tv PBS News Hour PBS October 11, 2022 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT
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♪ william: good evening, i am william brangham. russian attacks -- heightened concerns about the kremlin's next moves in its escalating war. then, inflation spike. american families forced to make tough choices as the cost of food rises. we explore what is behind spiking prices. >> the vast majority has to do with things like processing costs, transportation, wholesale and retail trade. we see all of those prices go up. william: and growing outrage. pressure mounts on essentialist city council members following leaked audio of racist remarks.
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all of that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ >> 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 find the plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including the andersons and smiths. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. ♪ ♪
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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastg and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. william: missiles and drones rained down on cities across ukraine again today in a new russian assaults. the barrage struck from the west to zaporizhzhia in the south. one person died just a day after strikes that killed at least 19, and it promised -- prompted
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president zelenskyy to appeal to the g-7 industrial nations for additional air defense weapons. a detailed report after news summary. in iran, new protest in the energy sector after a woman's death in the hands of the islamic morality police. fresh demonstrations broke out in southwestern iran at a massive oil refinery complex. workers began protesting monday at several refineries. they joined in the antigovernment actions that also rocked several cities today. the white house confirmed today president biden is reevaluating relations with saudi arabia. last week, the saudi's and other opec members announced major cuts in oil production, a move that could pop up oil prices and helped pressure keeps financing the war in ukraine. white house officials said today the white house cannot ignore what the saudi's are doing >> we believe by the decision that opec plus made last week there
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certainly are -- they certainly are aligning themselves with russia and this is not a time to be aligning with russia, especially with this brutal, unprecedented war they have started in ukraine. william: the white house gave no timetable for any action but several top democrats called for an immediate freeze on u.s. arms sales to the kingdom. israel and lebanon reached agreement today on a shared maritime border. it marks a potential breakthrough in relations between two countries that have technically been at war since 1948, and it could help both sides exploit natural gas reserves in the eastern mediterranean sea. and a somber day in thailand as funerals were held for many of the two dozen children killed in a shooting massacre at a daycare facility last week. grieving families gathered for final goodbyes. next to small coffins, parents laid offerings for small
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children. toys and juice boxes to offer a measure of comfort as they part. mourners prayed for the 36 dead, 24th them children, killed at a massacre at a daycare center. today, 18 of those children and one other victim were cremated at a group ceremony. at a funeral, the mother of a two-year-old boy sat beside his coffin. >> on the day of the incident, i didn't give him a call. i normally do that every morning. it was raining that day and i was in a hurry to get to work so i did not call him. i didn't get to say a word to him. william: temple organizers hope the mass creation -- mass cremation will save the pain of multiple ceremonies. cremation is common in buddhist ceremonies.
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the children we dressed in costumes represent in the lives they dreamed of, lives ripped away from them. >> the more we talked, the more we realized they had dreams to become doctors, soldiers, astronauts and police. we are providing those uniforms for them. william: soldiers, monks and family members lead the procession through a crowd of mourners. at the cremation, parents sat silently, watching the flames, offering a final goodbye to their children. back in this country, the lead prosecutor in the parkland school shootings in florida urged the jury to impose the death penalty. nikolas cruz leader guilty last year to murdering 17 people in 2018, and in closing arguments today, prosecutor said he hunted his dems without mercy. the defense argued he suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and asked for life without parole. the u.s. supreme court today rejected an appeal in the killings of nine like
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churchgoers in charleston south carolina in 2015. the white gunman, dylan roof, challenged his conviction and death sentence. also today, the court heard arguments on requirements that pork sold in california must meet state animal cruelty standards regardless of origin. it has implications for pork prices and other laws that extend the on state borders. prosecutors in maryland dropped all charges to date against at non-syed -- adnan syad. the judge overturned the ruling because of new evidence. >> the fundament of the criminal justice system should be based on fair and just prosecution and the crux of the matter is we are standing here today because that was not done 23 years ago. william: marilyn mosby said her
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office will continue to pursue the case, looking for the true killer. the nasa spacecraft intentionay crashed into an asteroid last month has done its job. the agency announced the collision slightly shifted the orbit, which could be needed if a large asteroid was headed toward earth. stocks failed to hold early gains on connuing murray's of a possible -- continuing worries of a recession. the nasdaq fell 116 points, 1%, and the s&p 500 slipped 23. a passing of note tonight -- angela lansbury died today at her home in los angeles. she had an acting career that spanned 8 decades. her movie career began in 1945, and earned her 3 academy award nominations over the years. on broadway, she won five tony awards, including for "mame" and
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"gypsy". later, she starred in the long-running television series, "murder, she wrote". angela lansbury was just 5 days short of her 97th birthday. still on the newshour -- concerns grow over the increasing ties between christianity and right-wing nationalism... trailblazing journalist charlayne hunter-gault reflects on her career in a new book... a boxer gives her brief but spectacular take on connecting through sports... plus much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from t walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. william: as we reported more , russian missiles and drones struck across ukraine today, the second nationwide barrage in as many days. the renewed russian campaign that isargely targeting
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civilians, drew condemnation from the g-7 nations, led by the u.s.. despite the frenzied russian bombing, in an interview with cnn, president biden said russian president vladimir putin is a "rational actor who has miscalculated significantly." nick schifrin looks at putin's calculations, and the carnage he continues to inflict. nick: in the crumbled heap of bricks that was once a home, there is horror and heartbreak. [crying] residents of the eastern city of sloviansk say a russian rocket buried their neibors as they slept. >> she was still alive, she was screaming help. nick: the block lost their homes. a 12-year-old lost his parents. >> god, punish all those who should be cursed. why did this happen? a boy has been left an orphan. nick: this morning a dozen russian missiles hit the southeastern city of zaporizhzhia. this used to be a dealership. now, all the cars are destroyed. president volodymyr zelenskyy used russian cruise missile
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attacks like this to ask the g-7, the leading industrialized democracies today for western , air defense. president zelenskyy: the first point is defense support -- air shield for ukraine. when ukraine receives a sufficient quantity of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of russia's terror -- rocket strikes -- cease to work. will nick: but the strikes, and the mass graves that continue to be found in formerly occupied ukraine, are exactly what some in russia, are demanding. >> the sooner we occupy the territory we need, the sooner they will come to their senses. nick: on russian tv, pro-kremlin politicians and officials are calling for the russian military to escalate. >> today we've come too close to the edge -- beyond it is the cliff. only together, only with our president. if the motherland calls and hands us a machine gun, we will take a machine gun, and complete the task. nick: that wasn't the response just two weeks ago, when ukrainian soldiers ripped through russian lines and flags, and liberated cities from russian occupiers.
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at that point, the same kremlin allies voiced rare criticism. >> the people know. our people are not stupid. they see that authorities don't want to tell them even part of the truth. nick: even one the kremlin's staunchest supporters, chechyan strongman ramzan kadyrov, who's been close to putin for almost 20 years, criticized the russian commander who retreated from eastern ukraine. “if it was up to me,” kadyrov wrote, "i would send him with a rifle to the front in order to cleanse his shame in blood.” but after monday's strikes, one of the largest russian barrages of the war, kadyrov wrote, “now i am 100 percent satisfied with the special military operation”" and today defense minister sergei shoigu visited some of the 300,000 recruits the kremlin hopes will soon be ready to deploy to the front. for more on russia's strategy, and whether military decision making is influenced by public criticism, we get two views.
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andrea kendall-taylor is a former senior intelligence official who focused on russia and eurasia. she is now with the center for a new american security, a bipartisan national security and defense policy think tank. and amy knight has written six books about russian history an politics. her most recent is "orders to kill: the putin regime and politcal murder." welcome you both. how much pressure do you think putin was on domestically to escalate after the attack on the bridge linking russia to crimea? anea: my sense is he is under increasing pressure from the hardline faction within russia. and i see that for a couple of reasons. first and foremost are the strikes that we saw yesterday and today. my sense is that this is something that the hard line factions have been calling on for some time. their view of victory in this
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war is to terrorize ukrainians in order to compel them to concede. i think they misread the ukrainian public. but i do think that these attacks reflect their growing ascendancy inside the kremlin. and i also say that because of the appointment of the new field commander of the army. again, this is someone that these hard line factions have been calling on for some time. they wanted to see these changes in the top brass. so once again, i do think that putin's decisions are increasingly being shaped and affected by this very vocal hardline faction within the kremlin. nick: amy knight, is there a hard line faction within the kremlin and are they influencing putin? amy: yes, there is a hardline faction, but i think putin is the leader of this hard line faction. i don't think he needs any kind of encouragement to do what he's doing. he simply has been driven into a corner and he doesn't have a choice. and people like kadyrov, the chechen leader, and ghosn, the
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head of the wagner group there, they are hardliners who are being very outspoken and very critical of russian generals. but at the same time, they are not independent political forces. they've long been known to be basically puppets of putin. so i think they're they're acting as putin's mouthpiece, and he wants to deflect blame from himself forhe failure of what's happening in ukraine. nick: andrea, what about that, that these hard line figures are not independent and are in fact puppets, as amy just said? andrea: i still think that those those folks are still to the right of putin. my sense of what putin is trying to accomplish with this war is to prolong the conflict, to drag it out. i think putin's preference wouldn't have been to escalate so significantly if he had the choice. i agree with amy. he is running out of choices on the battlefield and that paints
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him into a corner and it limits his options. but my sense of what he is playing for is a long, drawnout war. i think he wants to wait the west out. he hopes that we will lose interest in this conflict, that our publics over the long, cold winters will grow impatient. and so my sense is, again, that he probably would have preferred a more gradual, less escalatory response to the strike on the kerch strait bridge. nick: amy, do you believe there are some in the military and among the elites who are unhappy with the way the war is going? amy: i do. first of all, the invasion itself has turned out to be a disaster for the military. they had this massive modernization program, and the kremlin spent billions on it. and basically the russian litary has behaved it has has had such little success.
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and i think in part, 's because they were led into a battle that they really couldn't win. they were fighting on ukrainian territory. their troops have not had the same kind of high morale that ukrainian troops have had. i think for the military, they feel recently like, you know, they they've just been fighting with with very little resources. so i think there is a lot of unhappiness. and i think in general among the political elite, there is a lot of unhappiness with this war. nick: andrea, the obvious question after that is bottom line, how secure is putin's grip on power, do you believe? andrea: oh, i think it's so hard to judge the timing of the fall of any authoritarian leader. we spent almost a deck -- i spent almost a decade in the u.s. intelligence community and i think the best that we can do is to warn that the conditions for his ouster are improving, meaning the fodder is ever dryer for his departure. we see not just the unhappiness
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among the hardline faction that we were taing about, but certainly in the wake of the mobilization, putin has awakened russian society. hundreds of thousands of russians have left the country . up until this point in the war, putin has tried very hard to portray a sense of normalcy. but by mobilizing the public -- again, he has awakened them to the brutality and the reality of this war. and so i think that public discontent is also growing. of course, it's hard to see in these highly repressive authoritarian regimes. so i always say that authoritarian regimes are stable until they aren't, and i think that's where we are with putin. nick: amy, is there increasing discontent? can we even measure it? amy: a russian journalist estimated that about 70% of the political elite is very unhappy with mr. putin, and also the military elite. as far as the people, the
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population at large, i agree that there is growing dissatisfaction. it's going to take a while, though, before there is any real public mobilization. and i think one thing is that it may not be enough for them to consipt 300,000 soldiers. it may be that they'll have to extend that mobilization to a wider group. and then the more people, the more servicemen who are killed, the more conscripts that are caed up, it's going to be much, much harder for putin to maintain any kind of public support. nick: and finally, let's turn to international pressure. u.s.fficials believe that putin's made some moves that we have been talking about -- mobilization, annexation, this escalation -- in part because of international schism from
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chinese president xi jinping and indian president narendra modi in the last few weeks. today, we saw putin with the leader of the uae, who, of course, just a few days ago agreed to a major cut in oil production. so andrea, do you believe that putin is under pressure internationally and is as isolated as the u.s. believes he is? andrea: i think he is not as isolated as we all would hope that he is. and there still are many fence sitting countries like russia and china and india as you mentioned. we do see those countries gradually becoming a bit more critical of the kremlin in the wake of these very brutal attacks. both the chinese and indian governments called for more calm, although they fell short of directly criticizing putin. so i think he is attuned to the fact that perhaps as the war coinues, that russia's position vis a vis these countries is declining. i think he is worried that these peer countries will look at him
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as a declining power, that his position relative to those countries is falling. and so i do agree that part of the escalation could have been in part to demonstrate to these leaders that he still is a strong leader who is worthy of their partnership. nick: amy, does putin worry that he's a declining power among the countries he considers his partners? amy: i think he definitely is. and i don't think that the recent russian actions have ensured that he has any better relations with either china or india. i also think that these threats of nuclear retaliation are something that do not go down well with the chinese and the indian leadership. so i think putin is is walking a very careful balancing line. and i don't necessarily think that showing further outrageous acts of aggression like the attacks that we've seen yesterday and today are are
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really a show of strength to the chinese government, for example. i think it's more they realize that mr. putin is getting desperate. nick: thank you both. andrea: thanks for having us. ♪ william: later this week, we're going to get another report on the pace of inflation in the u.s., and there's some hope that it's slowing. but you've probably noticed higher prices at the grocery store already on everything from dairy to meat to wheat products. the cost of groceries rose 13.5% in the past year. that's the largest increase in 43 years. our economics correspondent paul solman looks at what's driving costs up. paul: at the daily market in boston's dorchester neighborhood, i asked agricultural economist david ortega about food prices.
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have you ever seen anything like this? david: not in my lifetime, no. paul: what are the major factors? david: first, we have the supply chain disruptions from covid that are still lingering. those led to rising energy prices, rising transportation cost, rising labor costs. on average, $0.16 out of every dollar spent on food can be tied back to the farm. everything else, the vast majority, has to do with things like processing costs, transportation, the wholesale and retail trade. and we've seen all of those prices go up. paul: meanwhile, another cost driver, climate change. david: if we look at the heat and drought that is taking place out west in california, that's where a lot of our produce is coming from. and a lot of those crops are lower in yield because of heat stress, some failed crops, and that's less food available in the market, which puts upward pressure on prices. paul: and then, of course, there's the war in ukraine. david: that region is what's
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called the bread basket of europe. a major supplier of wheat and sunflower oil, which goes into a lot of processed food products. so that set off rising commodity prices on the global market. they have started to come down from their highs back in april and may, but it takes time for all of that to work its way down the supply chain to consumers. paul: finally, there's the fowl factor. david: the bird flu outbreak this year. it's the second largest outbreak we've seen in modern history. it's affected over 40 million birds, many in commercial operations. and that sends the price of poultry and eggs surging. paul: as is evident on store shelves. david: eggs are up 40% year-over-year. the fear is we will see further outbreaks as we get into the cooler months. paul: the price may go up even further? david: it can. it depends of what happens. paul: and if you plan to beat inflation by breakfasting on cereal instead of eggs, think again. david: when we look at wheat and
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processed wheat products, they're up just about 20% year over year. life cereal, that is $5.49 for this box here. small box. a lot of that has to do with the rising grain prices from the russia ukraine conflict. paul: the cost of butter up cle to 30%. david: energy costs, transportation costs that are needed to make butter are all high. paul: when it comes to climbing coff costs, climate change is the culprit, says tega. david: coffee in general, we're looking at about aost 20% more expensive than last year. a lot of this is tied to adverse weathearound the globe, especially in coffee producing regions like brazil that saw frost and drought last year. and that's, you know, put upward pressure on prices. >> it's a shock every time i want to get groceries. paul: the consumer reaction? sticker shock. >> i'm a young professional here. i'm just earning a salary, so it's pretty hard to get by like this. >> i pity people with families. i don't know how. my wife was from a family of 14. i don't know how people are
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feeding four or five. >> i mean, it sucks. james: i feel for the customers but it's just not it's not abating. paul: james baker owns the daily market. james: we have a load that came in today and we have pages of 13 price changes we ha to make. we'll have 13 pages of price tags we have to put together and put on the shelf to change the prices. paul: previous prize, $5.39,ew price $7.49. james: this is week to week. paul: there is an item that hasn't gone up in price. james: there's a few. not many. paul: yes. dalmatia spread fig. went from $6.79 to $6.29.
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james: look at that. we have a winner. paul: small businessman baker believes corporate opportunism is also helping to drive up prices. james: certain certain parts of the food industry that have been consolidated and where there was more competition previously, there's not as much competition. you talk about the major pork providers. they have all been consolidated. the company can drive their their profit margin up and maintain the higher price. paul: are customers moving from more expensive to less expensive substitutes? james: some of that's happening. we carry a lot of higher end chicken product. and and we've now brought in a good quality chicken product, but much more affordable. and you're seeing that's moving off the shelf quite a bit. paul: but economist alberto cavallo, whose “billion prices project” tracks prices daily online, says more demand for cheaper products is driving up their prices much faster. alberto: we actually found that the cheaper varieties at the beginning of the pandemic have experienced nearly twice as much inflation as the most expensive varieties.
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why is that happening? well, as people are substituting into cheaper goods, they're increasing the relative demand that pushes prices up in this context of very limited supply overall. paul: no wonder higher prices are busting american budgets, devastating paycheck to paycheck households who spend a higher percentage of their budgets on food. but david ortega notes that food inflation is creating catastrophe elsewhere in the world. david: places in north africa, the middle east, their food prices searching 20, 30, in some cases even above 50%. so those countries in worse shape than what we have here in the u.s. we also look at regions in the horn of africa. they are on the verge of famine. and tha's a very critical situation. paul: ok, the final big question -- when, if ever, will food inflation slow down? david: we hope that prices start to moderate, or at least the rate of increase starts to moderate. but because the rate of increase starts moderating doesn't mean the prices are going to come down. and that's important to keep in
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mind. when we talk about inflation, we're talking about the rate of increase in prices. and so when that starts to come down, it just means that prices are rising, but just not as quickly. paul: i think most of us would say we'll take what we can get. for the pbs newshour, paul solman in boston. ♪ william: outrage is growing in los angeles after the l.a. times published secretly-recorded audio of latino city leaders making a series of derogatory and racist remarks last year as they conspired to consolidate their power. for example, city council president, democrat nury martinez, called a fellow councilman's black child "a little monkey" and described how she would've punished the then two-year-old boy.
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>> he is a white guy with this little black kid who is misbehaving, the kid is bouncing off the wall. i was like, this kid needs a beat down, let me take him around the corner and i will bring them back. william: the comments have led for widespread calls for those on the recordings to resign. today, protests are corrupting at the city council meeting. martinez said she was step down as president of the city council and take a leave of absence but would not resign. i'm joined by l.a. times opinion columnist erica smith who has been covering this closely. thank you for being here. we saw touch of the protests that broke out at city council today. what is the mood like in the city right now? erica: i think people are very upset, they are very angry with
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what's happened, that was expressed in the council meeting earlier today, where hundreds try to show up and get in the chamber, many more outside and even blocking streets, calling for the resignation of these council members involved. i also think there's a lot of hurt, the councilperson you mentioned whose black child was called a monkey, he made an impassioned, tearful speech that i think captured the kind of hurt and surprised at thes comments that have come out. william: can you remind us for those of us not in california or not angelenos, who else is mixed up in this scandal? erica: there are three specific council people, nury martinez has taken a leave of absence, and two other council members both of whom are latino and have been on the council a while. there's also a labor leader who has actually offered his resignation yesterday, last night.
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those are the four people involved in the recording. william: i'd like to read something you wrote earlier this week about this. you wrote "this entire ugly incident blows a massive hole in the narrative that many would like to believe about los angeles and california being some sort of multicultural mecca where black and brown people build alliances to work together in solidarity toward solving problems." how so? erica: i think there's this notion of california, obviously the left coast, liberal state, us angeles is a very diverse city, and that we embrace our multiculturalism, and we do, but i think there is an undercurrent of racism and inequity in that is starting to come out with these recordings. we saw some of that in 2020 after george floyd, we saw massive protests here, black lives matter's -- black lives matter and the like.
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but we are also seeing this struggle for power. i think that is a narrative that i think some of us know pretty well in the narrative a lot of people in los angeles that we left behind in the 90's but is still rearing its ugly head. william: the divide between lacs and latinos might strike a lot of people as a surprise because people tend to think of them as natural political allies and social allies. erica: definitely, the allegiance and alliances there and i think everybody recognize it intellectually, and there have been several efforts to draw both communities together to address everything from housing prices to homelessness to public safety. but there is also a sense in los angeles where latinos make up more than 50% of the population. there is a fear they will take over political power in the city structure and run the city specifically for latinos and leave out the needs of black
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residents here. while the needs are similar, there are differences. i think there is a struggle for power that's been going on quite some time and this tape shows that. william: right, the tape was a meeting going on where these latino leaders and this labor leader were talking about how to redraw some boundaries that might in the end exclude blacks from political power. erica: yes, this conversation happened about a year ago at a time when districting is happening in the city of los angeles. redistricting is contentious no matter where you are, but in this case it was about how do you draw maps, in this way,, that benefits latino political power at the expense of black political power? it was really -- i mean, aside from the horrific insults that were brought up, it was really an hour-long strategy session on
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how to dilute black clinical power in los angeles and that is part of the other thing that upset a lot of people here. william: in the few seconds we have left, this also comes as your city is going through a major mayoral election, a big debate happening tonight. how will this echo in that race? erica: already both candidates are kind of positioning themselves to be the person that is going to shepherd los angeles through this next chapter and saying they arehe person that is the right person to heal some of the tension happening. karen bass has a history of doing that in the city with the nonprofit she founded, rick caruso says he can do it because he's outside of the political system. it will be up to voters to decide. william: erica smith, think you for being here. erica: thank you for having me on. ♪
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william: a growing movement led by right-wing politicians is increasingly challenging a centuries old value of america's political system -- the separation of church and state. laura perrone lopez explores the rise of religious rhetoric and what it means for november elections. laura: on the ballot this november are number of high-profile republican candidates embracing the belief that america was founded by and for white christians and that the government should center its policies on those religious beliefs. take a listen to these republican candidates facing voters next month. kari lake: you can call us extremists, you can call us domestic terrorists, you know who else was called a lot of names his whole life? jesus. marjorie taylor greene: i'm a christian and i say it proudly, we should be christian nationalists. lauren boebert: the church is supposed to direct the government, the government is not supposed to direct the church. doug mastriano: so much for this
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myth of separation of church and state. dan cox: when you look at our platform it's the only platform , that recognizes the creator, that recognizes we have rights that supersede government. gov. desantis: we need people all over the country to be willing to put on the full armor of god to stand firm against the left's schemes. you will be met with flaming arrows, but the shld of faith will stop them. laura: kristin kobes du mez is a professor at calvin university who studies the role of christian nationalism in history and in today's republican party. she joins me now. thank you for joining us. the comments we just heard, how do they espouse christian nationalist ideals? kristin: really these ideas that america is a special nation, it is god's nation, and thus true patriots, real americans, uphold christian values. not just any christian values, a
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particularly conservative political understanding of what it is to be a christian and what it is to be a christian nation. laura: where is the origin of what we are seeing as this modern-day christian nationalist movement? kristin: you can find the idea that america is a christian nation stretching all the way back through american histo in different guises. you can go back to the american puritans in the 17th century, you can hear this kind of rhetoric throughout manifest destiny and so forth. what we are looking at today really is a modern manifestation in the postwar era, really linked with the rise of the christian right. the idea that americans have to preserve and actually restore a lost christian heritage, the idea that something had gone wrong, particularly in the 1970's, that secular impulses, feminism or secular humanism,
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even in some cases the civil rightsovement, the antiwar movement, were seen as disruptive forces. the idea is that conservative christians needed to unite and needed to restore christian america, and to do that through voting, through policy, and asserting influence ov the government. laura: have we seen a greater rise of this sentiment since former president donald trump ran for office? where do you see it in his rhetoric? kristin: i think we see it certainly surfacing more. president trump was very clea that he wanted to privilege conservative white christians. he wanted to protect christianity and a particular type of christianity. p very much used this rhetoric of us versus them. he was not the president of all americans, he was the president of his base and he was going to remote them and privilege their
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ideas. with that rhetoric, i think it became normalized and we started to hear that more in christian spaces as well. more of a boldness to say we have a right here. this goes hand-in-hand with the idea of an battlement, the idea of threat, and that was something president trump really excelled at, giving the sense that his followers, his base, they were the ones under attack and therefore they needed to be militant, they needed to strike out first, a preemptive strike. you see that among many christian nationalists as well. even though they are in the majority and have a lot of cultural and political power, they will continue to insist that they are the ones who are embattled and therefore what choice do they have that to be ruthless and seize power? laura: we saw a lot of christian imagery in the crowd on january 6 when rioters storms the capital. and fake news being used to
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justify violence. how do you see the connection between the rise of these ideals and the violence we saw that day? kristin: it is important to poinout that not all christians who want values enacted through government are christian nationalists or promoting violence. all americans would like to see their values find expression in the country in which they live. but in more extreme versions of christian nationalism, we see a correlation between the idea that america has a special destiny, and it is a destiny under threat that mu be protected. we see connections between that and a willingness to use violence, to use violence to restore the rightful order, to restore the rightful dominion over this country so that it can follow god's path and secure god's blessings. laura: a new national poll gets at some of this, what we are seeing. it says 61% of republicans favor
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declaring the u.s. a christian nation, but also a majority of republicans understand that doing so would be unconstitutional. what do make of the disconnect? kristin: it is really important we focus right now on the disconnect between christian nationalism, particularly in its more extreme expressions, and or constitutional democracy, our commitment to democratic norms and institutions, and to the constitutional rights of others. those statistics are alarming. that the majority of republicans want america declared a christian nation even though they recognize that is unconstitutional. what we see in the last decade or so is the erosion of a commitment to democracy with demographic changes, where we are seeing the end of white christian america. we see that for many christian nationalists, the aquatic means -- democratic means will not
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necessarily achieve their ends. so we are seeing voter suppression, denial that voter suppression is happening and eroding of democracy. it is alarming. laura: thank you for joining us. kristin: thank you. ♪ william: charlayne hunter-gault's trail-blazing journalistic ceer has spanned more than fifty years. but before that, she made news herself when she became one of two black students to desegregate the university of georgia in 1961. she went on to become an emmy award winning reporter, working at several prestigious news organizations, including right here at pbs for the macneil-lehrer report. charlayne recently spoke with judy woodruff about her reporting career, which is also the focus of her new book and a collection of her work. it's called "my people: five decades of writing about black lives."
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judy: charlayne hunter gault, welcome and congratulations on the book. charlayne: thank you so much, judy. it's so nice to be back home. judy: exactly. and what a life you've had, what a career you have had writing for all these organizations, the new york times and new yorker, and then, of course, coming work with robert macneil and jim lehrer at what was then the macneil lehrer report. that was back in the 1970s. this is really family for you, isn't it? charlayne: yes, it really is. it's something else for sure. judy: this is a book that is a collection of your writing, your reporting over the decades, going back to the 1960s, after you became a part of american history, when you integrated the university of georgia and you were greeted with the worst kind of welcome by the students there. remind us in brief, charlayne, about that experience for you
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and how it shaped the work that you would do later on. charlayne: well, actually, i was,long with hamilton holmes, we were committed to use the university for both of our purposes that we started out with. hamilton wanted to be a doctor and i wanted to be a journalis and i really think that that commitment to our ambition was what enabled us to just ignore all the ugly things that were going around. it was so bad, for example, that hamilton never stayed on the campus after he went to class, and his son told me that he never made a single friend, which is such a tragedy. but we kept our eyes on the prize. and the prize was me being a journalist and hamilton being a doctor, which he did indeed become. judy: and you were not deterred by some of the really awful things that happened in those
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early days when you were at the university of georgia. charlayne, so many of the things that you write about here, that date back to the 60's and 70's and and later are things that we are still seeing in this country today. and they have to do with the experience of black people in this country, with voting access, with education, with job opportunities, with police reform, interacting with the police. do you have the sense that some some of these -- that some of these things have really not changed at all? how do you look at the fact that we are still dealing with some of the issues you were writing about decades ago? charlayne: well, to be sure, what you've just stated is absolutely correct and it's very painful. but it has happened before and we got past it. there are a lot of very successful african-americans or, as we say today, black people with a capital b. but what continues to happen is the disproportionate impact of
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everything that's happening in this world on people of color. when you look at the covid crisis, when you look at just all kinds of things. i was looking at something today where people were having a hard time buying groceries and paying rent and then the number of homeless people has increased. and so we get to a point where some people are successful, like all of us. my husband, who was a great banker, and so many others like him, and my dear friend vernon jordan, who helped me get into the university of georgia, who is now one of our ancestors. and you know, you say ok, we made progress, but we still have a way to go. and sometimes it looks like a long way. however, one more thing. i think that the effort that seems to be being made on the part of media people, media people in charge of media
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people, they're trying to bring in more people of color. and i'm hoping that those people who are coming in, along with those who are already there and very conscious about these discrepancies, will make a big difference. judy: and i wanted to ask you about that, because the news media has changed over the decades. and i want to ask you, what more do we need to do to make sure we are covering the black american experience as we should be? charlayne: well, i think we just have to talk about it more. and we have to keep it in the forefront. people in positions like yourself and all of the other great journalists on the newshour need to continue to keep these discrepancies before the public. i remember one of jim lehrer's great quotes, "if you inform people with good information, they will do the right thing." and so as i look at many of the
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programs on television today, they are doing just that. judy: and charlayne, finally, i want to ask you about a theme that arises at several points in your writing in the book, and that is the need to teach young black children, about their history, about the real heritage, the things that they face, that their ancestors have faced. here we are. what is it, 60 some years later from one of the pieces you wrote. and we have this argument over what's called critical race theory, with politicians saying that this is being taught in the schools and it shouldn't be. do you think we've made progress in that regard when you look at the political debate right now over this? charlayne: well, i think we need to have more information about how people are coming to these conclusions. but we also have to continue to press on the importance of black history, our history, because that was our armor and that is
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how so many of us have managed to succeed in our profession but it's critical for everybody who has an opportunity to speak to people and in the public to say how important it is for everybody to know this history so that we can come together and help make or help continue to make a more perfect union. it may not be totally perfect but i think it'll be better than it is today. judy: well, we certainly understand better the story and the stories of black americans in this country. thanks to your book, it's "my people: five decades of writing about black lives." charlayne hunter-gault, it's always good to have you on the program. thank you. charlayne: thank you, judy, for having me. and i'd love to be back in that studio one of these days. judy: we can't wait for that to happen. [laughter]
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♪ william: kailia attry, a boxer based in los angeles, has always seen sports as a means for connection and growth, whether that was bonding with her older brother or working to improve the visibility of women athletes. here, she gives her "brief but spectacular" take on what it takes to be a professional fighter. kailia: i want to be able to break down barriers in women's boxing, where i can be labeled as the best boxer that put her hands in a pair of gloves. i am trained by terry clayborn. when i moved to los angeles, i walked into the gym one day and i literally just told him i wanted to fight and he's been mentoring me ever since. i originally started worng at starbucks when i moved to l.a.,
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because of the sykesville and i hours, was able to train. working out at 4:00 in the a.m. morning is completely hard for most people, but boxing showed me how to be disciplined. boxing gives me fuel to go anywhere. i grew up in the bronx. i think it was rich in culture. of course, it has its faults, but it made me who i am. my first interest in sports was at the age of 2. i picked up basketball because my brother was good at basketball. i wanted to be just like him. i got recruited from middle school to play basketball in high school, top 10 point guard in the city. my brother was 19 when he was killed. my brother also was killed by one of his friends. no one really spoke up about it because they were afraid. at 11 years old processing my brother's death, i shut down. i didn't want to do basketball. i didn't want to do any sports. i just honestly just wanted to be my brother.
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my father was diagnosed with liver cancer three years after my brother's death. he was my best friend. we would laugh a lot, joke a lot. some say i'm his twin, very much like him, but he only wanted to make it to my middle school graduation and he made it. he passed away a couple weeks after my middle school graduation. i just hope that i'm making him proud. my mom is my everything and the world is just me and her life. we live r each other because that's all we have. i stopped playing basketball because i tore my acl, meniscus and cartilage. a friend told me that if i boxed, it'd be a full body workout. i knew that i could do it. my ability was natural. my mom did not like my decision in boxing. she was worried that something could seriously happen because boxing is a dangerous sport. you can't play it. i'm not afraid of dying. i'm not afraid of anything.
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my first professional fight, i dedicated to my brother. i had his name put in my boxing trunks in 24 carat gold. boxing has brought me to where i am now. that's what i am, that's who i am, that's what i do. i want people to remember me as a legacy for positivity and that anything is possible. you can do anything that you want to do no matter any circumstances or whatever you've been through. i wake up in the morning and i look at the picture of my brother and my father, and i tell them that i'm going to put a legacy out there where everybody remember our name. my name is kailia attry and this is my brief best spectacular take on being a professional fighter. william: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm william brangham. and again here tomorrow evening. join us onlineand again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and good
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night. ♪ >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind and yes i am responsible for the user interface. data visualization -- if i can see it any understand it quickly, anyone can. it's exciting to be part of a team driving technology forward, that is the most rewarding thing. people who know know bdo. >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor taors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new
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york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. 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. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]
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hello, welcome to "amanpour and company." here is what is coming up. >> my interview with the ukraine foreign minister as russian missiles rain down on his country. >> when i went behind st. ann drew's church, the body was were not fake. >> as civilians bear the blrunt of putin's wa plus iran's extraordinary women led contest and her detention by the
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