amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight, vote 2022. we examine the critical role secretaries of state will play in the upcoming midterm elections, especially if candidates refuse to concede defeat. , the tiing point, the future of the amazon rainforest is at stake as brazil heads to the polls for the final round of a contentious election. and mission accessible, college students with disabilities innovate ways to navigate spaces and use products that were not designed for them. >> the world is built for certain type of people. it's built to allow certain people to move without any issue throughout the world and succeed, and it's not built for others. amna: all that and more on tonight's

"pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ ♪ ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist, financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live youlife. life well planned.

♪ >> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org . and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: we begin tonight with the war in ukraine, where fears of escalation are mounting, as russian president vladimir putin oversaw his first nuclear drills since the invasion.

the exercise involved submarines and practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles. u. officials say moscow gave advance notice of the tests. putin also renewed the kremlin's unfounded claims that ukraine is plotting to set off a "dirty bomb". nato's secretary general called the allegations baseless. >> president putin is failing on the battlefield. we've also seen russia accuse ukraine of preparing to use a radiological dirty bomb. this is absurd. allies reject this blatantly false accusation. amna: russia's drills coincide with nato's long-planned nuclear exercises in europe this month. in iran, "islamic state" gunmen opened fire at a major shiite holy site, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more. iran's judiciary said two gunmen were arrested and a third is on the run after attacking the mosque in the southern city of shiraz.

elsewhere, thousands of protesters rallied across the country to mark 40 days since mahsa amini died in police custody. many marched on foot along a highway to her grave. back in this country, the man who drove into a christmas parade in waukesha, wisconsin, last year was found guilty of killing six people and injuring more than 60 others. a jury convicted darrell brooks on all 76 criminal charges, including six counts of first-degree murder. he originally pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease, but withdrew that plea days before his trial without explanation. meanwhile, in michigan today, a jury found three men guilty in a plot to kidnap democratic governor gretchen whitmer. the men were convicted of providing "material support" for a terrorist act as members of a paramilitary group. they'd held gun drills with the leader of the kidnapping scheme. sentencing is scheduled for mid-december. with less than two weeks until

the midterm election, a second woman is accusing georgia republican senate candidate herschel walker of helping her get an abortion. the anonymous woman alleged he pressured her into the procedure and paid for it in 1993. walker, who has been firmly anti-abortion during the campaign, called her claim, quote, "foolishness" and a "lie." he's also denied a similar allegation from a different woman. britain's new prime minister had a day of firsts, meeting with his new cabinet, and then facing the opposition party in parliament. rishi sunak reiterated his pledge to restore economic stability after his predecessor's tumultuous exit. and during today's parliamentary session, he responded to calls for a general election from the opposition's leader. >> it's a bit rich coming from the person who tried to overturn the biggest democratic vote in our country's history. our mandate is based on a manifesto that we were elected on, to remind him an election that we won and they lost.

amna: sunak also delayed by more than two weeks a planned economic statement outlining how they'll tackle britain's cost-of-living crisis. the world's three main greenhouse gases hit record highs this past year, according to a new report from the u.n.'s weather agency. it estimated that temperatures will rise 4.5 degrees fahrenheit by the end of the century. by 2030, they say, emissions will increase more than 10% from 2010 levels, if countries don't take tougher action to fight climate change. the biden administration is giving out nearly $1 billion in grants for electric school buses in all 50 states and washington, d.c. the new federal program will allow some 400 school districts to purchase about 2500 zero- or low-emission school buses. the move aims to reduce air pollution near schools and in surrounding communities. mortgage rates in the u.s. have jumped to their highest level since 2001.

the mortgage bankers association reported that 30-year fixed rates rose to 7.16%, up from 6.94% the prior week. loan application volume fell nearly 2%. mortgage rates have more than doubled since the beginning of the year. stocks were mixed on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average gained two points to close at 31,839. the nasdaq fell 228 points, the s&p 500 slipped 28. still to come on the "newshour", the threat of political instability rises as many candidates indicate they won't concede after the election. the city of saint louis grapples with the aftermath of a school shooting and widespread gun violence. companies sever ties with ye after antisemitic remarks but the debate over his popularity continues. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and

from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: joe biden won the presidency in an election deemed free and fair by countless election officials and courts across the country, all of whom rejected false claims of election fraud. two years later, former president trump continues to push baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged, and many republican candidates vying for office this year are repeating his lies. of the 26 republicans running for secretary of state across the country, 20 have denied or fueled doubts about the 2020 election results. only six have defended those results. in the vast majority of secretary of state races, the winner will have direct oversight over the election process. to explore what's at stake in three key races, in nevada, minnesota, and georgia, we are joined by, colton lochhead with

the las vegas review journal, mary lahammer with twin cities pbs, and stephen fowler of georgia public broadcasting. welcome -- endorsed by trump. has she said she will accept the election results if she loses in her race? mary: it's a great question because it is a nuanced answer. the first debate kim crockett participated in, the republican did not say she would accept the results. she cast doubt on 2020 as you mentioned and initially was casting doubt on accepting the current election results. she later changed her tune a little bit on that one and said she would accept it as long as it was in the automatic recount margin of error which in minnesota is .25%. amna: one about what crockett

has said? she has walked back to nihilism. has she said where she stands on those issues? mary: very skeptical, especially of the expansion of early mail-in voting which we started during the pandemic in minnesota, expanding that timeframe out to many weeks, more than a month, and the secretary of state is a fan of the and says minnesotans liked it. we showed up in droves. minnesota once again, their time in a row, led the nation in voter turnout. we are proud of our traditions of high civic engagement. more than 80% of minnesota's said they trust the integrity in minnesota. it's fascinating that they are within the margin of error amna: it's another close race between the republican incumbent and the

democrat. he has been endorsed by republican but he is a staunch election denier reports the lies about a stolen election, linked to qanon ideology. >> what is at stake is sober the concerns about the integrity of the election moving forward and whether people could trust the elections. he has been pushing these election do nihilism claims, one of the strongest pushers of attacking electronic voting machines, leading the push throughout the state but most strongly in the world, parts of the state to eliminate electronic voting machines and move to hand counting of paper ballots which would be a complete return going back -- going backwards decades in terms

of modernization of elections. we are seeing some of that played out already. he led the push and one of our rural counties to move them away from electronic voting machines and going into the election, this current election through our early voting system, the county is moving forward with some hand counting of ballots, already starting a movement towards just limiting the amount of electronic voting machines people are actually going to be in that one county casting some ballots by hand. amna: let's talk about georgia. there was an election denier who did not advance so the incumbent republican is now facing a democrat. does that mean all the concerns about election did nihilism or threats to democracy are not part of this race? >> it is a more limited factors and it would -- than it would have been. judy heights was one of the people that were key election

denier's, challenging the electoral college and pushing baseless claims but brad raffensperger has been one of the few republicans that stood up to trump so it's taking a backseat here because we don't have an election denier running for secretary of state but the democrats say that doing the right thing and not committing treason is not a high bar so they are arguing some of georgia's other voting laws and procedures that have been put in place especially since the 2020 election means that the republicans are doing a more passive way of keeping people from voting and not necessarily trying to toss out votes like we saw after 2020. amna: let's talk about minnesota for a second because i want to see if those messages you mentioned are resonating. what are we seeing so far in terms of the electorate? colton: -- mary: very engaged electorate and not just in the secretary of state race but all

of our constitutional offices. democrats have all of the statewide offices, the two u.s. senate seats, all four constitutional offes but at least three out of four of our offices are now within the margin of error. there were close races pizza could have state is one of the closest and this issue of election denial is front and center. republican kim crockett has tried to walk some of it back by saying she's questioning election. she at one point was on camera saying she was the election denier in chief. she said she was joking. it was a joke in front of activists to try and get the days to get out to vote and said people cannot take a joke but she says she wants to raise questions about elections. amna: what about in nevada? is that message resonating? what has been the democrats strongest message in response to that? colton: hard to save it is rest reading -- resonating.

average turnout state. we have a little bit more of a transient voter base here, moving in and out of the state regularly and with some of the calls, it's a tight race but there's a lot of undecided voters out there. that election do nihilism has been the most prominent part of this race, the number one issue in this race, and democrats are hammering that point home throughout the election basically sense even before the primaries. a primary in which he questioned his own victory, the with claims that he was not sure he could trust his own victory since it was done on election machines but that has been the absolute most prominent thing. democrats are raising concerns that if marchant were to win, he could unravel the election systemin nevada just from the top. amna: what about in georgia? you are seeing early voter turnout shattering records. what does that say to you about how georgians are viewing this

race? stephen: there is a bit of election fatigue in the sense that georgia was ground zero for not one, not two, but three different counts. to this day, there are investigations into attempts to overturn the election so there's not that i have a tolerance for election do nihilism in georgia. that sd, we are seeing record early voting turnout and we are seeing a record number of people pay attention to a midterm that we are seeing close to presidential level turnouts in some cases so republicans are using that as an argument that it is easy to vote in georgia and george's elections laws make it easy to vote. stacey abrams and a nominee are saying just because a lot of people are voting doesn't mean the voting laws could have kept were people from voting so i guess the bottom line here in georgia is there's a lot of interest in this race, a lot of interest in this midterm, and we are going to see record turnout

from both parties in this case to decide who controls the state. amna: fair to say a lot of interest in all three of these racist thanks to all of you for joining us. that is colton, stephen, and mary. as many republican candidates sow doubt about america's democratic elections system, questions have arisen about whether those in key midterm races will refuse to concede if they lose on election day. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: when asked by the new york times, six republican candidates for governor and the u.s. senate said they would not commit to accepting the results of their races. other gop candidates simply haven't responded. those non-committals have been tential for violence.es and joining me now to discuss is cynthia miller-idriss, the director of research at american university's polarization and extremism research innovation lab. cynthia, thanks for joining. i want to get to two examples of

this pattern. there are two statewide gop candidates in arizona. kari lake and blake masters, and they have not committed to accepting the election result or they have either flirted with or embraced election lies. karl: why it is that you have not said, or maybe you'll do it now, you have not said that you will accept the certified results of this election even if you lose this election? >> i will accept the results of this election if we have a fair, honest and transparent election, absolutely, 100%. karl: so if -- if -- if you were to lose -- and you're ahead, but if you were to lose, and you had all your appeals, they went through. lake: as long as it's fair, honest and transparent. karl: and certified. i mean, who's going to determine that? are you going to determine that, or -- or what, if -- [crosstalk] lake: it looks like my opponent might have to determine that. that's an interesting -- karl: well, she is the secretary -- she is the secretary of state. lake: that's an interesting conundrum, isn't it? mr. trump: if you want to get across the line, you gotta go

stronger on that one thing, that was the one thing, a lot of complaints about. look at kari. kari's winning with very little money. and if they say, "how isour family?" she says, "the election was rigged and stolen." you'll lose if you go soft. you're going to lose that base. >> should republicans, are you concerned at all that republicans like them won't concede? >> i'm definitely concerned. i think we should all be concerned when we hear people running for office say things that undermine trust in the system, that delegitimize the election system, and are putting party over country in this case. i think it is really an argument that they are not saying they won't necessarily not accept the election although some of them have, but they are creating tremendous uncertainty about it. to be honest, uncertainty is one of the things we know that creates vulnerability to conspiracy theories so it is a self fulfilling prophecy that people become less confident about the election process itself. >> potentially a vicious cycle.

we heard from local state reporters just now. the one in nevada said the secretary of state candidate, the republican, is making election fraud claims, false election fraud claims a pillar of his campaign. what impact does casting doubts about past and present elections have on the electric? >> is incredible. over 70% of americans are concerned about marker see itself. i think the electorate really sees this as a consistent problem. they know the election system is under fire. they are concerned about it. it is clear that there trust is being undermined but we also see that they are not voting that way. there is a small percentage of them that say that is the most important issue that will drive their boat so they are still making decisions based on things that they think affect them personally like crime, perceived crime, or inflation, not actually making decisions about the fact that democracy is in

trouble. they are just acknowledging that it is in trouble so what we are seeing here is the system itself is in trouble so people know it is in trouble and yet they are not persuaded enough to vote in a way that will change that. it's a really dangerous situation to be in. laura: even though voters may be voting on issues, a majority of republican voters believe trump's false election lies and that brings me to the former president which is that former president trump is probably the most prominent election denier in modern history. do you see any historical parallels? cynthia: of course we haven't. you have to take this comparison very carefully but we have this historical comparison of a fragile democracy in the weimar republic in germany, when you actually had the nazi party stage that. we remember that time as an attempted insurrectionary takeover. that took a decade before that

lead to more authoritarian situations and a collapse of democracies one of -- democracies. one of the things we are to understand is democracies don't collapse overnight. we know we are on a backsliding path. we are on the list of backsliding democracies. but we have to start intervening in ways to prevent and stop the slide from getting worse and right now, it's not. we are continuing to see it go in the wrong direction. laura: after the beer hall push, the nazi party rose to power. >> 10 years later. it did take some time and we see that democracies need cultivation, reinforcement, civic education and protection, but you also have to ward off the bad and protect yourself against conspiracy theories and false claims, the things that chip away with 1000 small cuts at democracies. laura: the last time weaw these false election claims, election fraud claims, be repeated over and over and over again, then the january 6

insurrection on the u.s. capitol happened. based on your research, do you think that there could be similar incidents after this election? cynthia: i think we are in a moment where additional political violence is almost an inevitability. how bad is it going to be? i don't think after the midterm elections that we are going to see the kind of violence we saw on january 6. i'm hopeful about that but i also don't think we are at the end of this backsliding situation that we are in. i think things will continue to get a bit worse before we are able to pull it back. one of the things we do see is that people are clearly immobilized to action and violent action based on disinformation and false claims about election integrity. we have to be doing everything we can to prevent that kind of violence from reoccurring. laura: you mentioned the u.s. has been placed on this backsliding scale of democracies. how long does it typically take for countries to correct course? cynthia: as a nerdy academic, that was the first thing i did,

go look at the data. it takes on average nine years to move in one direction or the other. countries get added to that list and we have about a decade, about nine years. now, it's about eight years because we have been on it for almost a year, before you either essentially on average collapse into a nondemocratic state or you are restored. this is not just a short-term problem for the 2022 or 2024 elections. it is a problem for the next eight to 10 years. amna: thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. -- laura: thank you so much for your time. cynthia: thank you. ♪ amna: this coming sunday, millions of people across brazil will vote in the final round of their presidential election. they'll choosbetween right-wing incumbent jair bolsonaro, and the man known as lula, former president luiz inacio lula da silva. to many, the very future of the amazon rainforest is on the ballot. newshour special correspondent

jane ferguson has the story produced in partnership with the pulitzer center. jane: there are many reasons to marvel at the amazon rainforest, it is the world's most precious ecosystem. a natural wonder, regenerating water, absorbing carbon dioxide, home to untold species of the earth's creatures. and, fm above, it is simply beautiful. but from space, that beauty is obscured. so the smoke clouds can effectively deal from space? >> oh, yes. it's clear. this is a picture from the geostationary satellite. this is about 40,000, 40,000 kilometers away. so you're not talking about something small. you're talking about something that can be seen from such a distance. jane: senior scientist alberto setzer examines these satellite images here at brazil's national institute for space research. on any given day, there are 20

to 30,000 fires raging in the amazon. humans, encroaching deeper into the forest, clearing it for farming. >> for example, if you look here, you see a new area being deforested. look, this was a farm they already deforested. and here all the satellites detected the burning and you can see the smoke plumes. jane: in the last few decades, over 300,000 square miles have been illegally deforested, more than twice the size of germany. when setzer began this work in the mid-1980's, deliberate forest fires were just being discovered by satellites. gathering evidence of it, and telling the world, says setzer, was not enough. his whole career, and for 40 years, he has watched the amazon burn. >> there was this tremendous outcry, and i thought at that time, well, okay, we show this is wrong. everybody agrees is wrong. in about one or two years, the whole thing will be settled. but it didn't happen and it's still going on. jane: at the time, the brazilian

government began permitting some limited encroachment into the forest. roads were built and trees cleared to build farms. >> the initial idea was quite good. patchsuppo e a so the whole area would have very long stretches, pieces of forest connected one to another -- jane: so animals could move -- >> yes, everything was very well-planned. but the original plan, the plan was neglected, nobody was punished for that, and nothing of that has been implemented. take for instance this area that has already been deforested. jane: how much time would have passed when this had been deforested? >> some 10 to 15 years. so you don't need to be an expert in satellite interpretation to say, well, wait a minute, it's not 80% is the left. yeah, it's not even 50% left,

maybe 10% or 5% left. jane: that was para state, where the rate of forest fires this year has doubled. we traveled there to see the destruction for ourselves. the smell of smoke in the air, unmistakable. you really do not need to drive very far here in the amazon before you see the burns, taking place brazenly in front of any traffic. here by the side of the road you can see this farmland being expanded deeper into the forest. you see these everywhere you go here. the rainforest's survival has never been in more peril, its future largely in the hands of politicians. come november, either incumbent president jair bolsonaro or two-time former president luiz inacio lula da silva, known to everyone as "lula". brazil's influential agri-business supports bolsonaro and his campaign promises double down on his policies of the last four years. under his presidency, environmental laws have been crippled, and deforestation has

spiked, up more than 70% over the past four years. last month, addressing the united nations, president bolsonaro argued his policies benefit the world. pres. bolsonaro: our agribusiness is a source of national pride. in the brazilian amazon, an area as big as western europe, more than 80% of the rainforest remains untouched and pristine, contrary to what is often reported by the mainstream national and international media. jane: but as lawlessness by delevopers has spread across the amazon, conservationists have been murdered at record rates. lula is banking on support from people who care about protecting the amazon. currently the frontrunner, he has pledged to support such stances in the past. once in office, those policies have been weakened, watered down by business interests, political compromises, and criminal cartels contlling industries inside the amazon.

yet, these efforts to save the forest may be the last chance. we are approaching a point of no return, once the forest is so degraded, it cannot sustain itself as an ecosystem, says leading climate scientist carlos nobre. carlos: if we exceed the tipping point, even if we stop deforestation, degradation, reaching the various targets for climate change the tipping point , makes the degradation process to be self-reinforcing. it will drive more degradation because the degradation process increases the length of the dry season. it's impossible to maintain a forest with longer dry season. jane: so passing the tipping point effectively makes the situation terminal for the rainforest. carlos: terminal for the rainforests if we continue with the deforestation and degradation, and also with

global warming. jane: the problem is the degradation of the forest. as the it is burned and cleared, the thick canopy that creates its own climate and environment is breached. this makes fires spread more quickly, worsening the threat. 35% of the entire forest is now degraded, says nobre. roughly a quarter of the size of the united states. this matters for the entire planet. >> the amazon forest, as most forests on the planet, does a very important environmental service, which is to remove carbon dioxide. the amazon forest removes more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. and the amazon at one point 20, 30 years ago removed more than 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide. so this is a very important ecosystem service. amna: -- jane: while scientists continue to sound the alarm, people on the ground like father edilberto sena have for years

been a thorn in the side of agribusiness and, more recently, the bolsonaro government. father adliberto sena: amazonia is not agricultural land, it's forest land, so when you cut the forest to plant, in a few times, it's finished. logs, did you just see? full of logs. jane: those are logs from the forest? father adliberto sena: yes, yes. jane: he is an outspoken critic of industries driving deforestation. he runs his own radio program near his home town of santarem in para state. he took us to see deforested areas. we just drove by on the road there. a huge trailer filled with logs. where does that come from? father adliberto sena: logs come from here. 70 kilometers from here, there's forest. so the logs come from all over the area because the amazon is rich in logs. you see the destruction of our territory. so shocking.

shocking. jane: but you are very outspoken. it's pretty dangerous, that you're standing here talking to us. we're in this field. what are the risks? >> because in 2006 two people were talking to each other by inrnet, saying we needed to kill two priests in order to give peace to santarem, one was sena. at that moment i was scared. jane: father sena is careful about which farms he goes near now. he knows the risks. carlos nobre has a safer strategy, but a no less audacious one. >> we are planning to propose a restoration of more than 100 million hectares of forest. the forest degraded mostly over southern amazon. if we succeed, zero deforestation, forest degradation, wildfires, and this large scale forest restoration, this we will be removing between

1 billion and 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year for more than 30 years. a very important element to combat the climate emergency, but more importantly, to prevent the tipping point to be crossed. jane: after thriving on earth for ten million years, it took humans a mere five decades to bring the rainforest close to a tipping point. if the amazon survives what humans have done to it, what they continue to do to it, it can heal. for the pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson, in para state, brazil. amna: tomorrow, jane ferguson will have another story from brazil, looking at how the rights of indigenous people in the amazon are also under

the city of st. louis is struggling to cope with the aftermath of a high school shooting earlier this week. on monday, a 19-year old gunman killed teacher jean kuczka and 15-year-old student alexandria bell, and wounded many others. with many residents still on edge, local officials are facing growing pressure to address gun violence. our community reporter gabrielle hays has been following it all and joins me now. welcome and thank you. take me back to that day. how did the rest of the day unfold? gabrielle: it was an incredibly day. those early hours were very scary for the community and students. i was in the area a little bit after it happened and i cannot really put into words to you

what it was like to witness parents trying to find their students. not just those imagers. we are also talking about images he may have seen on tv or social media already of students jumping out of windows, trying to get to safety. it is an incredibly hard thing to see an thing to know. as the days go on, we get more more information about how the day unfolded. police told us that got that call in at 9:10, nine: 11, that parents got inside and eventually engaged with a shooter on the third floor. we are told they were able to secure the scene by 9:32 and the entire building not long after. i don't really know what word you can use to describe what that experience was like that day. not long after that night

actually, more than 100 people were at one of our local parks to create a space to grieve, not only to grieve, bu also to support each other and to support each other in grieving for those who were lost and to support the students who had experienced something incredibly scary. amna: amidst all the loss and the grief that is clearly still resonating in the community, we know this incident as we ignited another conversation yet again about stricter gun legislation. tell me how that is playing out in that community. gabrielle: absolutely. i think that that conversation has been brought up in every press conference, almost every press conference i have been part of it happened. missouri has lax gun laws and that was brought up by police when asked by reporters whether or not it was difficult or was it easy to get guns here? the interim police chief even said, yes, it is easy to get

guns because gun laws here are broad so that makes it difficult for law enforcement but i think it's also important to note what was brought up not only by our mayor but by the director of our health department. gun violence is something that hits close to home to us here in st. louis. the health director even mentioned that the day before, eight people had died at the hands of gun violence if you just think about what that means. absolutely, gun legislation and gun laws is absolutely a conversation. the director even said today that it is a public health crisis. amna: bring us up to speed on the latest. where is the investigation, what is going on in the school, and how are folks in the community doing? gabrielle: the investigation is ongoing. we get a little bit more each and every day.

what we do know is that the fbi is involved. they are asking the public to please provide any digital evidence that they may have that can help them in their investigation. we also know that the school system is trying to figure out not only how to best support its students now but in the future. the first thing the superintendent said that day in the very first moment was that they are trying to figure out what they can do to hopefully haening and moving forward sorom when you ask, you know, how is the community now? the community is grieving and it is a very difficult thing that as the mayor has said and as we have seen, st. louis is sticking togethernd trying to move forward. amna: that is our communities reporters joining us from st. louis, missouri. thank you. good to see you. gabrielle: thank you. ♪

amna: companies are severing ties with ye, the artist formerly known as kanye west, in the wake of antisemitic remarks. but there are questions as well about why some companies did not react sooner to other racist and offensive remarks he's made. john yang has more. john: multi-billion dollar -- john: amna, this week, adidas ended a multi-billion dollar business deal with the artist, saying his antisemitic remarks went againt the company's values. since the controversy erupted over those comments, foot locker, the fashion house balenciaga, the talent agency caa and vogue's anna wintour are among those who have cut ties with him. but, so far, spotify and apple music have resisted calls to drop him from their music streaming platforms. lz granderson is a columnist for the los angeles times and host of the podcast "life out loud." thanks so much for joining us. kanye west is not just -- did

not just start saying controversial things. he has been criticized for denigrating black people, for saying that slavery was a choice, for denigrating women. why this reaction now? john: that's a great -- lz: that's a great question. to your point, he has been saying controversial things so i would add that controversy is based upon the eye of the beholder. in the wake of hurricane katrina, when he said that that and president bush did not care about black people, i can tell you a lot of people did not find that controversial. controversy all kind of depends on who is listening, right? these particular ears at this particular point in time are fed up with the remarks that he has been saying. i do not want to make it sound as if i am going to have an oppression olympics, but it is interesting that he has been able to say a lot of anti-black things for a very long time

without financial repercussions but once he starts wadin into anti-semitism, the reaction to those remarks were definitely different. john: we talk about the struggle between the artist in the art. he wrote a column about this about a week ago and i want to read a little bit from it. you wrote year by year, track, sneaker by sneaker, tweet my tweet, he shows us why we should follow and why we should tune out like so many people, i kept finding ways to carve the artistry from the artist even though i knew they were one in the same and then one day, i just stopped. why did you just stop? what was thereaking point for you? lz: it was really the remarks about my ancestors, his ancestors, not resisting enslavement. when he went to tmc and he has that sort of grant and within that -- rant and within that, he

says some really awful things about people who survived the transatlantic slave trade. i could not say, this sounds really good so i'm going to ignore these remarks from this person. that was my breaking point although in retrospect, i should have reached that point much sooner than i did. john: you are going to stop listening to him even though you acknowledge in the column how much you appreciated his music. you are just going to stop? lz: i have stopped. we used to play his music during my radio show, that i cohosted in los angeles. after those remarks, i stopped. i requested we stop spirit i personally have stopped. i'm not asking other people to follow in my footsteps here and all i am suggesting is that if you stop and ask yourself if the words he says work for you, do you support what he is saying? do you want him to continue saying what he is saying? if you don't, then what are you prepared to do about that? if it is nothing, that is

perfectly fine, it's your prerogative. for myself, i was not happy just say nothing. i decided on my own that i'm goingo carve his work out of my life because i don't want to appear i am in alignment with the things he is saying. john: there are calls for spotify, apple music, to drop him from their platforms. do you want to see more companies, more marketers cutting ties with him? lz: i would like to see more people follow their convictions. if you have a corporation with a mission statement that says you are against certain ideas or comments, speech or behavior, i would expect you to be consistent with the mission statement you set forth in saying this is what your culture is paid similarly, i would like an individual who says they don't stand for x, y, nz, t live in the same sort of conditions. as i said rlier, i am not here to -- i am here to rally our own

higher good and ask ourselves, is this the best use of our resources? is this the best use of our time? we support the artists making these comments? if not, behave accordingly. john: we saw neo-nazis hang a banner over and let freeway saying "kanye is right." does someone like kanye saying the things he says make it easier for other people to say these things out loud? lz: i would hate to give kanye credit for things that president trump has already established. i would simply say this is more of the same. when it comes to someone like kanye or however you want to identify him, the reality is, a lot of people that you see spewing antisemitic things did not need a black man from chicago to give him permission to say these things. they were already prepared to say those things. they have already been saying those things. while it is easy to view the

situation as kanye giving permission, the reality is if kanye told them to stop, he probably would not listen to them. john: thank you very much. lz: thank you for having me. amna: for people with disabilities, innovating ways to navigate spaces anuse products that weren't designed for them can be part of everyday life. r some, that has meant making their own tools, modifying existing ones or entirely re-imagining environments. special correspondent cat wise recently spent a day with inventors in berkeley, california. >> we are trying to find new avenues for that. cat: every friday, members of the university of california berkeley disability lab meet to discuss their latest projects. >> fluid and respoive way.

>> you made this in one week? cat: lab members amaan jogia-sattar and anthony zhou are working on a new device. >> so if you give it a nice breath, then the co2 value goes up. cat: it can measure conditions like air quality and light levels in u.c. berkeley classrooms. things people with various disabilities, including autism, can be sensitive to. >> so a lot of times, things like light, sound, smell. we don't always notice them in our daily lives, but they can be quite harmful to other people. so it's just a way to quantify those things. and make recommendations to the university based off of those measurements. cat: they hope to share the data they gather with university officials and make an app people can use to navigate or change classrooms. >> this is really something that would have the potential to validate students' concerns about like lighting conditions. they would be able to see that, oh, maybe something that i'm experiencing, there's data to back it up. cat: the lab, founded in 2018, is a place where people, most of whom identify as disabled come together to research and work on projects aimed at improving

accessibility. one in four people in the u.s. live with a disability yet many products and spaces are not built with them in mind. lab founder karen nakamura and associate director nate ti unashamed and hack their spaces on and off-campus. >> t worldbuilt r certain type of people. and recognizing that it's built to allow certain people to move without any issue throughout the world and succeed, and it's not built for others. cat: in his second year at berkeley, tilton entered a classroom that was too tight to maneuver in his wheelchair. so he had to listen to the lecture facing a wall. on another occasion when using his walker, tilton struggled going up a hill on campus. >> i ended up having to go to the e.r. because the hills just aggravated my disabilities quite a bit. but if the signing would have told me that there was an accessible route through some of these buildings that connected, that could have been avoided. but i had no idea. cat: those experiences inspired

him to create the radical mapping project, a crowd-sourced navigation app designed to help students with disabilities get around campus. >> this is not just unique to berkeley. this is something common to a lot of campuses where there's a lack of signage, there is a lack of understanding that, you know, accessibility just goes beyond a checklist. cat: in an email to the newshour, a u.c. berkeley communications official said, "the campus understands that despite the general accessibility of classrooms, some classrooms present acfcess -- present access barriers to disabled students,the official also provided a website link including campus maps related to disability access. >> particles cannot get in. cat: on another side of the lab, skyler bennett is working on a easily-replicable air respirator. in california, and throughout the west, many people use tight-fitting masks like n-95's when the air quality is poor due to wildfires, but those masks can be especially difficult to wear for some disabled people.

>> the air is coming in through the filters, becoming clean, and then going into this plastic bag and into the mask. >> breathing through the tube. yep, it's pretty cool. cat: low-cost design is key to the lab's work. >> the cost of respirators tends to be in the thousands of dollars. this one we made for $20. cat: nearly 18% of america's disability community lives in poverty, and many products designed for them are expensive. workers with disabilities are paid $.74 for every dollar paid to their nondisabled coworkers. >> when we look at many of the products that are being designed for disabled people, they're incredibly expensive. a power chair could easily be the cost of a small car. cat: tilton says in addition to creating affordable products, the berkeley lab is a space for disabled people to find community. nate: when i found this lab, it was just one of those things where it's like, hey, it's okay to be who you are and really understand and embrace your identity as a disabled person. >> that is a nice temperature.

cat: as a freshman at u.c. berkeley in 1987, joshua miele also found a space to be himself. >> it was the first time i had been in a community with people with disabilities who i liked and respected and who i could emulate and be proud of being part of. and it was an extraordinary shift in my identity. cat: he often had someone read his physics textbooks aloud while he took notes in braille. now, he's an advisor to the berkeley disability lab, and an accessibility researcher at amazon, where he helped develop alexa's "show and tell feature." alexa, what am i holding? cat: designed to help blind and low vision customers identify common items. what are some of the questions that you start to first ask when you are in the process of designing a new product or making modifications to an existing product?

>> i ask myself, what is the problem i'm trying to fix? who is? who am i trying to fix the problem for? and how are they going to use this on a day to day basis? and again, even when you're -- cat: he's spent his career designing accessible tools for people with disabilities. like this set of tactile maps for every station in the bay area rapid transit system, compatible with an audio smart pen. miele says while he enjoys inventing, people with disabilities shouldn't have to spd extra time or labor to complete daily tasks. >> there's a tax on people with disabilities and it's a tax of time. and it means that there is for any given thing that you want to do as a person with a disability, there's a good chance you will have to put in more effort, do more work, take more time to do that thing.

cat: miele says the key to creating accessible products is including people with disabilities in the process. >> we know what we need, and it's essential that people with disabilities be not only not only consulted, but be tightly woven into the process of developing and designing and producing the tools that we use every day to do the things we want to do. the biggest shift that we still are grappling with and will probably take much longer is to get rid of all of the assumptions and preconceptions we have about people with disabilities. what they can and cannot do, and what their place is in society. cat: back on cams, nakamura says she wants the lab to be a bridge between the bay area's tech industries and berkeley's disability communities. >> all the large corporations are realizing that they have

massive power and that if they don't start to think through the ethical, political, legal issues, someone else will. our goal is ultimately to create a community in which disabled people really feel empowered to take control of their lives and take control over all this technology that's seeping into everyone's surroundings. cat: for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in berkeley, california. amna: and online, we have more from the researcher on making tech that is useful and delightful for people with disabilities. that is at pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funng for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer

cellular sku has been to provide wireless service. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our team can find one 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 jim and nancy and kathy and paul anderson. >> these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. >> i'm thriving by helping others every day. people who know know bdo. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

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. >> hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour and company." here is what is coming up. >> we reject the chtransparentl ukraine is using a dirty bomb. >> dismissing the false flag alarm and the united states warns putin against any nuclear use. i ask president zelenskyy's chief diplomatic advisor what's behind russia e's latest provocation. >> 15 days until an important election. >> the final push to the midterms but pocketbook issues and inflation rise, republicans surge in the polls. we look ahead with our experts to what this should mean for