? jamie: ian made landfall earlier today here over southwest florida. to orient you here, it is boca grande, sanibel, fort myers, sarasota, and naples. unfortunately, the earlier reports we have gotten, which are limited, are the devastating storm surge we predicted did in fact unfold. amna: tell me more about that storm surge. who is seeing it now, how long do you expect it to last? jamie: naples here, which was on the edge of the eye wall, we have got a lot of reports of significant storm surge that pushed several miles inland. they are probably not out of the woods yet, but they have probably hit the top here. now, this area, you can almost envision where the strongest winds are pushing towards land. they are probably still rising and expected to experience the word in -- the worse in the coming hours.

amna: when you say significant storm surge, what are we talking? jamie: we have not seen reports in fort myers and sanibel, which would have gotten the worst based off the forecast. based off what we have seen from naples, a devastating storm surge, even well removed from the center. that probably mes it will be worse here in fort myers once the sun comes up tomorrow. amna:amna: we know there has been focus on the western coast of florida. what can you tell us about what folks should anticipate in the hours ahead fuher inland or on the east coast? jamie: that is a great question. let me switch screens here. as the center moves inland, you can see, let's get to it, the center moves inland, it will sweep across the central portion of the state, right here. now we have read as hurricane warnings, blue is tropical storm warnings. you can see this large area of tropical storm force winds, impacting almost the entire state of florida.

and then moving off and impacting georgia and coastal south carolina. this is going to be a big event. not just for florida, but also georgia and south carolina in the coming days. amna: could anything change the storm's trajectory now? is there any chance it ends up weakening or moving faster, not causing the level of damage we are predicting? deanne: i think the cake is largely baked on this one. it is going to impact central florida tonight and tomorrow. we are going to have historic rainfalls and floodingver central florida. and it is going to emerge out into the atlantic and turn back into the southeast. i would say the only uncertainty left is in this phase of the forecast, whether or not it could regenerate as it moves over water. amna: keeping all of the folks in florida in our thoughts. acting director of the national hurricane center in miami with the latest on hurricane ian, thank you. jamie: thank you. amna: for a look at the federal government's response to hurricane ian, i spoke earlier

today with fema administrator deanne criswell. administrator criswell, thank you so much for joining us. we are speaking now as hurricane ian is making landfall in florida already hundreds of thousands of people there don't have power. what is your message to the people of florida as they are bracing for this storm and the potential damage it'll bring? deanne: you know, as we are seeing hurricane ian make landfall right now, i still want to remind people that this is a slow moving storm. they need to make sure that they are keeping themselves and their families safe right now. our number one priority has been and continues to be search and rescue after the storm passes. as we understand that there are some people that didn't evacuate. we want to make sure we're getting into those hardest hit areas to find people that need our help the most. so we're going to focus on that and we're going to continue to prioritize those types of search and rescue resources into those

areas. we also know that we are going to see more power outages throughout the state. this is just the beginning. the storm is continuing to move. power is definitely a priority for us and making sure that we can restore that. we also know there's a number of people that are dependent on power. medically dependent on power. so we have worked closely with the private utilities, with the local utility companies and the department of energy and we have staged resources to make sure that we can support those critical facilities such as hospitals with any power related needs that they might have. amna: we've already heard from governor desantis, saying that there will be widespread outages and florida's biggest utility is saying that several people in florida, many of their customers could go days without power. what is fema pre-positioning? what are you staged to do to try to get people that power back as quickly as possible? deanne: with storms like this, these types of catastrophic impacts we always see power outages, and in some parts it does take days because not it's -- because it is not always the

generation side, but it is getting that transmission and that distribution side back connected to home so we can restore power. we have staged a lot of resources, generators, to come in and support primarily critical facilities, especially hospitals. we know that florida has a really robust capability and many of the hospitals if not all of them have a strong generator capability. but we want to make sure that we have redundant capacity to support any of those types of critical infrastructure needs as they may arise. but we've also brought in the army corps of engineers and they have got personnel ready to go to do emergency power assessments so we can prioritize where we need to restore power, as well as where we might need to use these types of generators to keep these critical facilities running amna: and i heard you say search and rescue is a priority. does that mean for those who did t evacuate, fema will be able to come and help them? deanne: i think there's a couple of pieces on this. there's definitely some people that did not evacuate, but we're seeing really significant impacts from the storm even well inland with the amount of rain

that's happening. water is not our friend in this situation and people can be impacted on the coast but they can also be impacted inland and so we've put together a complement of search and rescue resources from both our urban search and rescue teams, the department of defense, the department of interior, the coast guard to complement are -- complement the really capable resources that are already in the state of florida. and we've actually chopped those resources down to the local officials so they can use them to get into the areas where they know there's going to be the greatest need. amna: there are some folks already predicting and disaster modeling. this could be one of the costliest storms in u.s. history. estimates of anywhere from $45 billion to $70 billion. what are your estimates showing you? what are you anticipating here? deanne: yeah, i'm really focused right now on making sure that we're doing everything we can to save lives. w're going to have a lot of time to work through the recovery process and a

stabilization of this incident. so we understand what the impacts are. i don't doubt that this is going to be one of the costliest storms but our focus right now on our priority is making sure we're doing everything we can to save lives. amna: and of course we'll be following the storm as it hits through florida in the hours ahead, but i have to ask you while i have you, administrator , you were also just in puerto rico last week where they're still recovering frohurricane fiona. hundreds of thousands of people they're still 10 days later, do not have power. when can they expect to have that power back? deanne: yeah, we are still actively engaged in the recovery process in puerto rico. i got a briefing earlier today on the status and i know that the power continues to get restored across the island. i was just there we could go as -- there a week ago looking at the impacts from hurricane fiona. that parts of the island that i think we're still looking at having to restore power or those those parts that are in very hard to access areas and those mountainous areas. it's going to take some time to put the power poles back up and reconnect them. but what i will say is that what

i saw there is that as they were installing new poles, they're bringing in poles that are going to be more resilient to the future impacts. poles that are gonna withstand hurricane force winds, i believe up to 145 plus miles per hour. that's the type of recovery we want. we want to make sure that as we're repairing things, we're restoring things, that we're doing it in a way that's making them more resilient to future impacts. but we are continuing to push with the commonwealth i'm making sure we get all the resources in there to help them restore the power as quickly as possible. amna: but when you say it'll take some time, is that a matter of days or weeks? deanne: i don't know what the number was this morning. i thinkt was somewhere around 70%, maybe 75% was restored. those last few always take the longest because they're in the hardest reach areas. i don't have a good estimate for you right now. amna: administrator, i need to ask you about a report that came out last week and examined females response to hurricane -- examined fema's response to hurricane harvey in texas and hurricane maria in puerto rico

back in 2017. it found a bigger response, a faster response in texas, more money for individual assistance in texas. what do you make of those disparities and how do you make sure that they don't continue? deanne: one of the things that i have been super focused on since i took over this position is to make sure that we are having an equitable delivery of our programs to individuals across the united states and the territories that we are charged to serve. and we have made a lot of changes in our programs to make sure that we are meeting the needs of those populations that need it the most. those underserved communities, those communities that have the greatest impact and have the greatest need. we are going to continue to do that. and i can't speak to the decisions that were made then. but i can tell you that this administration under the leadership of president biden, we are focused on making sure that everybody has an opportunity to get the assistance that they're eligible for and that nobody is left behind. amna: finally, you have said that climate crisis that the crisis of this generation and we

know its role in fueling more frequent more extreme weather events. we also know we are not taking the necessary steps to address it. so does that mean more and tougher work for your agency ahead? deanne: i think what we're seeing is certainly an increase in the number of storms, the intensity of the storms, which just means that they are going to be more complicated as we go through the recovery process. we have to get ahead of that and one of the things that we have been very focused on through our mitigation programs, is really investing in helping communities understand what their future risk is going to be. so we can do mitigation measures to help reduce that impact. we can no longer plan our responses or plan our mitigation projects based on historical risk that we have faced in the past because we're seeing it change. and so we have to take those measures now to do that. and if we don't, it is going to be harder and harder to keep up

with the response 10, 20 years from now, if these storms keep growing at the level that we're seeing them grow. amna: that is fema administrators deanne criswell joining us. we wish you and your team all the best of luck with some difficult days ahead. thank you. deanne: thank you very much, amna. ♪ amna: in the day's other news, pro-russian officials in occupied regions of ukraine formally asked to become part of russia after they held illegal referenda. moscow promised a quick response. meanwhile, the u.s. announced another $1.1 billion in assistance to ukraine, including more advanced rocket systems. the european union is warning it will retaliate against attacks on its energy networks. that's after explosions damaged two pipelines in the baltic sea , nord stream 1 in nord stream 2, that transport russian natural gas to europe. the've been allegations that russia sabotaged the lines over

europe's support for ukraine. russia today called the claims stupid, but nmark said it's a serious accusation. >> it's an attack on european infrastructure, and something we should respond commonly to. i don't know what game moscow is playing, but what we are focusing on is to establish the facts of what happened. we can see it was intentional. amna: danish offials also say the gas leaks could release the equivalent of one-third of that country's annual greenhouse gas emissions. and german security agencies warned today that the lines may never be usable unless the damage is repaired quickly to stop salt water intrusion. in the middle east, palestinian authorities say israeli forces killed 4 palestinians and wounded more than 40 during a raid in the occupied west bank today. video showed smoke billowing over the jenin refugee camp. the hail of gunfire triggered ambulance calls to ferry away the wounded. israel's military began the raids after a series of palestinian

attacks last spring. the president of iran, ebrahim raisi, addressed his people tonight, warning against any further violent protests. the unrest has spread across the country, sparked by the death of mahsa amini, a young kurdish woman in police custody. raisi said everyone regrets her death, but the regime will not tolerate chaos. also today, iran carried out new bombing attacks on iranian kurdish separatists iraq, killing at least 9. hardliners in tehran blame the kurds for the protests. north korea test-fired 2 more ballistic missiles into the sea of its eastern coast today. analysts say the weapons may have been nuclear-capable. the launches came a day before vice president harris is set to visit south korea. there's word that an experimental drug for alzheimer's appears to fight the fatal disease that destroys brain function. japanese drug maker eisai says a late-stage study found cognitive

decline slowed by 27% in patients who took the drug compared with patients who took a placebo. the alzheimer's association says the results are the most encouraging of any potential treatment so far. wall street had its first winning day in more than a week after the bank of engld moved to shore up the sagging pound. major stock indexes gained roughly 2%. the dow jones industrial average added 548 points to close at 29,683. the nasdaq rose 222 points. the s&p 500 s up 71. and longtime cbs news correspondent bill plante died today at his home in washington. he joined the network in 1964 and covered the civil rights movement, the vietnam war and the iran-contra scandal in a career lasting more than 50 years. he retired as senior white house correspondent in 2016. bill plante was 84 years old. still to come on the newshour,

presidenbiden unveils a plan to end hger in the u.s. by 2030. why firefighters' life-saving work puts them at a higher risk of cancer. the nobel prize winner for literature explores the effects of colonial rule in east africa. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: now that the results of the sham referenda held in russian-controlled parts of ukraine have been announced, russia could annex the territory within days. at the same time, ukraine's military is pushing ahead with a counteroffensive that has already retaken some parts of those regions. nick schifrin looks at what russian forces left behind and the crimes they committed. nick: at their peak, russian forces captured nearly 20 -- 20% of ukraine, and in each village, city and district they occupy, leave behind a trail of horror.

in bucha and irpin, suburbs of kyiv, more than a thousand bodies buried in mass graves. in izium, outside kharkiv, investigators have finished exhuming the bodies of more than 400 ukrainians. 99% died from violence, and dozens, if not more, were tortured as they were killed. for the first time last week, a group of u.n. appointed experts presented preliminary evidence of russian atrocities. the official in charge of the united nations independent commission of inquiry on ukraine is erik mose, and he joins me now. thank you very much. welcome to the newshour. your commission visited 27 towns and settlements in ukraine and interviewed more than 150 witnesses and victims. what is the scale of russian war crimes? erik: so far, we have investigated four areas of ukraine. we have seen that there have --

there were explosives, which caused devastation both for buildings, infrastructure, hospital, and we have seen violations of personal integrity. a large number of executions, torture, and ill-treatment. sexual and gender-based crime, as well as violence against children. nick: you said there are signs of sexual and gender-based crime on civilian aged four to 82 years old. it is hard to believe that. have you found that sexual assault, sexual violence, is a deliberate act of control employee -- employed by the russians? erik: we have so far noted that some russians have acted in this way based on the investigations of our investigators. rate, and even people being

pushed to witness rates of family members. nick: let's talk about some of the examples of torture in prisons. i have talked to some of these people in harkey. . what conditions were ukrainian prisoners held inside occupied territory? erik: they had ill-treatment partly in ukraine, and partly in russia, after having been transferred to russia. according to investigations, they were left for weeks in prison and mocked execution, there were visible signs of executions. amna: ukraine -- nick: ukraine has insisted that the best way to hold russia accountable is to create a new tribunal to pursue the crime of aggression,

specifically to target senior russian officials. the prosecutor general said that to me on this show last week. >> the crime of aggression is the mother of all of other war crimes. without crime of aggression committed, there could be no other war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. nick: is the crime of adjust -- of aggression the best way to find justice? erik: this option is one possibility. it is among those who are discussing. -- we are discussing. there are quite a few that have to be taken into account. both at the national level, could have those at the national level. or you could have different kinds of international codes. including the one you just mentioned. nick: ukraine's prosecutor general has said they have documented 30,000 cases of war crime since the beginning of the war.

do you have any sense if that number is in the vicinity of the scale of what we are looking at today? erik: it is clear that the number of atrocities or at least alleged atrocity is vast in the country. this illustrates the challenges of our mandate. we will have to look into the overall picture of what happened in ukraine, try to single out the main patterns, and come up with a solid conclusion in our report in march next year. it is a huge task. nick: thank you very much. erik: thank you. ♪ amna: president biden held the first white house conference in 50 years on reducing hunger and improving nutrition in america. the last conference took place in 1969 under president richard

nixon. it led to the expansion of food stamps, plus the women, children's, and infants program, commonly known as wic. william brangham tells us more about the goals of president biden's conference and what he is proposing. william: amna, the president released a series of proposals to try to end hunger by 2030, expand nutritional assistance, and reduce obesity. the plan calls for more free school meals and new labels on fo, and would offer medically tailored meals for those on medicare. today's meeting comes amid a significant hike in food prices due to inflation, and an increase in food insecurity driven mainly by poverty. parts of president biden's plan would require congressional approval, but he said it was essential to do so. pres. biden: every country in the world and every state in this country, no matter what else divides us, if a parent cannot feed a child, there is nothing else that matters to that parent.

if you look at your child and you can't field -- feed your child, what the hell else matters? i really mean it. william: joining me now is senator cory booker, a democrat from new jersey. he's a member of the senate's agriculture, nutrition and forestry committee and has been a leading sponsor of a bill to change food labeling. senator booker, great to have you on the program. in talking about these seemingly disparate but linked crises of hunger and obesity, you have talked about a nutrition crisis in america. what do you mean by that? sen. booker: we have seen in recent decades an explosion of diet-related diseases. take for example diabetes. we have a country where half of our population is either -- either has type 2 diabetes or is prediabetic. it has exploded into our economy. most americans don't realize that almost one out of every three dollars spent by their government is spent on health

care, or almost one out of five dollars we spend as americans on our economy is spent on health care. 80% of the diseases and health care dollars are being spent on preventable diseases. we have this weird crisis in america where there is an overabundance of highly processed, sugar filled, salt filled food, that have 02 no nutrition, and a shortage of access to actual foods that are healthy for us. there is the thing most americans just don't know. not only the size of the crisis, how much it is costing us not just in money but in well-being, but if you look at our agricultural subsidies, only 2% of our big subsidies go to things that nutritionists tell us to eat the most of. my kids walk into a community grocery store and find a between key product cheaper than an apple, not because of its true cost but because we are subsidizing one and making it hard to access the other.

william: for those people who don't follow food policy, what do you mean that we are subsidizing these unhealthy foods? sen. booker: every few years, we have a farm bill. it is coming next year. and we have billions of dollars of agricultural subsidies that go to lots of different foods. there is a food category that is left out of most subsidies, it is called specialty crops. it is a terrible name because specialty crops are all of the fruits and vegetables we eat, not the mono crops, the commodity crops that go into the corn syrup in ubiquitous in our foods, or the sugar that is everywhere in our foods. we have the society that has decided right now, and this is policy, but we have policies that are making unhealthy, highly processed sugar filled foods, readily abundant and cheap, and healthy foods. hard to access or too expensive. it does not have to be there -- be that. it does not represent the true cost. we pay for it twice.

we pay for the foods that make us sick and we are paying the extraordinary health care bills and pharmaceutical bills when we don't make that accessible. we can see in a matter of decades half of our government dollars not being spent on education, not innovation, but on -- but being spent on the health care costs of our population with so much diet-related disease. william: i know the issue of food labeling is a big one for you. you are trying -- the fda is rolling out new rules this week. do try to steer people to better, healthier choices. we have been putting calorie counts on menus, better warnings on foods for many years now. it seems like we have not really done much to dent the obesity crisis. why do you think this uld move the needle in a substantial way? sen. booker: i'm an evidence-based guy. show me something that is working and i want to steal those strategies and have it work in my country, my state, what have you. we know from other places that have put warning labels on foods that are very correlated with disease, that that actually does

affect consumer behavior. we have seen with tobacco by putting more prominent labels, letting people know that these are leading to the number one killers in america. heart diseases, certain cancers, and more. i trust consumers. if we provide them information, if we provide them access to healthy fresh foods, if we shift our subsidies from the stuff making us sick, to the stuff that makes us well, we will see the cost to taxpayers going way down, because diseases, pharmaceutical costs will go down. you will see an evolution -- elevation of well-being. willm: you have called on the fda to require mandatory reductions in excessive salt, excessive sugar, excessive saturated fat. how do you encounter the pushback from companies and consumers who say, if i want to make a really salty product, or i is a consumer want to drink a really sugary drink, that is my business, not the governments? sen. booker: i am one of these people who believe in freedom.

you and i both have probably gone deep into a pint of ice cream or a candy. this is not about taking those foods away from folks. it is about two things. number one if the people are going to produce this food, let's label it to let consumers ow that how strongly linked this is to certain diseases. number two, let's make sure we are not subsidizing the stuff making us sick, and allow the subsidies to go to the things that make us healthy. it is not about stopping people from eating. but you understand now, we have mislabeling. we have people telling us this food is healthy for us, when we know, and there is very little controls of saying this is heart healthy, or this hps you lower your cholesterol, when clearly these foods actually areinked to diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. we have so much misinformation out there. why -- i want the fda to put the f back in the fda. the food back in the food and drug administration.

they have been trying to keep us safe on everything from tobacco to harmful drugs. it is about time we have a food conversation. we maintain this course, we literally could see in our lifetime almost half of our government dollars going to medicaid, medicare, and other health care related costs. lliam: senator booker of new jersey, thank you so much for being here. sen. booker: thank you for having me. ♪ amna: the life expectancy for firefighters is 10 years less than the average person and it's not just the fires themselves that present dangers. firefighters are frequently exposed to toxic chemicals and according to recent research, even their protective gear may carry health risks. stephanie sy went to san francisco to look into so-called forever chemicals and their possible effects on these essential workers. stephanie: fire station one in downtown san francisco is among the busiest firehouses in the

country. on a typical weekday, a flurry of calls, responders jumping into action. few firefighters will ever tell you they dreamed of doing anything else. >> i loved it. i loved every day. stephanie: tony stefani spent more than half his career at station 1. >> it was non-stop and you wanted to be able to go out and help people. stephanie: but in 2001, he was blindsided, and forced into early retirement. >> at the gym where i was working out, i started to urinate blood. within a week or two, i found out that i had a tumor in my kidney and had my kidney removed. so my doctor at ucsf told me that, you know, the type of cancer i had is normally found in people that are heavy smokers or are in the chemical industry. i was neither. stephanie: but chemicals are part of firefighting. and chemicals can lead to cancer. according to data collected by

the international association of fire fighters, the majority of active duty firefighters are not kill by fires, but by cancer. they have a 14% higher chance of dying from cancer than the general public. >> when we were sworn in, when we were in the tower, never once thought of cancer. and then i remember, you know, during my career hearing about people who were retired or who had a lot of time in the job dying from cancer. but i never related it to like, that's not going to happen to me. stephanie: but jeanine nicholson, the chief of the san francisco fire department, was not spared. >> 10 years ago, i had just gone through a double mastectomy for breast cancer and would then start my first f-16 -- first of 16 rounds of chemo in september 2012. stephanie: over the years, awareness has spread about the hazardof certain flame retardant materials that when burned produce toxic smoke.

>> more recently, a commonly used firefighting foam has come under scrutiny. it contains extremely high levels of perfluorinated chemicals known by their acronym, pfas, or p-fas. they have been manufactured by 3m and dupont since the 1940's. in their -- and they take so long to break down, they are called forever chemicals. they are in everything from non-stick cookware to raincoats. as a result, almost all of us have traces of p-fas in our blood. but researchers say firefighters are exposed to much higher levels, including in the protective gear they're required to wear. >> we do know enough to be able to say that for firefighters, we need to protect them better. stephanie: kari nadeau and mary prunicki at stanford university are researching the impacts toxic smoke and p-fas have on firefighters health. >> we can see the degree by which these exposures of pfas

has affected their cells and their dna. it's possible to find the footprint of one chemical versus another on the dna of a person. and tt will really help us know, after chronic exposures, to what degree is a cancer and a firefighter associated with pfas. >> i think p fasts -- pfas chemicals did play a role, absolutely, in the type of cancer that i was diagnosed with . after i went through treatment and the diagnosis of cancer, within a five year period, four more firefighters at station one contracted transitional cell carcinoma. the same type of cancer that i had. stephanie: stefani often had to handle the pfas-laden foam that the industry is trying to find a replacement for, but not even he knew until recently that fire fighting suits, called turnout gear, also contain a high amount of the chemicals. >> teflon is in between the moisture barrier and the thermal

liner. stephanie: teflon is a p-fas chemical. battalion chief mahew alba says for all the occupational hazards that can't be eliminated, pfas in turnout gear can and should be. in late august, the international firefighters union advised memberto wear turnout gear only when necessary. >> it won't be truly pfas free until that teflon barrier is taken away. stephanie: the national fire protection association is looking at the issue. gear standards are set by volunteer committees, which include manufacturers and firefighting officials. the association's chris dubay is a neutral facilitator. >> the standard does not specify what chemicals, what products, what technology manufacturers use to comply with those performance requirements. they establish the performance grounds. stephanie: do you think that the standard may change as a result of this public pressure?

>> the committee is already proposing changes in response to what you're hearing, what you're concerned about, what your listeners are concerned about, and what we're concerned about is having the best ppe available for firefighters to keep them safe. stephanie: in a statement to the newshour, 3m said global health agencies and researchers acknowledge the limited nature of evidence indicating that pfas cause harmful effects for specific health endpoints. but alba doesn't trust the chemical industry. do they have your best interests in your health at heart? >> i want to say yes, but the evidence is pointingo know. they are treating us as expendable people, and that's just not acceptable to me. stephanie: alba was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2020 at the age of 43. he attributes that not solely to p-fas, but to the chemicals he was exposed to when he fought the devastating camp fire in paradise, california two years earlier.

>> i always assumed i would get cancer. i think the toxins that i was -- that our crews were subjected to definitely played a factor because, at the camp fire, there was no escaping the smoke. an inversion layer trapped the smoke and we were breathing that fire for eight days without respiratory protection. stephanie: and when the wildfires meet areas of urban development, all the chemicals in burning houses create even more toxic dangers to firefighters on the scene. >> when you're firefighting, when you breathe the smoke, it's like getting a big dose of air pollution all at once. stephanie: while the research on wildfire smoke and pfas is not quite as conclusive as it is for, say tobacco or asbestos exposure, the environmental protection agency recently

proposed designating some p-fas as hazardous substances. stanford researcher mary prunicki says understanding what dosage can lead to disease is key. >> what would be really nice is if we could figure out a way to look at someone's blood and say, okay, you've had enough exposure. if you don't stop now, you're going to have dire health consequences down the line. stephanie: several months ago, tony stefani's cancer came back, this time in his bladder, although you would never know it from watching the 71 year old crush a workout. do you have any regrets? >> none. i would do it again. stephanie: even though you've lost a kidney to it? >> yeah, i'm still active. it has not stopped me from doing what i want to do. i don't even think about it, to tell you the truth stephanie: chief nicholson says firefighting is still the greatest job in the world and she and mattthew alba are working together to prevent more firefighters from going through what they had to.

>> but really, it's about stopping it on the front end and that's where the huge challenge is. stephanie: after over 20 years fighting fires, battalion chief alba's brain tumor has stopped him from returning to the frontlines. >> i get exhausted and fatigued, and i have trouble concentrating. i wouldn't feel comfortable being in front of a fire with my challenges in communicating. it just wouldn't be right. my heart will always be in the field. stephanie: and he says he finds comfort knowing he can be an advocate for firefighters in the field in his new role, the official in charge of health, safety and wellness for the san francisco fire department. for the pbs newshour, i am stephanie sy in samba disco.

♪ amna: abdulrazak gurnah is receiving worldwide attention after being awarded last year's nobel prize for literature. his latest novel "afterlife" is set in a place and time rarely explored in fiction, colonial east africa, occupied by germany, in the early 20th century. having left his own homeland at an early age amid political violence, gurnah writes of individuals caught up in the sweep of history, and the impact on their later lives. jeffrey brown caught up with him for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: -- >> i was in the middle of writing something. jeffrey: what does winning the nobel prize in literature do for a writer? on a recent visit to new york, abdulrazak gurnah offered one answer. abdulrazak: maybe it will make me think more kindly of my previous writing. jeffrey: of your previous writing?

abdulrazak: hey, maybe i wasn't so bad. jeffrey: last year the nobel announcement helped introduce many readers around the world to gurnah and his work. >> the nobel prize in literature for 2021 is awarded to the novelist abdulrazak gurnah, born in zanzibar, active in england, for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents. jeffrey: "afterlives" is set in unnamed coastal east african town in the early 1900s, when most of the continent, as the novel says "belonged to europeans, at least on a map." as great powers vie for control, it is african mercenaries who do most of the fighting, and local people who do most of the dying or face displacement. abdulrazak: my concern is to ask several questions, but primarily how it is that people cope in these situations. how, when people are caught in

these conflicts that are nothing to do with them, how they hang onto something, how they retrieve something, perhaps from the traumatic events that they are part of. and also, in another way, how it is that the, shall we say, the callousness and the disregard of those others who are fighting their own wars and then go home, how it is that that is something that needs to be remembered, and for responsibility to be taken for that. jeffrey: gurnah, now 73, grew up on the island of zanzibar, then under british control. in 1964, after independence, a revolution targeted citizens of arab origin, and gurnah, then 18, fled to england as a refugee. he has lived there ever since, becoming a writer and professor at the university of kent in canterbury. he is the first african-born writer to win the nobel in more than a decade, and first black writer since toni morrison in 1993. did you imagine being a writer when you were growing up? was that even a consideration, a possibility?

abdulrazak: no. there was no role model as it were. i didn't know anybody who was a writer. so the idea of becoming a writer was not a possible choice, as it were, for a career. and it was only, i suppose, after getting to england and finding myself writing in a way, trying to understand things. and so, and then that just grew and grew and grew til in the end i was hooked. jeffrey: you were a writer. abdulrazak: and i was a writer. and it was too late. jeffrey: in the nobel speech you gave, you speak very specifically about this feeling of dislocation as being the impulse to start writing seriously. abdulrazak: it was out of that period, that prolonged period of poverty and alienation that i began to do a different kind of writing. you don't always think about what you are leaving behind. it is the destination that matters more. jeffrey: you probably can't at

that moment, right? abdulrazak: you can't because you are worried, the anxieties of being a stranger, in a place you don't know. it is only when you get there that you think, i've lost something. i've left something. and particularly if this is in a situation where you know pretty well that you can't go back, for whatever reason, then i think the things will sort out. abdulrazak: through 10 novels -- jeffrey: through 10 novels, gurnah has told stories set in parts of africa, as well as england, his characters in many ways, between places looking backwards and forwards across time and continents. abdulrazak: i don't think it's something that in the end you say, i fixed it now. i know where i am. because i think it probably continues all the time, that sense of being from there and here. jeffrey: well, has it continued for you? abdulrazak: yeah, sure. i mean, this is very much the way i everyday i think about am. something to do with zanzibar, especially now because i get a lot of emails. but also i think about my life in the uk where i have family

and children and grandchildren, but also have family there. and the concerns of here and the concerns of their, they are all parts of my existence. jeffrey: it is a particularly interesting moment to be talking now after the death of queen elizabeth, when you talk about the afterlife of colonialism, of post-colonialism. do you see a continuing reckoning or the need for a reckoning now? abdulrazak: i don't know about reckoning. i think there is a need to pay attention to those historial responsibilities, to the things that happened, and not to be in denial about them. there is a defensiveness, i think, among certain parts of the political body in the uk that wants to say, no, no, it was okay, it was alright, most of what was done in that period was ok. there is, of course, another body of opinion that says no, it wasn't. so it is right there in the center of the society and the culture now, i think. this idea of wanting to confront

them to think about. this is not only true of the u.k. it is also true of other colonizing, formerly colonizing empires, the french, or indeed the germans. jeffrey: i know you spend much of your time since winning doing this kind of thing, talking to people. do you think it will or has changed your writing at all, winning the award? abdulrazak: i will tell you when i get back to writing. jeffrey: abdulrazak gurnah, thank you. abdulrazak: it's a pleasure. ♪ amna: in recent decades, producers of movies, tv series and other forms of art have been trying not only to reach out to new audiences, but to make sure new audiences are represented in their stories. as nicole ellis reveals, one popular children's animated series recently added a new character. nicole: -- >> give me a break.

get it? >> give me a break. get it? [laughter] nicole: thomas the tank engine has been capturing the imagination of millions of people for decades. >> bruno is a brake car, and he. -- and he is, and he's a new friend for thomas and his friends. and he's also autistic, like me. nicole: for british audiences, bruno the brake car is voiced by 9 year old elliott garcia, who -- >> julia? >> sometimes it takes julia a while to answer. nicole: producers are introducing new characters to better reflect the differences among children across society. in this case, bruno the break car. >> bruno, hi! why aren't you at your celebration, thomas? it's scheduled for now. well, he is funny, smart, and

he's a very relaxed character. he he can get really overwhelmed, he can get worried. i've lost per se. i thought he might be here. >> he's not here, thomas. >> what was your last stop? >> what do you mean? >> is good to remember every stop you've made. then, if you lose something, you know exactly where to look for it. he loves schedules and timetables. and when everything goes to plan and when there is no changes to the schedule and timetable. >> it's a real moment, i think, for for autism, because the history of autistic children and their relationship with with thomas and thomas and friends has been massive. nicole: tom purser is head of guidance, volunteering & campaigns at the national autistic society in the united kingdom. >> what elliot brings to this role is his joy and enthusiasm, his autistic experiences. and just brings the character to

life in telling bruno's story -- to life. >> diesel is a shunter. he's not a steamroller. it's greater that they are representing autistic characters and it makes me feel very happy of that they of that now there isn't -- because i watched some friends and there have -- there's been autistic characters. it makes me feel very happy and very excited. >> and bruno, you go with diesel. >> huh? >> has a brake car, you'll keep him safe from the silly risks he seems to enjoy taking. nicole: for american and canadian audiences, bruno the brake car will be voiced by 10 year old autistic actor chuck smith from toronto. for the pbs newshour, i am nicole ellis. amna: that's terrific. can't wait to watch that one with my girls. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you for joining. we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs

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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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >> you are watching pbs.

lidia: buongiorno. i'm lidia bastianich, and teaching you about italian food has always been my passion. it has always been about cooking together and ultimately building your confidence in the kitchen. so what does that mean? you got to cook it yourselves. for me, food is about delicious flavors... che bellezza! ...comforting memories, and most of all, family. tutti a tavola a mangiare! announcer: funding provided by... announcer: at cento fine foods, we're dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of authentic italian foods by offering over 100 specialty italian products for the american kitchen. cento -- trust your family with our family. ♪♪