♪ geoff: i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i am amnaawaz. on "the newshour" tonight... memphis prepares for protests as video of the police killing of tyre nichols is released. geoff: the fda proposes easing restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, reversing what advocates have long-called discriminatory policies. amna: and... we visit a baltimore school to see how teachers are helping students catch up on unfinished learning from the pandemic. >> it's definitely been an uphill battle. a lot of them missed almost half of first grade, and those are the years that they learn and that they really solidify those foundational reading skills.

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pivot again and again forresilio prevent ♪ >> and friends of "the newshour." this program was made poible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. vanessa: welcome to "the newshour." i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy at "newshour west." the city of memphis has released several videos of five police

officers attacking tyre nichols earlier this month. the 29-year-old died three days after he was hospitalized. police brutally beat, tased and pepper sprayed him following a traffic stop. five former police officers are now charged with his murder. "pbs newshour" has reviewed the videos and has decided to broadcasonly two short clips to illustrate what occurred. a warning to our viewers -- the video is graphic, disturbing, and includes several seconds of tyre nichols being beaten and crying for help. [yelling] vanessa: as we go to air tonight, there are peaceful protests in memphis. for his part, president biden said he was outraged by the video, and is calling for peaceful ptests.

the memphis police chief has said there was no probable cause to warrant nichols' arrest. today before the video was released, his mother, rowvaughn wells, told reporters about the kind of man her son was. ms. wells: he loved photography, he loved skateboarding, he was just his own person. he didn't follow what everybody else was doing. i tried to buy him a pair of jordans one time, and he said, "mama i don't want those." he wanted some vans, you know. so, i'm just telling you guys my son was a beautiful soul. he was a good boy. no one's perfect, but he was damn near. vanessa: we're going to take a closer look now at how the memphis community is responding to the police killing of tyre nichols. earlier today, geoff bennet spoke with the reverend earle

fisher, senior pastor of the abyssinian missionary baptist church in memphis. geoff: reverend, fisher, thank you for being with us. rev. fisher: thank you for having me. geoff: i imagine there is a heaviness in memphis, since -- a deep sense of anger and rage. how are people processing what happened? rev. fisher: well, that's a difficult question to respond to. i think all of the emotions that you articulated are happening. but there is a sense of that hope, a few steps that have been taken in the right direction towards at least a semblance of justice, because true justice would be tyre nichols still breathing. our heart goes out to his family. but it still remains to be seen and i don't think anybody can actually predict what the next several hours or the next few days are going to hold. geoff: what makes this case difference is all of the officers involved are black.

what also makes it different is how quickly they were arrested and charged. there are people who find a direct connection between those things. i want to hear your reaction to what benjamin crump, the attorney for the family, had to say today. mr. crump: we want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward for anytime, any officers, whether they be black or white. they will be held accountable. no longer can you tell us we have to wait six months to a year. geoff: what about that? that swift justice is the new standard and this meant case, this tragedy proves it can be done. rev. fisher: i agree with the sentiment of attorney crump, and i think it's important to put into context summary different development that led to what we have seen happen over the last few days. i don't think anybody should be caught up and a projected

-- caught up in a projected benevolence of people within the system just doing the right thing. this is the byproduct of several years of righteous and aggressive advocacy and activism work from when darius stewart was killed in 2015 from bridge demonstrations in 2016. the removal of confederate monuments in 2017. and the list goes on and on. what i deeply appreciate about what attorney crump said, is as unique as this case may be, especially as far as the heinous and egregious video is concerned, we know this is still part and parcel of a larger system and structure of policing. and we've been trying to advocate for righteo reforms here on the ground for quite some time, but they've been resisted and they he been reduced, which i think contributed to the moment that we're faced with now. so our heart goes out to the family of tyr nichols, and i even believe his mother and his father leave this is not just

about this isolated incident, because it is not isolated, it is interconnected to what's happening insofar as policing across the country. geoff: tyre nichols was pulled over blocks away from his home in this specialized -- by this specialized police unit known as scorpion set up more than a year ago to police a violent crime in memphis. these specialized crime-fighting teams have been scrutinized for targeting people of color and operating with impunity. what was the level of concern about this scorpion team before the fatal assault? rev. fisher: a few things come to mind. one is that the officers involved had all been on the force for five or less years. and you would wonder how they would be able to get in a specialized unit with such a short time span for experience. not only that, i thinkhen you think about the level of oversight and supervision that should have been provided to them, because i don't think

anybody who is being mildly objective would perceive that this was somehow their first time engaged in this heinous behavior. you don't start off with this level of brutality on your first rodeo. you have to graduate to this. so our question again is who was responsible for the management and the oversight that should have been provided to them. they're connected to other units that people have been skeptical about and we think that there's a covert nature to them. to be fair to law enforcement, i understand because of some of their responsibilities, there might need to be some covert elements involved, but at the same time there has to be enough , transparency and accountability to ensure that these developments don't reach this particular level. because we don't have to be here today. we are here today in part because of the competing philosophies and ideologies about how to make the city safer. so chief davis, mayor strickland, they put this unit together in the fall of 2021. it didn't even take a year and a half before we had at least one dead body, and no telling if we

have more bodies that have been brutalized and by the grace of god, people did not die. geoff: tyre nichols was beaten beyond recognition, his family says. the fbi director said today he was appalled by what he saw. how do you expect the city of memphis will respond to this? rev. fisher: that is beyond my pay grade. i am hopeful and prayerful because of pa patterns and practices from protesters. they have shown all manner of poison passion. if there's ever been any escalation in pest protest in memphis, it was the police department that initiated it and escalated it. so i trust poison passion of the people. i trust citizens to look out for each other.

so somebody's out there and they see somebody doing something that's unbecoming. i would hope that they would intervene with the highest level of love and appreciation, not only for each other, but especially for the family of tyre nichols. i also think is not the wisest thing to release a video that you know, is going to be insightful and inflammatory on a friday evening. i think there could have been some deeper discussion and dialogue about better ways to introduce that to the public. so again, we don't really know i think those of us who have been on the ground for the last several years are gonna be here for the long haul. and we are hoping for the best instead of trying to prepare for the worst. lastly, i would say i think the air of the city has been impacted by the way mainstream media has couched the developments i would have loved to see mainstream media outlets say stuff like memphis plans for a peaceful protest, as opposed to say memphis is on edge. i was looking around because i felt like i missed something.

that hadn't been what i am michael is have felt. we are preparing for the worst and praying for the best. geoff: lastly, rev. fisher, all of 29 years old, said to be a free spirit who enjoyed skateboarding, who deeply loved his mother. what would you like to say? rev. fisher: how human tyre was, how much you love skateboarding, he loved sunsets they talked , about how much he loves skateboarding, how faithful he was in his work, his relationship with his mother, his father, his family, his child.

i believe so i think anytime we can humanize people who have been brutalized in this way, is valuable. i also want to challenge us to continue to lift him up to lift up others who have suffered similar and justices and continue to journey with these boundaries, even after the cameras are gone after the smoke clears, after the funerals. because people can continue to bear the burden and the trauma of these instances, as his mother was saying, we should not have to do what we're doing now. so we'll do the best we can with what we have. geoff: the reverend earle fisher, from abyssinian baptist church in tennessee, thank you for giving us your time. ♪ vanessa: in the day's other headlines -- new violence erupted in the middle east when a palestinian gunman killed 7 people in east jerusalem, before police killed him. it was one of the deadliest attacks on israelis in years. ambulance crews and police swarmed the scene near a synagogue. the attack came a day after israeli troops killed 10 palestinians in the occupied west bank. after those killings, militants in gaza fired rockets overnight, and israel's military answered with air strikes. there were no reported

casualties in that exchange. russian artillery fire has claimed more lives in ukraine's eastern and southern regions. ukrainian officials say shelling today killed at least 10 people. meanwhile, the head of the u.n. refugee agency accused russia of kidnapping ukrainian children. in kyiv, filippo grandi said the russians are taking children from occupied areas, giving them passports and putting them up for adoption. mr. grandi: in situations of war, you cannot determine if children have families or guardianship. and therefore, until that is clarified, you cannot give them another nationality or having them adopted by another family. vanessa: the russians said they categorically reject the allegations. new zealand's largest city, auckland, faced torrential rains and heavy flooding today. police say two people have died and two are missing.

the deluge triggered widespread damage, with water waist-deep in some areas. submerged cars were abandoned as drivers struggled to get to safety. officials warned some residents to be ready to evacuate. back in this country, the justice department accused three men of plotting on orders from iran to kill an iranian american journalist in new york. he had spoken out against human rights abuses in -- she had spoken out against human rights abuses in iran. in washington, the attorney general said iran has pursued dissidents without regard for borders. ag garland: the department of justice will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to undermine those protections and the rule of law upon which our democracy is based. we will not tolerate attempts by a foreign power to threaten , silence, or harm americans. vanessa: the three suspects are accused of money laundering and murder-for-hire. former vice president mike pence

says he takes full responsibility for classified documents found at his indiana home. in florida today, he said, "those documents should not have been in my personal residence. mistakes were made." the formerice president said he never knew the materialas there, but that it was no excuse. republican leaders have re-elected ronna mcdaniel to chair the republican national committee for 2 more years. they voted today at a meeting in southern california. former president trump backed mcdaniel, but some of his allies supported a challenger. president biden making it official today, jeff zients will be his new white house chief of staff. zients led the administration's response to the covid-19 pandemic. before that, he ran the national economic council under president obama. he now succeeds ron klain, who's stepping down after 2 years on the job. still to come on "the newshour"... as the world marks holocaust remembrance day, why americans

know so little about its history... ruth marcus and gary abernathy weigh in on the week's political headlines... and we take a look inside the acclaimed new theater production of "life of pi"... 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 university. amna: the fda today announced plans to ease a decades-old restriction, preventing men who have sex with men from donating blood. a lifetime ban was put in place during the aids epidemic over fears of hiv transmission. the new guidelines would ask all potential donors about their recent sexual history instead of singling out queer men. any potential nors who had anal sex in the last 3 months with new or multiple partners would not be allowed to donate.

anyoneaking medications to prevent hiv infections would also be deferred for a period of time. for more on this, i'm joined by cole williams. he founded the organization pride and plasma last spring to bring attention to this issue. welcome. thank you for joininus. we have to point out, for over a generation, gay and bisexual men have been shut out from donating blood as freely as anyone else and fighting for the right to do so. when you think about this moment, how important is it right now? cole: this is critical. this is the biggest reduction that we've seen. this policy was implemented in 1985. every time that they cut it back, there was still like a -- there was a still a blanket deferment policy. this is the first time that we really seen the fda like individu donors and see what their individual risk is. amna: you came to this work from personal experience, during the pandemic, the nation was experiencing a blood supply

shortage in your whole family wanted to donate. what happened? cole: there were commercials all the time on the tv. my family decided we wanted to give blood but i knew that because of the deferment policy, i wasn't eligible. and that led to not a tense conversation, but an awkward one where i had to say i can't. i wish i could but that is the reality of this situation. and that's the impact of this policy. amna: there are still a number of exclusions in place with a new policy. anyone taking oral medication to prevent hiv or the injectable prep treatment is still subject to monthslong deferrals. do those make sense to you? cole: i'm gonna say yes and no. i'm not entirely sure of the results of the study. around 1800 participants and they enrolledaround 1800 participants and then they looked at the effectiveness and safety of an individual risk assessment. so when we are not having a blanket deferment policy anymore, i think that we still

need to be looking at factors like how else are you having sex while using prep and other means of preventing hiv? because hiv isn't the only thing that we e looking for when we're testing blood donations, we are looking for hepatitis and other diseases that can still be transmitted through blood donati. so until we see the results of the advanced study and potential new research studies on this specific issue, i can't really say whether it is justified or not. amna: we spoke to sean cahill, who is the director of health policy research at the fenway institute. he has been on the frontlines of this fight fighting for equal , rights for 14 years. he pointed out that the fda was haunted by the experience in the 1980's, when thousands of people were given blood that had hiv in it. he says they're trying very hard to balance these two things, allowing more people to donate but also protecting the nation's bloosupply. and he says they're doing a good

job. do you agree? cole: i do agree. the testing and understanding of hiv that we had in 1980s is vastly different decades later, in we implemented nucleic acid 1999 testing on the national level. with that, the risk of hiv transmission through blood transfusions is one to 1.5 million. we don't need to defer people based on their sexual orientation, not the we ever needed to, but it was more understandable back then. so glad the fda is taking steps forward to discriminate a little bit less. amna: there have been incremental steps over the years. but when you look back at when they've been taken, why they've been taken, why do you think it's taken the years that it has for these changes to be made? cole: i think that one of the biggest reasons is just decrease d stigma within the lgbt community within our country but also when we saw the reductions in 2015, 2020. for my understanding there was not any research data.

the study was ground breaking, not only in the number of participants that it had, but what it was talking about. we didn't have that beforehand. all the previous reductions were just based on public opinion. so when we see that we don't have a blanket deferment policy or even a policy that looks at an individual's sexuality and sexual orientation, we just hadn't asked that question before and had not had evidence to back it up. amna: when we are looking at these restrictions and how they are putting them into place and who they were is this just about , blood donations to you? cole: absolutely not. the fda also handles tissue donation, which includes your heart valves skin, tendons, , bones, ligaments, a whole bunch of different tissues that people are waiting for in hospitals, at patients are in desperate need of. there's a five year deferment policy for any man who has had sex with another man regardless of the form, regardless of whether it was protected or safe and whether that individual has been tested for stds. amna: cole williams, the founder of the organization pride and plasma, joining us tonight.

thank you for your time. cole: thank you for letting me come on. ♪ geoff: this is international holocaust remembrance day and it , comes at a moment when there is growing worry about anti-semitism in the u.s. and around the world. there's also been concern that too many people don't know enough about what happened during the holocaust. john yang looks at those concerns, starting with some of the ceremonies around the world. ♪ john: at the site of one of the worst atrocities in human history, a call to never forget. survivors and mourners gathered at auschwitz for prayer and reflection. today marked 78 years since soviet troops liberated the nazis' biggest death camp in the final months of world war ii. this was the last stop for more

than 1.1 million people, most of them jewish. among the attendees, douglas emhoff, who is jewish, husband of vice president kamala harris. he passed through the camp's notorious iron-clad entrance, bearing the ominous words, "work makes you free," and paused at the death wall where thousands were executed. just a few hundred miles away in kyiv, a conflict on the minds of many. president volodomyr zelenskyy , who is jewish, placed a candle at a memorial. pres. zelenskyy: today we emphasize even stronger an before -- never again to hatred, never again to indifference. john: for the auschwitz museum director, piotr cywinski, the

comparison was clear. piotr: similar sick megalomania, similar lust for power, and similar-sounding myths about uniqueness, greatness, primacy... only written in russian. john: on a day to mark past mass sufferings, growing concerns about what's happening now. despite the pledge to never forget, never again, there are signs that americans' knowledge of the holocaust may be wanting. a new survey for the american jewish committee found that only 26 percent of those questioned could correctly answer four questions about the magnitude of the holocaust and its origins. only 53% of those over 18 could correctly answer that about 6 million jews were killed. and 34% said hitler came to por by violently overthrowing the german government. in fact, he was democratically elected -- an answer only 39% were able to give. holly huffnagle is the american jewish committee's u.s. director for combating anti-semitism. she previously was a state department policy advisor on the issue.

holly, what do you take away, war what to those numbers in your survey tell you? holly: evetaking a step back and tell you why we asked those questions. the american jewish committee has en doing studies on american jews and the general public for the past few years. on the state of anti-semitism in america, how jews arks piercing anti-semitism and if the general public is aware. this year for the first time, we put in questions to the holocaust -- put questions about the holocaust to the general p ublic to see what they knew, and , if what they knew corresponded to how they answered questions about anti semitism. john: and what did you find? is there a link between knowledge of the holocaust and anti-semitic views? holly: there is the report itself will be released in the coming weeks, i can share a few things with you now. so we found that americans who

answered three or more of the four questions, or three or four of the questions correctly so , theynew something about the holocaust, they were more likely to know what anti semitism is to know that it has increased in our country in the past five years. and to say it's a problem in the united states which is not , something that those who answered less of those questions correctly were able to do. john: what do you think accounts for this knowledge or lack of knowledge about the holocaust the survey found? holly: i think there are a few unfortunate issues we are working with right now. holocaust knowledge questions are being asked by many different communities around the world. in fact, the claims conference just came out with one on the netherlands this week showing just how many people in netherlands, young people, think the holocaust is a myth. and so what we're up against is one, the passage of time. today marks the 78th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz, in nazi occupied polan so time is working against us and many of the survivors will probably only within the next

decade, we'll have actual eyewitnesses to that atrocity with us. the second thing is, there are more genocides and more atrocities that have happened since the holocaust unfortunately, never again -- it has been again and again. and some people might not connect the reality of needing to learn those lessons from the holocaust. needing to know that hitler was democratically brought to power and how that can apply today. and so they don't make those connections. and i think the third and final piece is this younger generation, which we do know knows less about what happened, has grown up on social media, has grown up on the internet, or unfortunately, that's where we see the most holocaust denial, holocaust distortion and anti semitism today. john: how should holocaust education or teaching the holocaust be improved? holly: as we speak, there is a bill going through congress right now encouraging states to mandate holocaust education. right now, only 20 u.s. states mandate holocaust education and

several others have have commissions. about 39 u.s. states are doing something related to ensuring that the holocaust is taught in schools but more can be done. more resources can be provided for teachers including training on how to teach the holocaust, age appropriate materials. but then i think the ven that we're entering now is how do we be innovative with teaching the holocaust? how do we ensure that it's not just a history book, but it can be a survivor in three dimensions, which the usc shoah foundation is doing right now speaking to survivors who might , not be with us anymore, but their testimonies live on? or virtual reality where you , have holocaust survivors taking people from their own homes, the united states, to concentration camps and sites of the holocaust and exposing them this way in more innovative, technologically advanced ways? john: on the tape we heard the , director of the museum at anschutz -- museum at auschwitz compare the holocaust of what's going on now in ukraine.

is that a fair fair comparison? holly: we always are careful with with holocaust comparisons, but what i can say john, is that what happened in ukraine, the illegal invasion by russia, there was holocaust distortion happening from the very beginning, when russian leaders said they were going into ukraine to de-nazify it. that is completely inappropriate. it is an attack on jewish memory and identity. it lessens what hitler did. and so you can see some of those comparisons now. and that's why it's so important for the rest of the world to call that out. and say, don't say this, this can't happen, and speak out against it. john: holly hufnagel of the american jewish committee thank you very much. holly: thank you, john. amna: if you are looking for ways to learn more about the history of the holocaust, this week our very own judy woodruff and fred de sam lazaro were part of a discussion on how antisemitism spread leading up to the holocaust and the relevance of those circumstances today. you can watch that online at pbs.org/newshour. ♪ geoff: it's been more than a

year since most american schoolchildren returned to the classroom full-time. now, school districts are working to recover learning lost while kids were at home during the pandemic. researchers say students in low income neighborhoods lost the most. i recently visited a school in baltimore that's found innovative ways to help students catch up. >> are you being respectful? are we ready to listen? >> yes. geoff: a typical morning for fourth graders at holabird academy in southeast balmore. after announcements, teacher maya alston leads students through a 15-minute mental health check in. maya: if their minds are not ready to learn, the instruction is a lot harder for us, but also for them. geoff: this daily ritual started before the pandemic, but it's taken on new importance after students returned to the classroom. one way baltimore city public schools is helping students catch up on unfinished learning from the pandemic. maya: because they left off at a younger grade, it's like they're

picking up where they left off, even with us trying our best to catch them up. geoff: not just academically, but socially and emotionally. how have the morning check ins affected your students? maya: i think they sometimes struggle, evenust with simple communication skills as far as talking to each other during recess instead of being on their phones because they're so used to having that technology in front of them. starting the day with a mindset of how are you? or a check in, allows them to know that we care about them, beyond their instruction. geoff: holabird academy is a neighborhood pre-kindergarten to eighth grade grade school, where 100% of students are on free or reduced cost lunch. stephanie: we did still experience that students had trouble or challenges in dealing with some of those social and emotional skills. geoff: principal stephanie pappas says prioritizing mental health is crucial. stephanie: we want to be intentional about building those capacities and students, including self-awareness and responsible decision making and,

you know, just ensuring that our students are able to demonstrate empathy for one another in an authentic way. geoff: holabird has expanded its emphasis on mental health, through community partnerships and additional training for teachers, using an infusion of state and federal pandemic funding. baltimore city public schools received more than $689 million from the federal government to address the impact of covid-19. joan: we've invested quite a bit in our tutoring efforts, in our extended learning opportunities. geoff: joan dabrowski is chief academic officer for baltimore city public schools. she coordinates programming for 75,000 students across more than 150 schools. bcps like most public school districts experienced extended virtual instruction. how has the pandemic affected students here? joan: we know that students had limited opportunities in virtual learning and that we are now seeing as we've come back to in-person, that we have work to do to bring those students back

on track and to accelerate their learning so that we can ensure that they are ready to do well at their grade level a beyond. geoff: staffing is a key part of holabird's strategy. additional funding enabled holabird to add 15 positions for teachers and aides. that allowed the school to put two teachers in most classrooms, and offer classes like this on environmental sustainability. >> you can see how that worm is digesting the organic material. geoff: today's lesson -- how earthworms support ecosystems. the school district also partners with local groups that offer one-on-one tutoring during the school day for students identified as needing additional instruction. holabird itself has added small group time for all students. one of those small group interventions is called just words, which helps students with reading fundamentals.

>> a apple, app. melissa: it's definitely been an uphill battle. a lot of them missed almost half of first grade, and those are the years that they learn and that they really solidify those foundational reading skills. geoff: just words instructor and 4th grade teacher melissa morella. melissa: they don't really get any direct instruction anymore in reading in their general education classes. and so small group is a time where the kids who need that extra practice really can get the direct instruction with the teacher, with me. geoff: morella also teaches english for speakers of other languages. about half the students at holabird are english language learners. melissa: when these kids were at home during virtual learning, most of them didn't have any exposure to english at all. you know, their families all speak spanish. a lot of our english language learners, especially those who are newer to the country, really kind of had to re-learn english if they already knew it or kind of, they had to take those extra steps once they got back to school to really solidify their english skills. geoff: what is your favorite

subject? these fourth-graders are among those benefiting from being back in the classroom. what is the best thing about being back in school? >> i like to be in school, it is the best because we can lay with friends and i can find more friends in school. >> it makes me happy to see my friends again and see people doing better. geoff: are there certain areas where you feel like you have to do more work to catch up? maybe it is math or reading? >> i feel like i have to do more work on math to catch up. geoff: is it because of being at home for a year and a half, two years? >> yeah. geoff: how has the small reading group helped you? >> it helped me because, like, i was having a tough time, um, like, reading words. and when i go to just words, they helped me sound out the words so i remember them, and i learn new words that i didn't

know how to read it. geoff: parents like ane espinoza can see the difference a personalized learning plan makes for students like her son jason. joane: he was in kindergarten when the pandemic started, and that's when they started to learn how to write, make words. he was struggling a lot, but now being in school, i can see the progress. i can see him thriving. geoff: helping students thrive is no small task for a school district that was already underperforming in 2020 and took a step back during the pandemic. joan: we know that even prior to the pandemic, our studentsad important learning needs. and yes, the panmic intensified those things. our energy is forward thinking. our energy is around using our data to inform that instruction in service of getting ou students back on track and getting our students on grade level. geoff: the fourth graders in ms.

alston and ms. morella's classes say they notice and appreciate the help they're getting. >> coming into 4th grade i was nervous because i didn't know if it was gonna be new people and new teachers, and, i'm happy to see my new teachers helping us. geoff: tomorrow, we'll take a look at the national implications of learning loss connected to the pandemic and how schools can best help students. that's saturday on pbs news weekend. ♪ amna: after the police beating in memphis and mass shootings in california america is once again , ckoning with its chronic struggle to prevent violence and hold the powerful accountable. let's turn to the analysis of marcus and abernathy. that's washington post columnist ruth marcus and her post colleague gary abernathy. david brooks and jonathan capehart are away. welcome to you both, thanks for being here.

i want to begin with this video we love the show with, the pending release of the video showing the death of tyre nichols, or rather the police beating of tyre nichols. as we speak, it has not been released. as we begin to cover it in the days ahead, i would like to get both of your takes on where we are right now, having heard from officials how horrifying and graphic the video is, and anticipating what happens next. gary, what you begin? -- why don't you begin? gary: that's what striking, very quickly -- it's only been three weeks, but very quickly, the police chief determined this was a feeling of basic humanity, he said. they are preparing people for a horrible video b apparently what happened by everyone who has seen it, it is a horrible thing. it strikes to a culture that still exists. they did not wait to suspend these officers.

they fired them. they did not say they were suspended pending an investigation, they just fired them. so this is a horrific thing, apparently. don't want to rush to too much judgment because there's a lot we don't know, and is a culture, in this case not necessarily a race-based issue since all of the officers involved were also black, but there is obviously something that most police officers would not engage in this type of apparent brutality, but apparently it is something that happened that is still something apartment everywhere need to address. amna: ruth, how are you looking at this moment? ruth: it is a horrifying moment that i will start with the comparison that might might make this terrible video feel a little better. in 1971, there was a young man

named elton hayes, he was eaten to death by officers in memphis. in that situation, it was covered up. it took two years to charge the officers, all eight of them were acquitted. as gary was just suggesting, this is very different. very interesting questions about the racial composition of those involved, but the black female police chief have the officers quickly fired. the charges were fired with a land speed record and we are going for better or worse. i'm kind of glad we are not seeing it in time for us to talk about it because i really doot want to look. th are being charged. the response after the fact is very healthy. what happened before the fact is obviously really disturbing. in some ways, more disturbing on a certain level when it is black

officers involved. it is horrifying when a white officer shoots and kills or is responsible for the death of a like man like george floyd, but in those situations, police departments may have a theory of how they can improve themselves. they can make car racism is unacceptable, they can integrate their ranks and bring in people who theoretically will not treat members of the community that way. but when you have black officers involved in this kind of violence, you have to question whether there is something deeper and therefore harder to root out inside police culture, and that's the scary part of this. amna: we will be following this in the days ahead as well. i want to ask you both about incidents we began the week with, back to back mass shootings in california. just to give people a sense of where we are when it comes to gun violence in america, some important stats i want to share. every day in this country, 124

people die from gun violence. the leading cause of death for children 18 and under is now gun violence. according to the gun violence archive, so far this year there have been 42 mass shootings, more than days of the year. i was on the ground in monterey park, california and had a chance to speak with congresswoman judy chu, who used to be the mayor there, and is now a congressperson. i asked, is this the moment that your fellow members of congress act? here is what she said. rep. chu: those congressmen was could be the next ones with a shooting in your district. their constituents could be the ctims. their neighbors, their family members, their loved ones. so, until we stop this proliferation of gun violence none of us will be safe. amna: ruth, what do you make of that? is she wrong?

ruth: until we stop this proliferation of gun violence, which is a uniquely disturbing american phenomenon, whether it is mass shootings or visual shootings, we are suffering from an epidemic of gun violence. but i notice she did not answer your question about whether this was going to be the moment that was going to catapult and galvanize congress into action. it is not. i sat with mothers who lost their children at sandy hook shooting when they were hoping to at least be able to kill a filibuster of efforts to pass an assault weapons ban and they could not do it. this congress is unable to get itself into action and so we will need to see action on a state level, on a state-by-state basis, and t scary part to me

is united states supreme court has made it harder for states, and we will find out in coming years just how hard, to enact reasonable gun restrictions. amna: gary, as you know, and as experts have told us, states vary so widely. in california, they have some of the strictest laws in the country but you can carry a weapon from arizona across. does it take new laws? gary: that's an excellent point. california has maybe the strictest gun laws in the country and yet this happens there. here is a question -- what is the answer? i'd like to hear specifically what is the gun law we need to pastor prevent this. i don't think anyone has that answer. the other side of the coin is -- ruth: i have some specifics, gary. gary: ok, i can't wait to hear them. good to see you, ruth.

the other piece is what makes someone wake up one day and say i'm going to pick up this gun and massacre people? let's acknowledge these guns do not get up and do this themselves. people pick them up and do this. what is it we need to address to help prevent people from wanting to carry out these horrific acts? amna: ruth? ruth: i would suggest, gary and i are good friends, so we can disagree here. the sickness of the soul exists in other countries, mental illness exists in other countries. in america, we have more guns than people. when you have more guns than people, you can't eradicate gun violence, but there are things you can do. you can limit the size of magazines, raise the age of people who are eligible to purchase weapons from 18 to 21. you can have trigger locks in place or fingerprint technology

so that young children, people who should not have guns, including the six-year-old who shot his teacher in virginia recently, very near us, are not able to get to guns. and you can enact red flag laws and respond in a quick way to suggestions that there are ople out there who may need to have gunsaken away from them or should not get guns. you can close the gun show loophole. i can keep going. will this stop gun violence in america, no. will it reduce gun violence, yes. amna: i want to give gary a quick chance to respond. ruth: sorry, gary. gary: i think california has some of those restrictions, the magazine restriction. joe biden just signed into law a bill in june, the cult of the biggest gun bill in 30 years, that has red flag laws, expands red flag laws. so again, i think there are

always things to look at every issue but let's not point fingers at each oth and say you care more than i do or you care less than i do. that's work together on this. amna: appreciate both of your time. gary abernathy and ruth marcus, thank you for being with us. gary: thank you. ♪ geoff: the play "life of pi" opened this winter at the american repertory theater in cambridge, massachusetts. you may know the story from the bestselling book or the oscar-winning film. but the creative team behind the play wants you to reconsider what you thought you knew. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston takes a look, as the play heads to broadway this spring. it's part of our arts and culture series, "canvas."

"life of pi" is rippling with tests, of survival and relief. for the audience too. because were pressed t believe we're watching pi, a 17-year-old boy, adrift in the ocean with a bengal tiger. track the play is an adaptation of canadian author yann martel's booker prize-winning novelwhich also became the inspiration for the 2012 ang lee film. >> without true parker, i would have died by now. my fear of him keeps me alert. tending to his needs gives my life purpose. jared: it centers on pi, who, along with an orangutan, hyena, zebra and tiger, is cast into the sea after a ship carrying his family and their menagerie of zoo animals sinks. it's pi telling his story. or rather, stories. that, he either survived with the animals in tow or the animals were merely metaphorical stand-ins for his family and shipmates.

lolita: i asked yann martel, the first thing i asked him when i met him was, you need to tell me what really happened, because i need to know the truth. jared: but when playwright lolita chakrabarti met with the author as she launched into the project, his oy advice -- don't lose the animals. lolita: he left me with that dilemma because it made me fulfill what he set up in the book which is the ambiguity. , so it is the animals who are on the boa and yet there's an alternate story and he sets up that we follow what we know. we like to rely on what we know, what we can prove. so it's up to you when you come to watch the play, which you believe. jared: chakrabarti says she believes that ambiguity also goes to the heart of who pi is, that his storytelling can be construed as a mechanism for exceptional resilience. lolita: i think maybe we never know who we are until we are tested. out of great suffering can come

wonder. and i think pt cap -- pi, in the extraordinary difficulty he engages in the story, i can only explain it as enlightenment. max: it is a space to grieve but also a really optimistic space to reflect on what we can bring forwards. post-pandemic, i feel that the story has become even more relevant. jared: max webster directed life of pi to a slew of awards including best new play in london's west end. we met as he rehearsed a new ensemble for the production's u.s. debut. much of webster's cast are puppeteers, animating the animals alongside pi. it's a concept that plays directly into the work's themes of imagination. max: we really know that the pieces of wood are not a zebra, but it's kind of like a game you invite the audience up to play

with you, just as a child's play in a way. jared: here, it is a much darker play. max: it's not a sort of fantasy story in which the animals are cute. this is nature rather tooth and claw than a sort of anthropomorphized animal in which a kind of want to hug them. jared: the team, led by puppetry and movement director finn caldwell has spent considerable , time studying animal anatomy, mannerisms and behavior to make the puppets as real and as brutal as possible. like in this scene where the wounded zebra is attacked by a hyena. finn: we strip it rightack to the beginnings and say okay, this is what we think he would do if it's very distressed. this is what we think a zebra would do if it's leg is broken and he's trying to stand. bit by bit build the detail up so that in the end, we have a convincing picture. jared: a former actor and one of the puppetry minds behind the tony-winning play war horse, caldwell says the magic comes

the symbiosis between performer and puppet. finn: if the tiger is angry, i want the tiger to expense to anger but i want the puppeteer to experience the anger as well. they're not experiencing the anger for the puppet, but they are experiencing what is happening in the topic. the tiger roars and ire roar -- i roar as well. jared: and it must all happen together. many of the animals are portrayed by multiple puppeteers. and in london, england's theater awards the oliviers cited all seven performers playing the tiger with the best supporting actor award, an historic first. the connective tissue among puppeteers, says caldwell, is breath. finn: we start with breath to give you emotion so i can be visibly upset just from the way that i breathing. am and so, again, we use that breath to let the audience understand the emotional state. the great thing about breath is that also it allows the puppeteers to communicate with each other without having to talk.

so something over there is very frightening and we're connected together, operating a puppet, by the way we breathe in response to that we can tell what we might be doing next. [breathing heavily] so i've taken them as a journey of being surprised instead of being calm without having planned it. jared: it's the breath of life of pi, that in this story of struggle and perseverance, frequently leaves the audience struggling to catch its own. for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen in boston, massachusetts. geoff: that is the newshour for tonight. amna: on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪

>> moving our economy for 16 years. bnsf, the gine that connects us. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutionsand friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. ♪

and friends of "the newshour." ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington, and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

tonight on kqed newsroom, communities are reeling in the aftermath of multiple mass shootings in california in recent days. we will talk with reporters who have been covering the tragedies. gun violence and gun ownership are on the rise in asian-american community, we discussed this alarming trend with the executive director of the aapi victory alliance. what is the future of transit in san francisco? we speak with muni director jeffreml