♪ william: good evening. judy woodruff is away. tonight, russian attack. deadly missile strikes across ukraine heighten concerns about the kremlin's next move ints escalating war. and inflation spike. american families are forced to make tough choices as the cost of food rises. we explore what is behind the spike in prices. >> the vast majority has to do with things like processing cost, transportation, the wholesale and retail trade, and we have seen all those prices go up. william: and pressure mounts on los angeles city council member's following leaked audio

of racist remarks. all 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.-customer service team can help find a plan that it's you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "newshour." >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering informed, engaged communities. more at kf.org.

♪ >> this progra was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz with "newshour west." will return to the full program after the latest headlines. missiles and drones rained down on cities across ukraine again today in a new russian assault. the barrage stretch from lviv in

the west to zaporizhzhia in the south. ukraine's president appealed to the g-7 industrial nations for additional air defense weapons. we will have a detailed report after the news summary. in iran, new protests corrupted in the energy sector over a woman' death in the hands of the country's morality police. fresh demonstrations broke out at a massive oil refinery complex. oil workers began protesting monday at several refineries. they joint in the aigovernment actions that also rocked several cities today. the white house confirmed today that 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 prop up oil prices and help russia keep financing its war in ukraine. white house officials said today the u.s. cannot ignore what the

saudi's are doing. >> we believe by the decision opec plus made last week, they certainly are aligning themselves with russia, and right now, this is not a time to be aligning with russia, especially with this brutal, unprecedented war that they have started in ukraine. vanessa: 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 country. meanwhile, israel and lebanon reached an agreement today on a shared maritime border, marking a potential breakthrough in relations between two countries that have technically been at war since 1948. it could also help both sides exploit natural gas reserves in the eastern mediterranean sea. it was a summer day in thailand us 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 their final goodbyes.

>> next to their small coffins, parents laid offerings for their lost children. toys and juice boxes, to offer some measure of comfort as they part. mourners prayed for the 36 dead, 24 of them children, killed in the massacre at a daycare center in thailand. today, 18 of those children and one other victim work cremated in a ceremony. the mother of a two-year-old boy sat beside her son's coffin. >> on the day of the incident, i did not give him a call. i normally do that every morning. it was raining that day and i was in a hurry to go to work, so i did not call him. i did not get to say a word to him. >> organizers hope the mass cremation with open-air priors -- open-air priors -- open-air p

yres would spare the families the weight of individual ceremonies. >> the more we talk, we realize these children have dreams to become doctors, soldiers, astronauts, and police. we are providing those uniforms for them. >> soldiers, monks, and family members lead the procession through a crowd of mourners. at the procession, parents sat silently, watching the flames, offering a final goodbye to their children. vanessa: back in this country, the lead prosecutor in the parkland school shootings in flora urged the jury to impose the death penalty. nikolas cruz we did last year to murdering 17 people in 2018. in closing arguments today, the prosecutor said he hunted his victims without mercy. the defense argued he suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and

asked for life without parole. the school district superintendent in uvalde, texas, announced that he will resign by the end of the academic year. he had faced outrage over the botched response to the killings of 19 fourth-graders and two teachers at an elementary school. all of this coming less than a week after the uvalde school district suspended its entire police force. the u.s. supreme court today rejected an appeal in the killings of nine black churchgoers in charleston, south carolina back in 2015. the white gunman had challenged his conviction and death sentence. also today, the court heard arguments on requirements that parks must meet state animal cruelty standards. prosecutors in maryland dropped all charges today against a whose murder case was chronicled

in a netflix series. marilyn mosby apologized and said her office will continue to pursue the case, looking for the true killer. the nasa spacecraft that was intentionally crashed into an asteroid last month has done its job. the agency announced today that the collision slightly shifted the asteroid's orbit. that capability might be needed someday if a large asteroid were headed toward earth. angela lansbury died today at her home in los angeles. she had an acting career that spanned eight decades. her movie career began in 1940 five and earned her three academy award nominations over the years. on broadway, she won five tomi -- tony awards. later, she starred in the long-running television series "murder she wrote." angela lansbury was just five

days short of her 97th birthday. still to come, concerns grow over increasing ties between christianity and right-wing nationalism. also, a trailblazing journalist reflects on her career in a new book. and rockstar kayla at tree gives her brief spectacular take on connecting through sports and 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 diversity. william: as we reported, more russian missiles and drones struck across ukraine today, the second such nationwide barrage in as many days. the new campaign, which is largely targeting 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. we look at putin's calculations and the carnage he continues to inflict. >> in the crumpled heap of ricks that was once a home, there is horror and heartbreak. residents say a russian rocket. their neighbors as they slept. >> she was still alive. she was screaming help. >> the block lost their homes. a 12-year-old lost his parents. >> why did this happen? a boy has been left in orphan. >> 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 bilotta mayor zelinski used russian attacks like this to ask the g-7 democracies today for western air defense -- president bilotta mayor zelinski -- president volodymyr

zelenskyy. but the strikes and the mass graves continue 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. >> on russian tv, pro-kremlin politicians a officials call for the russian military to escalate. >> today, we've come too close to the edge. beyond it is the cliff. only together with our president . if the mother then calls us and hands us a machine gun, we must take a machine gun and complete the task. >> that was not the response just two weeks ago when ukrainian soldiers ripped through russian lines and flags and liberated cies from russian occupiers. those same kremlin allies voiced criticism. >> the people know.

our people are not stupid. they see that authorities do not want to tell them any part of the truth. >> even one of the kremlin's staunchest supporters who has been close to putin for almost 20 years, criticized the russian commander who retreated from eastern ukraine. he wrote, if it was up to me, i would send them with a rifle to the front in order to cleanse his shame. but after monday's strikes, one of the largest russian barrages of the war, he wrote, now i am 100% satisfied with the special military operation. today, the defense minister visited some of the 300,000 recruits from the kremlin hopes will soon be ready to deploy to the front. william: for more on russia's strategy and if military decision-making is influenced by public criticism, we get two views, a former senior intelligence official who focused on russia and eurasia and is now at the center for

eurasian security, a bipartisan national security and policy think tank, and a writer of six russian books on history and politics. thank you very much. welcome, both of you, to the newshour. how much pressure do you believe putin was under domestically to escalate after battlefield losses in eastern ukraine and this weekend's attack on the bridge linking russia to occupied crimea? >> my sense is he is under increasing pressure from the hardline faction inside russia, and i say that for a couple of reasons. first and foremost are the strikes we s yesterday and today. my sense is that this is something that the hardline factions have been calling on for some time. their view of this 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 are growing ascendancy inside the kremlin. again, this is someone that these hardline factions have been calling on for some time. once again, i do think that putin's decisions are increasingly being shaped and affected by this very vocal hardline faction from the kremlin. william: is there a hardline faction within the kremlin and are they influencing putin? >> yes, there is a hardline action, but i think putin is the leaderf this hardline faction. i don't think he needs any kind of encouragement to do what he is doing. he simply has been driven into a corner and does not have a choice. people like the chechen leader, and the head of the wagoner group, they are hardliners who have been very outspoken and

very critical of russian generals, but at the same time, they are not independent political forces. they have long been known to be basically puppets up putin, so i think they are acting as putin's mouthpiece, and he wants to deflect blame from himself for the failure of what is happening in ukraine. william: what about that? these are line figures are not independent and are in fact puppets? >> i still think that 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 would not have and to escalate so significantly. i agree that he is running out of choices on the battlefield, and that paints him into a corner and limits his options, but my sense of what putin is playing for is a long, drawn out war.

i think he hopes the west will lose interest in the conflict, that our publics will grow impatient. my sense is again, that he would have preferred a more gradual, less escalatory response to this strike. william: do you believe there are some in the military and among the elites who are unhappy with the way this war is going? >> i do. first of all, the invasion itself has turned out to be a disaster for the military. they have this massive modernization program, and the kremlin spent billions on it, and basically, the russian military had such little success, and i think in part, it is because they were led into a battle that they really could not win. th were fighting on ukrainian territory.

their troops have not had the same kind of high morale that ukrainian troops have had. i think that for the military, they feel recently like they have just been fighting with very little resources, so i think there's a lot of unhappiness, and i think in general, among the political elite, there is a lot of unhappiness with this war. william: the obvious question after that is, bottom-line, how secure is putin's grip on power? >> i think it is so hard to judge the timing of this all. i've spent almost a decade in the intelligence community, and i think the best we can do is to warn that the conditions for his ouster are improving. we see not just the unhappiness amongst the hardline faction that we were talking about, but certainly in the wake of mobilization, putin has awakened

russian society. hundreds of thousands of russians have left country. up until this point in the war, putin has tried hard to portray a sense of normalcy, but by mobilizing the public, he has awakened them to the brutality and the reality of this war, so i think that public discontent is also a reality. of course, it is hard to see. i always say that authoritarian regimes are stable until they are not, and i think that's where we are with putin. william: is there increasing discontent? can we even measure it? >> 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 population at large, i agree that there is growing dissatisfaction. it will 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 conscript 300,000 soldiers. it may be that they will have to extend that mobilization to a wider group, and then the more servicemen who are killed, the more conscripts that are called up, the -- it is going to be much harder for putin to maintain any kind of public support. william: finally, let's turn to international pressure. u.s. officials believe putin has made some moves that we have been talking about, mobilization, annexation, this escalation, in part because of international criticism from chinese president xi jinping and indian president narendra modi in the last few weeks. we saw putin today with the leader of the uae who a few days

ago agreed to a major cut in oil production. do you believe tha putin is under pressure internationally and is as isolated as the u.s. believes he is? >> i think he is not as isolated as we all would hope that he is, and there are still many countries like 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. the chinese and indian governments called for more calm, although they fell short of directly cricizing putin, so i think he is attuned to the fact that perhaps as the war continues that russia's position vis-a-vis these countries is declining. i think he is worried that these peer countri will look at him as a declining power, that his position relative to those countries is falling.

i agree part of the escalation is in part to demonstrate to these leaders that he is still worthy of theirartnership. >> is putin worried he is a declining per among these countries he considers his partners? >> i think he definitely is, and i don't think the region -- recent russian actions have ensured he has any better relations with either china o india. i also think these threats of nuclear retaliation are something that do not go down well with the chinese and indian leadership. i think putin is walking a very careful balancing line, and i don't necessarily think that showing further outrageous acts of aggression like the attacks we have seen yesterday and today , are really a show of strength to the chinese government, for example. i think it is more they realize that mr. putin is getting desperate.

>> thank you very much to you both. >> thanks for having us. ♪ >> later this week, we will get another report on the pace of inflation in the u.s., and there's some hope it is finally slowing. you have probably noticed higher prices at the grocery store already on everything from dairy to meet two wheat products. the cost of groceries rose 13.5% in the past year, the largest increase in 43 years. our economics correspondent looks at what is driving those costs up. >> at the daily market in boston's dorchester neighborhood, i asked an agricultural economist about food prices. have you ever seen anything like this? >> not in my nighttime -- not in

my lifetime, no. >> what is causing this? quickly have the lingering effects of covid. on average, $.16 out of every dollars and on route 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. we have seen all those prices go up. >> meanwhile, another cost driver -- climate change. >> if we look at the heat and drought that is taking place out west in california, that's where a lot of 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. >> and then, of course, there's a war in ukraine. quickset region is what is called the breadbasket of europe, a major supplier of wheat and sunflower oil. that set off rising commodity

prices in 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. >> finally, there's the foul factor -- the fowl factor. >> the bird flu outbreak this year is the largest we have seen in modern history. that sets the price of poultry surging. >> as is evident on store shelves. >> eggs are up 40% year-over-year. the fear is we will see further outbreaks as we get into th cooler months. >> the price may go up even further? >> they can. it all depends on what happens. >> if you plan to be inflation by breakfasting on cereal instead of eggs, think again. >> you look at processed wheat products, they are up just over 20% year-over-year. life cereal, that's $5.49 for this box here, small box.

a lot of that has to do with rising grain prices from the russia-ukraine conflict. >> the cost of butter up close to 30%. >> energy costs, transportation costs needed to make butter are all high. >> when it comes to climbing coffee costs, climate change is the culprit. >> coffee in general, we are looking at almost 20% more expensive than last year. a lot of this is tied to adverse weather around the globe, especially in coffee-producing regions like brazil that saw frost and drought last year. that has put upward pressure on prices. >> it is a shock any time i want to get groceries. >> the consumer reaction -- sticker shock. >> it is pretty hard to get by like this. >> people with families, i don't know how. my wife was from a family of 14. i don't know how people are doing with four or five.

>> i feel for customers. it is not abating. >> james baker owns the daily market. >> we have 13 pages of price changes whave to make right here. we will have price tags we have to put on the shelf to change the prices and increase them. >> this is a brown rice. previous price $5.39. retail price $7.49. >> yes, and this is from week to week. >> i'm looking down here, there is not an item that has not gone up in price. >> there's a few. not many. >> dalmatia spread fig went from $6.79 to $6.29. >> we have a winner. >> like many consumers, small businessman baker believes corporate opportunism is also helping up and helping drive up prices. >> certain costs in the food

industry that have been consolidated. the major pork buyers have all been consolidated, so the company can drive their profit margin up and maintain the higher price. >> are customers moving from more expensive to less-expensive expensive bstances? >> some of that is happening. we carry a lot of higher rent chicken product, andome are much more affordable and we see that move off the shelf quite a bit. >> but an economist who tracks prices daily online says more demand for cheaper products is driving up there prices much faster. >> we have found that the cheaper varieties have experienced nearly twice as much inflation as t most expensive varieties. why is that happening? as people are substituting into cheaper goods, they are increasing relative demand, and that pushes prices up in this

context of a very limited supply overall. >> 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 knows that food inflation is creating catastrophe elseere in the world. >> this is in north africa, the middle east. her food price is surging 20%, 30%, in some cases over 50%. those countries are in worse shape than what we have here in the u.s. we also look at regions on the horn of africa, and they are in famine, and that is a very critical situation. >> the final big question -- when, if ever, will food inflation slow down? >> we hope that prices start to moderate or at least the rate of increase starts to moderate, but because the rate of increase starts to moderate does not mean the prices come down. that is important to keep in mind. when we talk about inflation, we are talking about the rate of

increase in prices. when that starts to come down, it just means that prices are rising but just not as quickly. >> i think most of us would say we would take what we can get. for the "pbs newshour," paul solman in boston. william: outrage is growing in los angeles after the "los angeles times" published recorded audio of latino city leaders making a series of derogatory and racist remarks last year as they conspire to consolidate their power. for example, the city council president called a fellow councilman's black child "a little monkey" and described how she would have punished the then two-year-old boy. >> the little black kid who

misbehaved, bouncing off the wall, behaving like a little white kid, like this kid needs a beat down. let me take them around the corner and i will be right back. william: the call has led for widespread calls for those recorded to resign. today, protests erected at the city council meeting. martinez said she would step down as president -- as president of the city council and take a leave of absence but not resign. for more, i'm joined by "los angeles times" opinion columnist erica smith, who has been covering this closely. we saw a touch of the protest broke out in the city council today. can you give us a sense of what is the mood like in the city right now? >> i think people are very upset, very angry with what has happed. i think that was expressed definitely in the council meeting earlier today where a few hundred showed up trying to get in the chamber. many more were outside and even

blocking a few streets, calling for the resignation of the three council members involved, but i also think there is a lot of hurt. the council pen -- the councilmember you mention whose black child was called a monkey, he made an impassioned, tearful speech that really, i think, captured the kind of hurt and surprise at these comments that did come out. >> can you remind us, for those who are not in california or who are not angelenos, who else is mixed up in this scandal? >> there are three specific councilman, former council president nury martinez who has taken a leave of absence. two others, kevin de leon and gill city of -- gil cedillo, and there's also ron herrera, who offered his resignation yesterday. those are the four people involved in this recording. william: i would like to read something you wrote earlier this week about all of this.

you wrote, "this entire, ugly incident blows and massive hole in the narrative that many would like to believe about los angeles and about california being some sort of multicultural mecca for black and brown people , builds alliances to work together toward solving problems." how so? >> there's this notion of california as a left coast very liberal state. los angeles is a very diverse city, and there's a sense we embrace our multiculturalism, which is true, but i also think there's an undercurrent, obviously, racism and of inequity, and i think that is starting to come out with these recordings. we saw some of that come out in 2020 after george floyd. we had massive protests here, but we are seeing something else between racial tensions between black and latino angelenos and this kind of struggle for power, and i think that is -- you know, it is a narrative that some of

us know pretty well but a narrative and lot of people in los angeles thought we left behind in the 1990's but is still rearing its ugly head. william: that divide between blacks 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. >> yeah, the allegiance and the alliance is there. i think everybody recognizes it intellectually, and i think there have been several efforts to draw both communities together to address everything from housing prices to homelessness to public safety, but there's also the sense here in los angeles where latinos make up more than 50% of the population, there's a fear that they will kind of take over political power from the city structure and run the city specifically for latinos and leave out the needs of the black residents here. while our needs are similar, there are some differences, and i think there's kind of a struggle for power that has been

going on for quite some time, and this tape really shows that. william: right. the tape was a meeting that was 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. >> yes, this was a conversation that happened basically a year ago at the time when redistricting was happening in the city of los angeles. redistricting is contentious no matter where you are in the country, but in this case, it was about how do you draw maps, according to this conversation, in a way that benefits latino constituents and 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 how to dilute black political power in los angeles. that's part of the other thing that really upset a lot of people here.

william: lastly, in the few seconds we have left, this also comes as your city is going through a big mayoral election. a big debate happening tonight. how will that echo in that race? >> yeah, already both candidates are positioning themselves to be the person who will shepherd los angeles through this next chapter, and saying they are 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 is the one to do it because he is outside the political system. it will be up to voters to decide, but we will see what they have to say tonight. william: thank you so much for being here. >> thanks so much for having me on. ♪ william: a growing movement led by right-wing politicians is increasingly challenging a centuries-old value of america's

political system -- separation of church and state. laura baran lopez explores the rise of this religious rhetoric and what it means for november's midterm elections. >> on the ballot this november are a number of high-profile republican candidates who are embracing christian ideals. that's the belief that america was founded by and for white christians and that the government should center its policies on those relious beliefs. take a listen to these republican candidates facing voters next month. >> 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. >> i'm a christian and i say it proudly. we should be christian nationalists. >> the church is supposed to direct the government. the government is not supposed to direct the church. >> so much for this myth of separation of church and state. >> when you look at our platform, it is the only platform out there that

recognizes the creator. that recognizes that we have rights that supersede government. >> we need people all over the country to be willing to put on that full armor of god, to stand firm against the left's schemes. you will be met with flaming arrows, but the shield of faith will stop them. >> a professor at calvin university who studies the role of christian nationalism in history and in today's republican party joins me now. thanks for joining us. the comments we just heard -- how do they espouse christian nationalist ideals? >> really, these ideas that america is a special nation, it is god's nation, and thus, true patriots, real americans are those who would uphold christian values, and not just any christian values, particularly conservative political understanding of what it is to be christian and what it is to be a christian nation. >> where is the origin of what we are seeing in this modern day

christian nationalist movement? where did it come from? >> you can and the idea that america is a christian nation stretching all the way back through american history in different guises. you can go back to the puritans in the 17th century. you can hear this kind of rhetoric throughout -- manifest destiny and so forth. but what we are looking at today really is a modern manifestation , that is in a 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 has gone wrong, particularly in the 1970's, that secular impulses, that feminism or secular humanism, even in some cases, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement work seen as disruptive forces. the idea was that christians,

conservative christians, needed to unite and needed to restore christian america and to do that through voting, through policy, and asserting their influence over the government. >> have we seen a greater rise of this sentiment since former president trump ran for office? where do you see it in his rhetoric? >> i think we see it certainly surfacing more. president trump was very clear that he wanted to privilege conservative white christians. he wanted to protect christianity and a particular type of christianity. he very much used this rhetoric of us versus them, that he was not the president of all americans. he was the president of his base, and he was going to promote them and privilege their 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 that we have a right here. this also goes hand-in-hand with the idea of him battlement, the idea of threat, and that was something that president trump really excelled at, giving the sense that his followers, his base, that they were the ones who were under attack, and therefore, they needed to be militant, they needed to strike out first. you see that among many christian nationalists as well. even though they are in the majority, even though they have a lot of cultural and political power, they will continue to insist that they are actually the ones who are embattled, and therefore, what choice do they have but to be ruthless and to seize power? >> we saw a lot of christian imagery in the crowd on january 6 when the rioters stormed the capitol, and faith being used to justify violence there. how do you see the connection between the rise of these ideals and the violence that we

witnessed on that day? >> first, it is important to point out that notll christians who want to see their values and acted through our government are christian nationalists or are promoting violence, but like all americans, would like to see their values kind of find expression in the country in at america has a specialeane destiny, and it is a destiny that is under threat and must be connected. you see connections between that and a willingness to use violence, to use violence to restore kind of the rightful order, to reste the rightful dominion over this country, so that it can follow god's path and secure god's blessing. a new national poll gets at some of this, what we are seeing. it says 61% of republicans favor declaring the u.s. a christian nation, but also a majority of republicans understand that

doing so would be unconstitutional. what do you make of that? to >> it is really important that we focus right now on the disconnect between christian nationalism, particularly in its more extreme expressions, and our constitutional democracy, our commitment to democratic norms and institutions and to constitutional rights of others, and so those statistics are alarming. that the majority of republicans want america declared a christian nation, even though they recognized that that is unconstitutional. eir end, so we are seeingens a voter suppression, denial of voter suppression, that that is even happening, and again, this erosion to the commitment to

democracy, and it is really quite alarming. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you. ♪ william: charlene hunter gault's trailblazing journalistic career has spanned more than 50 years, but before that, she madnews herself when she became one of two black students to desegregate the university of georgia in 1961. she went on to become an me award-winning reporter working at several prestigious news organizations, including right here at pbs. she recently spoke with judy woodruff about her reporting career, which is also the focus of her new book and the collection of her work. it is called "my people: five decades of wring about black lives." judy: welcome and congratulations on the book.

>> thank you so much. it is so nice to be back home. judy: exactly. what a life you had. what a career you have had writing for all of these organizations. "the new york times," "the new yorker," and then of course coming to work with robert mcneil and jim lehrer back in the 1970's. this is really family for you, isn't it? >> yes, it really is. it is something else. judy: for sure. this book is a collection of your writing, your reporting over the decades, going back to the 1960's, 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, about that experience for you and how it shaped the work that you would do later on. >> actually, i was, along with

hamilton homes -- we were committed to use the university for both of our purposes. he wanted to be a doctor and i wanted to be a journalist, 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. 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 early days when you were at the university of georgia. so many other things you write about here 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 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? >> to be sure, what you have just stated is absolutely correct, and it is 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 everything that is happening in this world on peop 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 anchor, and so many others like him, and my dear friend 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, but 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 people, they are 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. though 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 lack american experience as we should be? >> i think we just have to talk about it more and 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. as i look at many of the programs on television today, they are doing just that. judy: finally, i want to ask you about a theme that arises in

several points in your book, and that is the need to teach young black children about their history, about the real heritage and the things that they faced, 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 an argument over what is called critical race theory, with politicians saying that this is being taught in schools and should not be. do you think we have made progress in at regard when you look at the political debate right now over this? >> i think we need to have more information about how people are coming to these conclusions, but also have to continue to press the importance of black history, our history, because that was our armorand that is how so many of us have managed to

succeed in our professions, but it is critical for everybody who has an opportunity to speak to people in the public to say how important it is for everybody to know this history, so that we can come together and help make more help continue to make a more perfect union. may not be totally perfect, but i think it will 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 is "my people: five decades of writing about black lives."

it is always good to have you. thank you. >> thank you for having me, and i would love to be back in that studio one of these days. judy: we cannot wait for that to happen. . william: boxer based in los angeles has always seen sports e gives her brief spectacularh take on what it takes to be a professional fighter. >> i want to be able to break down barriers in women's boxing, where i can be labeled as the best boxer, then put my hands in a pair of gloves. i was trained by terry clayborn what i moved to los angeles. i walked into the gym one day and told someone i wanted to fight and he has been mentoring me ever since. i originally worked at starbucks because they had flexible hours and i was able to train. working at 4:00 in the morning is hard for some people, but

boxing showed me discipline. i grew up in the bronx. of course, you know, it has its faults, but it made me who i am. my first interest in sports was at the age of two. i picked up basketball because my brother started playing basketball. he was witty good at it, and i wanted to kind of be just like him. i was in could to play basketball in high school, top 10 in the city. my brother was killed. he was killed by one of his friends. no one really spoke up about it because they were afraid. at 11 years old, processing his death, i shut down. i didn't want to do basketball. i didn't want to do any sports. i just honestly wanted to be with my brother. my father was diagnosed with liver cancer three years after

my brother's death. he was my best friend. we were laughing a lot, joking a lot. some say i'm his twin, very much like him, but he only wanted to make it to my high school graduation, and -- 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. we live for each other because that's all we have. stop playing basketball because i tore my acl, meniscus, and cartilage. a friend told me if i box, i'd get a full body workout. my ability was natural. my mom did not like my decision. she was worried that something would happen because boxing is a dangerous sport. i'm not afraid of dying. i'm not afraid of anything. my first professional fight i dedicated to my brother.

i had his name on my boxing trunks in 24 karat gold. boxing is where i am now. tha's where i am, who i am, what i do. i want people to remember me as an legacy of positivity and that anything is possible. you can do anything you want to do no matter the circumstances, whatever you have 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 remembers our name. this is my brief but spectacular take on being a professional fighter. william: you can watch more brief spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. that's the "newshour" for tonight. join us online and again tomorrow evening. from all of us at the "pbs newshour," thank you and good night. >> major funding for the "pbs

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