>> good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. >> and i am geoff bennett. family and friends attend the funeral of tyre nichols whose death has renewed calls for reform. >> nearly republican-led house committee's hearings to scrutinize president biden's lessees, starting with immigration. >> and as somalia faces one of the most acute humanitarian crises on earth, the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. calls for more aid. >> we can't be fatigued about people dying. we can't lose our sense of humanity, our compassion for people. ♪

>> major funding has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our country for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> theatcs urgent, volunteer, topiary artist. raymond james financial advisor. taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well planned.

>> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so that people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. 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. geoff: good evening and welcome to the newshour. the city of memphis laid terry nichols to -- tyre nichols

to rest today. >> at his funeral, mourners celebrated nichols' life. and joined civil rights leaders from around the cotry in issuing a call for justice. >> ♪ don't give up the fight ♪ [singing] reporter: laying her son to rest, rowvaughn wells said tyre nichols' life was one of purpose . >> i promise you, the only thing that is keeping me going is the fact that i truly believe my son is sitting at the sight of god. [applause] and i guess now his assignment is done. reporter: a loving son, father, brother, fed ex employee, skateboarder and friend to all . nichols was the youngest of four siblings. his sister, keyana dixon. >> i see the world showing him love and fighting for justice. but all i want is my baby

brother back. reporter: is funeral comes three weeks after his death, after a brutal beating by memphis police during a traffic stop. tyre nichols' death drew national attention and led vice president kamala harris to memphis today. >> and we mourn with you and the people of our country mourn with you. reporter: harris criticized the officers nichols, and said it is time for congress to pass a federal law to reform policing, "the george floyd justice in policing act." >> it was not in the interest of keeping the public safe, because one must ask, was it not in the interest of keeping the public safe, then tyre nichols would be here with us today. reporter: the reverend al sharpton, president of the national action network, delivered tyre's eulogy. >> i believe that that man had been white, you would not have beat him like that that night.

[murmurs of approval] >> we are not asking for something special. we are asking to be treated equal. reporter: among those in attendance, the families of breonna taylor and george floyd, reminders that nichols' family now joins a larger community of black families fighting for justice for loved ones killed by poli. that includes tiffany rachal. her son, jalen, was shot and killed by a houston police officer last april. >> we are fighting together and all the mothers all over the world need to come together, need to come together and stop all of this. >> no justice, no peace. reporter: nichols' death, and the release of the brutal body camera footage documenting it, have reignited calls for reform and accountability . five memphis officers were fired and charged with murder. the department's specialized scorpion unit has also been

disbanded. raised its benchmark, short-term interest rate again, but this time, by just a quarter point. fed chair jerome powell acknowledged that inflation seems to be cooling, but he said additional rate hikes are still likely

in texas, toppled semi-trucks blocked entire highways today. the fbi searched president biden's vacation home in delaware today, but the president's personal lawyer says they found no additional classified documents. they searched in coordination with president biden's legal te in the search lasted 3.5 hours. the president's lawyers says the

agents took more material for additional review. the fbi already searched his home in bloomington delaware, and his former washington office. president biden and republican house speaker kevin mccarthy met at the white house today for budget talks. house republicans are pushing for spending cuts in return for raising the national debt limit. the president has rejected such a deal, but mccarthy said they had a good meeting. >> i think there is an opportunity here to come to agreement on both sides. i think that is what the american people want. they want us to be responsible and sensible about this and that is exactly the way we are handling it. i told the president i would like to see if we can come to an agreement long before the deadline and we can start working on other things. >> mccarthy declined to see which spending republicans want to cut. in a statement, the white house called the meeting frank and straightforward. the president agreed to going

the conversation. in ukraine, a russian rocket strike smashed into a building in eastern ukraine, killing two people. it came as ukrainian officials warned that a russian offensive was in the works. in the home was raided as part of an ongoing crackdown on corruption. and in the middle east today. israel's military said it intercepted a rocket fired from gaza. there was no word of any injuries. that came hours after israeli troops and police killed 2 more palestinians in the west bank and east jerusalem. after a half-million teachers, civil servants and bus and train drivers in britain walked off the job today. the so-called "walkout wednesday" was the country's biggest day of action in a decade. thousands carried signs and chanted slogans demanding higher pay in the face of soaring inflation. the strikes closed thousands of schools and halted train service. back in this country, the new republan majority in the house of representatives formally

opened its investigation of pandemic relief fraud. federal watchdog agencies have estimated at least 65 billion dollars was stolen -- out of the nearly 5 trillion that congress approved under presidents trump and biden. today, the house oversight committee called in top federal investigators. >> owe it to the american people to get to the bottom of the greatest theft of american taxpayer dollars in history. we must identify where this money went, how much ended up in the hands of fraudsters or in the knowledgeable participants, and what should be done to ensure it never happens again. >> the problem was the desire to simply get the money out as quickly as possible without taking, not an unreasonable amount of time, but the appropriate amount of time to make sure they were sending the money to the right people. >> investigators say the full scope of the fraud won't be known for some kind. on wall street, stocks rallied after the federal reserve said

it had seen some improvement in inflation. the dow jones industrial average erased an early loss of 500 points to close with a slight gain at 34093. the nasdaq rose after 2% and the s&p 500 was up 1%. and tom brady announced his retirement fm pro football, again. the 7-time "super bowl" winner briefly retired a year ago, then came back to play another season. he's now 45, and he said a twitter video today -- from tampa -- that this time, his retirement is for good. >> thank you guys so much to every single one of you for supporting me. my family, my friends, my teammates. my cpetitors. i could go on forever, there are too many. thank you guys for allowing me to live my absolute dream. >> brady is widely expected to move to "fox sports" as a football analyst. still to come, the pope travs to the democratic republic of

congo. college board revises its african-american studies course amid criticism from florida's governor. how a strict gun measure has divided oregon. and senator and former astronaut mark kelly reflects on the columbia space shuttle disaster 20 years later. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington and from the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> for the first time in nearly eight years, a cabinet member has visited somalia. the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., linda thomas-greenfield's visit to mogadishu comes as the region faces one of the world's most acute humanitarian crises, caused by ongoing conflict, climate change, and covid. across the horn of africa, 24 million people are extremely food insecure, and in somalia, humanitarian agencies worn that

more than 8 million people are on the brink of famine if more aid is not delivered soon. in the moment, nick schifrin interviews the ambassador the to u.n., but first, he looks at at the urgent crisis in somalia. nick: across the arid landscape of southern somalia, families are on the move, to try to escape death by starvation. they set up tent cities, this one in baidoa. bundobo hassan left her home after her livestock was killed by drought. >> we just survive on what people give us, we just eat what we have. nick: somalia faces its worst drought in 40 years. the last five rainy seasons have been dry, ravaging crops, killing millions of livestock, and pushing more than one-third of the country's 17 million residents into “acute food insecurity.” current estimates say the crisis could be worse than the 2011 famine that killed more than 250,000 people.

>> the level of human suffering that these communities go through is beyond comprehension. nick: victor chinyama is unicef somalia's spokesperson. >> the capacity of families and communities to withstand these climatic shocks gets eroded every single year, and that is why now you have large numbers of people that have been displaced and are looking for help. nick: helped to save the most vulnerable. already, hundreds of children have died. the u.n. says thousands more at risk of dying, and 1.8 million could be malnourished through july. >> we are potentially looking at a generation that could be lost. nick: but somal don't only need food, they need peace. al qaeda linked al-shabab, which the us calls a terrorist group, wants to establish an islamic state, and controls large swaths of rural areas. >> it's almost impossible for us as humanitarian actors. nick: sashwat saraf is the east africa regional emergency director for the international

rescue committee. >> it is so insecure, that no humanitarian actor or agency would be able to go into those geographical pockets to provide humanitarian services. nick: somalia's hunger catastrophe is exacerbated by the conflict 3000 milesway. russia's invasion of ukraine blocked ukrainian exports, and deprived the horn of africa its major source of food. at current funding levels, humanitarian agencies say famine could arrive, in a matter of months. >> today, what we have is a 50% funded appeal for the region, and we still don't have enough financial resources to be able to meet the increasing needs that we're seeing in the region. nick: more money is also what the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., linda thomas-greenfield, asked for in an unannounced trip to somalia this past weekend. >> the united states is asking other donors and the world to go bigger and be bolder.

nick: and ambassador linda thomas greenfield is back in washington, and joins me now. thanks very much. welcome back to the "newshour." what will the impact be if somalia does not get the additional funding it needs ahead of what's expected to be another failed rainy season in the coming months? >> we want to do everything you can to avert this next round of failed rainfalls, which should happen sometime around the march, april timeframe. what we need to do is get more donors to support the people of somalia. i announced $40 million when i was there in addition to the $1.3 billion that we have provided already, but more is needed to be done by more people. we have to be much more ambitious. we have to be more aggressive. we have to save lives. nick: knows numbers that you just cited, more than $1.3 billion of assistance from the u.s. since last october, makes

the u.s. by far the largest donor. but the united nations says the european union has only funded 10% of its humanitarian response plan to somalia. does europe need to do more? >> everybody needs to do more. traditional donors like the european union and others in europe who are already provided funding. but we're also calling on nontraditional donors, donors who might not otherwise think about engaging on somalia to also contribute to this effort. this is about humanity. there is no reason for people to die of hunger. we have the tools that we need to support them. we just need the resources. nick: there is aerm, as you know, that humanitarian workers use -- compassion fatigue. are donors, do you think, too distracted by ukraine? >> i don't think so. i hear compassion fatigue being

used all the time. i heard, when i was in africa concern that resources are being , redirected to ukraine. all of the funding that we have provided to ukraine is new money and we're still funding other humanitarian needs. and we encourage other countries to do exactly the same. we can't be fatigued about people dying. we can't lose our sense of humanity, our compassion for people. it is important that we not watch another child die of hunger. nick: nearly 1 million of the somalis who need assistance live under territory that's currently controlled by al-shabaab. the u.s. trains somali is the knob -- that is the elite counterterrorism force. and also local militias have , been fighting al-shabab. but many experts say that at the core of the long term problems that somalia faces is bad governance. this government is unelected.

there are senior officials who used to be senior members of al-shabab. why does the u.s. support this government? >> you know, president hassan sheikh was president previously. and interestingly, what he has said in this term is that he has learned so much since he was out of government. we have been impressed with that strategy he has put forth to engage with the other regions of somalia. he is looking at how he can move forward political reconciliation, and he has tried to be more inclusive, including bringing in those people who have turned their backs away from osha -- from al-shabab, and who are prepared to work with this government to do right by the somali people. he is fighting to take territory away from al-shabab, and he has been extraordinarily successful with our help, with the help of the african union transitional mission.

nick: why not condition u.s. assistance, more on performance? >> weekend condition humanitarian assistance and allow people today, we have to support the humanitarian imperative that somalia puts in front of us. also, if they are going to beat al-shabab, they have to be trained. we worked to train their soldiers so that they do abide by humanitarian and human rights les. and we are working to push somalia for the first time, closer to a more inclusive, closer to a democratic government. nick: some experts i spoke to today urge the u.s. government to speak to al-shabab to actually come up with a negotiated settlement to what many see as a civil war. do you agree? amb. greenfield: you know, i

heard president hassan sheikh speaking on other channel a few weeks ago and he said, you're asking me to speak to terrorists. you are asking me to speak to people who are responsible for slaughtering our people. he wants to get rid of al-shabab. we have designated them terrorists. we would not asked, in the united states, to negotiate with terrorists. al-shabab is responsible for the deaths of thousands upon thousands of somalis. it is responsible for this country being in the situation that it's in right now. nick: finally, ambassado in time, i have left many african capitals do not like talk of a great game between the u.s., china and russia in africa. but the chinese foreign minister just visited five african countries. china, of course, pours billions of dollars into infrastructure development in africa. russian foreign minister sergey lavrov just visited south africa, whose foreign minister

just called russia a friend. the u.s., as you pointed out, is by far the largest donor to africa as a whole. but does your assistance sometimes fail to match your influence? amb. greenfield: yes, china is spending billions of dollars on infrastructure. it is not a gift, it is basically a yoke that is putting many countries in debt. but countries have made these decisions and they will work with having to deal with the consequences of these decisions down the road. our message to africa is we want to be your partner. we want to help you build a future for your next generation. and we want to do that together with you. nick: ambassador linda thomas-greenfield, thank you very much. amb. greenfield: thank you. ♪

[no audio] -- pope francis has urged an end to the armed conflict in the democratic republic of congo at one of his largest masses ever. the pope is in the central african nation's capital, kinshasa for a three-day visit to promote peace, as he seeks to reshape the catholic church's global image. special correspondent chris ocamringa has our report. [cheers and applause] reporter: more than a million congolese welcomed pope francis to the ndolo airport in kinshasa to celebrate mass. [shouting] >> my joy is too huge, that i think i am going to cry. it is so marvelous that the pope has come to visit and it will mean reconciliation for our countr reporter: the democratic republic of congo has the largest catholic community in africa. half of its population of more than 100 million people are catholics. in this country that has known so much war and suffering, the pope's message of peace and reconciliation met open ears, and hearts. >> we are very happy with the

message the pope has brought to us. paul came in big numbers, and we believe his message will bring back peace in our country. reporter: the 86-year-old pontiff had planned to visit goma, in the country's east - but intense fighting made it unsafe. the u.n.'s says there are more than 100 armed groups in that region. today, the pope called for the conflict to end. >> made it the a good time for all of you in this country who call yourselves christians but engage in violence. the lord is telling you: “lay down your arms, embrace mercy." >> the pope's message of peace in the democratic republic of congo comes at a time when thousands of people have been displaced by conflict in the country's east. the region is rich in minerals which are being illegally exploited by armed groups. recent fighting between congolese forces and the so-called m23 rebels in eastern drc has claimed many lives. kito cesarine is a survivor:

>> there's a lot of insecurity. killings happen on a daily basis, and that has forced many people to flee their villages and settled in cities. reporter: this conflict is nothing new. it has been going on close to three decades. the world food programme says the fighting has displaced some 5.7 million people, a fifth of them last year alone. >> i ran away to a village called kanyabayonga and mugunga with a baby of three months in a past conflict. bullets and bombs were falling all over. god helped me to escape. i vowed never to go back, even if the streets are littered with dollars. reporter: on tuesday, the pope told wealthy nations to stop plundering the drc's vast natural resources, saying that it is people that are more precious tn the minerals in the earth beneath them. [singing] later today pope frcis heard , painful accounts from the victims of the violence in the

eastern drc, and blessed those who'd survived massacres, kidnappings and rapes. ♪ it was the first papal pilgrimage here since 1985, when pope john paul ii visited the country, then known as zaire. from drc, the pope will travel to another war-weary nation: south sudan, on friday. for the "pbs newshour," i'm chris ocamringa in kinshasa, the democratic republic of congo. ♪ amna: in its first hearing of the year, the house judiciary committee focused on immigration , and how that biden administration has handled record-high numbers at the u.s.

southern border. lisa desjardins has been following it all, and has this look at how republicans are making b.order security a key part of their agenda -- >> wielding their new power, house republicans hammered the biden administration over its handling of the border. >> it is biden's problem because in two years it's radically changed. lisa: the house judiciary committee is packed with freedom caucus and other harder line conservatives focused on the border, including texas congressman chip roy. >> that is 2020 to 2022. almost migrant deaths at the 1000 southwest border of the united states. >> the border is dangerous. drugs pour across, international terrorists, criminal gang members. lisa: u.s. customs and border protection saw a record 2.3 million encounters with migrants in the southwe last fiscal year, driven by spike in migrants from venezuela, nicaragua, and cuba, with many repeated attempts by the same individuals.

the hearing was parts heated and sharp accusations from republicans. >> month after month after month we have set records for migrants coming into the country and frankly i think its intentional. lisa: part ardent defense from democrats, who say republicans are being political. >> no one who wants a safe, secure, well-managed border than those of us who live and work on the border. >> this hearing is titled "bidens border crisis," that is completely wrong. it is not bidens border crisis this has been a crisis for over half a century. lisa: and it was part trying to grasp the problem with u.s. policy at the border. sheriff mark dannels of cochise county, arizona. >> i worked with many border patrol agents and federal agents, and to date, i have not heard one say that it is working. lisa: indeed, along the border, some in law enforcement say their officers are overwhelmed. >> the influx of people, th

mass quantities of people that are invading our border, our border patrol cannot keep up with it. lisa: clint mcdonald is the executive director of the texas and southwest border sheriff's coalition. he is critical of biden policy and says border patrol is struggling. >> they are undermanned, overworked and are falling behind every day. our sheriffs are having to put on hold the citizens that elected them to office to try to help with this immigration problem. our sheriffs did not want to be immigration officers, but they are forced into that role now. lisa: but others working on border issues argue that the u.s. needs to be more open, not less, to the flood of asylum seekers. dylan corbett is an advocate who works with migrants. >> we are concerned that two years into the administration, we have not fully restored asylum at the border and we are seeing steps in the opposite

direction. this administration is embracing some of the policies of the previous administration to manage in a long-term way, immigration at the border. lisa: back at today's hearing -- >> i would love to have a thoughtful conversation with my colleagues on the other side of the isle about these different prescriptive proposals. lisa: and heat. >> last congress, they controlled everything. joe biden is a democrat in the white house, the senate was controlled by the democrats, the house was controlled by the democrats, why didnt they x it then? lisa: revealed little new. but open what could be a significant debate. republicans say they hope to write legislation in the coming weeks. for the "pbs newshour," i'm lisa desjardins. ♪ geoff: the college board today released the official framework of a new advanced placement course on african american studies. it comes after criticism from florida governor ron desantis and other republicans.

last month desantis said florida would not articulate in the new ap course, saying the initial cirriculum violated the state's so- called “stop woke act” that limits teachings on race in public schools. >> this force on black history, what is one of the lessons about? queer theory. now, who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? that is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. when you look to see they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that's a political agenda. geoff: we a joined now by david coleman, chief executive officer of the college board and brandi waters, director of ap african american studies for the college board. welcome to you both. david, the college board revised its framework for this ap african-american studies course, effectively downplaying or removing some of the se information ron desantis and other republicans criticized.

did the college board change the course of offering to address republicans' concerns? >> the revisions were complete far before this public discussion. the revisions were based on two sources, feedback from professors and students and teachers in the pilot course, and returning to principles that are true of every single ap course. i know this has become controversial and political, so i want to be more than clear, in no ap course whether it is ap english, u.s. history, japanese culture, spanish culture, do we require a specific list of secondary articles that all students must read. we returned to that principle. it meant the secondary articles that were experimented with, for example, skip gates's a on 40 million ways of being black, were not included as part of the course framework. that has been politicized now, even though that is what we do in every ap course.

we also added an in-depth project where students can explore secondary sources. and i want to be clear, students and teachers have the freedom to explore any secondary sources they wish, including all that are under discussion. we need to stop mandating a specific list of them, as we don't do in any ap course. geoff: so to press the point, last month, ron desantis, the florida board of education said they rejected the course because it included things like a focus on the black reparations movement, and black queer theory. looking at the course provisions, lessons on those two specific things are gone, and what is included instead -- black conservatism is now offered as an idea for a research project. there are people who will look at that as a coincidence. >> to be clear, what has been added in the course -- to set the record straight on the matter of gay america -- is, a

new section that explores bayer reston and the struggles he had as a leader. and another leader who contributed to brown versus board of education as well as later victories. there is a new section on black lesbia and how they did not feel comfortable in either the white-led women's movement, or the male black led civil rights movement and the new patch they formed. i am just trying to say that there is remarkable engagement with black life and how it intersects in the gay community. i believe we are having a deep misunderstanding as to what is in the course. so i ask you. again, he pointed out one project on black conservatism. there is also a project on intersectionality. questions of black experience. there is also a topic on gay life in black communities, just like you are asking me about. this course truly allows students to inquire deeply into reparations, another topic, you

may have noticed, on reparatio that allows students to dig deeper into the reparations movement. geoff: this course has been in development more than a decade, as i understand it. what was the overarching goal in creating it? >> we started to explore this course over a decade ago and it was conceptualized as an african-american history course. we talked to a lot ogroups to see if there was interest in moving forward with that course. our research showed that in the last 10 years, this field has exploded. so in the last few years, it is really when we shifted to reimagining the course as one that reflects this field, this interdisciplinary field based in rigorous source analysis and argumentation. so it is not just a history class, but it does aim to leave parts of history, geography and the arts altogether, so that students walk away with that in

interdisciplinary land. geoff: we are at the moment where the teaching of race and equity has become a political minefield. what is your response for those who say that teaching contextualized lessons about this country's racial history, that that is inherently political? you heard ron desantis say it is not education, it is indoctrination. >> i look to the framework, which focuses on these primary sources. what is great about this course is we are connecting student resources theyould not find until they get to college. they have an opportunity to lo at things from the amistad case, slave codes, actual written document. it's important that students are actually looking at materials from history, looking at works of art, and coming to their own conclusions. >> i just hope you look at it and see the sweeping and in-depth account of slavery and its cruelties, which is bracing, to be honest, and fierce. and as it goes through unit two and unit three, nothing is

historically voided. so if it is true that what political leaders have said, and i fear it might be, has a child classrooms and made teachers worry about can they teach the truth, can they include gay americans -- this course says, yes, you can. it is all within bounds. it says that that historical contextualized study is a matter of fact, evidence, and shared experience, and the college board insists that it should be allowed everywhere in this country. geoff: if the florida department of education rejects the revised ap african-american studies course, over the college board respond? >> the college board will be very saddened by that decision to refuse to enable teachers and students to encounter the facts and evidence of african-american history and culture, but we will not change this framework. this framework is an honest, far-reaching, exploration where no one is excluded. geoff: there has been some suggestion that the college

board should remove all its ap offerings from florida if this revised course is rejected. is that in the realm of possibility, something the college board can even gain? >> that is not something i have discussed with my board at this time, but i think it would be tragic. young people need and want terribly to encounter the truth of our country's history and to examine directly cultural achievements. this course gives them the freedom. i want to be rather clear. they can read any author they wish. as they do their project, they can dig into any theory they think that is dicey and daring. their own elements, their own imagination, and it will count towards their score. this course enables a freedom that we think is valuable. geoff: david coleman is chief director of the college board, and brandy waters is director of african-american studies at the college board. thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. ♪

amna: according to the gun violence archive, there have been well over 3500 firearm deaths in the u.s. so far in 2023, including the recent mass shootings in california. william brangham recently traveled to oregon to report on a voter-approved measure that aims to reduce gun violence. but as he discovered, the new law has sharp dividedhe state. >> ♪ lift every voice and sing ♪ reporter: at portland's augustana lutheran church cently, interfaith leaders gathered for prayers and sorrow. >> ♪ let us march on to victory ♪ reporter: but the reason for this meeting is not religious, at least not overtly. >> we know that the status quo means more death, more gun violence. reporter: this group, called “lift every voice oregon,” was behind a gun control ballot measure known as “114,” which

passed with 50.7% of the vote in last november's election. >> i have a very personal story. reporter: 21 year old mollay ramos worked on the campaign. her brother deshawn was killed in a shooting back in 2020. >> deshawn's story gave me power and it gave oregon power to say, this is enough. there is too many people dying in the streets. and it is not just the lies that got lost, it is the families' devastations that they have to live through, and the trauma. reporter: measure 114 would make oregon's gun laws some of the strictest in the nation. it requires gun buyers to first get a permit - which means they must complete a firearm safety course, pay a fee of up to $65 dollars, submit to a full background check, and receive approval from local law enforcement. the measure also bans the sale and manufacture of high capacity magazines, two in more than 10

rounds. and it ends the so-called “charleston loophole,” which allows gun purchases to go through after three business days, even if authorities haven't completed the buyer's background check. th is how the man who killed nine parishioners in charleston in 20 obtain his gun. mark knutson is the pastor at augustana and, was among those who led the push for 114. the church regularly tolls its bell for people killed by gun violence in oregon and around the country. >> something is terribly wrong. these are tools, if they're used wrongly, take lives and destroy communities and families and children. anybody buying a gun should see what a gun does. they should be trained in how it works, to know it's not a toy. a permit to purchase means you're responsible, most gun owners think that's smart. >> what do you make the argument that only law-abiding citizens will abide by this, that this will not really stop the illegal gun trade that is responsible for so many deaths?

>> look at the numbers of guns in this nation. look at the gun industry promoting guns, especially young people. it will make a difference. you are doing your job if you are a law-abiding gun owner. thank you. but let's now get the laws in place to make sure that we're not just being swept over by guns and cartridges that have no business in our society. reporter: 114's supporters point to data from other states that had these so-called “permit-to-purchase” laws, connecticut passed a similar one in 1995, and gun homicides dropped by an estimated 20%. gun suicides by one-third after missouri repealed its permit to purchaseaw in 2000 seven. researchers found a nearly 50% increase in the state's gun homicide rate. and this was a time when those rates were mostly falling nationwide. but those arguments have done little to sw some gun owners and gun rights groups. >> i don't think the government should say you have to do

something to be able to exercise an amendment right. reporter: chris baumann owns "aloha arms," a gun shop just outside of portland. he argues those who believe they need a gun for protection shouldn't have any impediment. >> the measure may save a few lives, but it is endangering the lives of everybody else in the state by restricting their access to self-defense. reporter: after 114 passed, baumann saw a surge in sales and an explosion of people on the waitlist for a state background check. when proponents of this measure say "we have got to do everything we can to stop the slaughter on the streets of our country," and that this -- "it doesn'testrict anyone from lawfully buying a gun, it puts a delay in there, and it requires but we have to do something to stop the enormous death toll." what do you-- how do you respond to that? >> i say start prosecuting the

criminals. start following up on red flag laws. start following up on people who are being reported as mentally unstable. and if police are not following up, they are endangering their community. reporter: oregon is a state often characterized by a srp urban-rural divide, with voters leaning progressive in places like here in portland and other cities along the willamette valley. and then the rest of the state, which is rural, leaning largely to the right. that organism also a state where roughly half the households own a gun. so the divisions on measure 114 weren't quite as predictable. danita harris works for imagine black, a group that aims to boost the political participation of black people in oregon, black oregonians. the group came out against measure 114. >> we don't believe in half measures. what is happening when we say yes, but," that but tends to get

left behind, it doesn't get funded, it doesn't get prioritized, and we don't move the ball forward. we have to focus on housing, we have to focus on education, we have to focus on food. otherwise all of these other measures won't be successful. reporter: "imagine black" points to a 2020 harvard law school study, which found black people peop in massachusetts were disproportionately charged for possessing firearms with large magazines. harris, who bought a gun three years ago for self defense and sport, says 114's permitting process for the door for discrimination. >> it requires the policing agencies to make the discretion on whether or not a person is a threat to the community without any clear guideline or criteria to base that decision on. more time spent unnecessarily working with these agencies only offers more harm for black, brown and other people of color. reporter: measure 114 is now caught up in a web of state and federal litigation. a lawsuit filed in a rural oregon county has so far stopped the measure from being fully implemented.

chris shortell teaches political science at portland state university. he says 4 could make its way to the u.s. supreme cour >> even if the oregon supreme court says this is okay under the oregon state constitution, i think the question of the second amendment is lingering behind a lot of these challenges. the supreme court's pretty expensive reading of the second amendment suggests the court will not be very receptive to a lot of the regulations that previously had been upheld. reporter: shortell says 114's passage shows that, even in a state with strong gun traditions, people are open to putting greater regulation on gun owners. but without a go-ahead from the courts, oregonians may never see its effects. for the "pbs newshour," i'm william brangham in portland, oregon. ♪

geoff: today marks 20 years since the space shuttle columbia disintegrated on its way home. the tragedy killed all seven astronauts on board, and it was the beginning of the end for the space shuttle program, ultimately changing how we ask for space now. miles o'brien was there that day , and he has overlooked. >> where you what happened? there are moments in time the trigger that question. >> columbia-houston, tom's check. >> the loss of the space shuttle columbia is one of those occasions. it happened the first day of february 2003. we remember as if it were yesterday. the junior senator from arizona, mark kelly certainly does.

>> i was asleep and i planned to get up and watch the landing on tv. >> the second to end in death. reporter: that is where i was, covering the disaster on cnn. mark kelly was then a nasa astronaut with one mission under his belt. his twin brother scott was also in the corps. when did you know that there was trouble? >> i get a phone call from my brother and he says that they lost communications and they lost tracking. at the same time. at that point, i knew that this was not likely to turnout as any of us had hoped. reporter: the orbiter had disintegrated as it streaked across texas. the crew of seven, and kelly knew it. he raced to the johnson space center near his home in houston. >> nowhere in our contingency plan did we ever expect the

space shuttle to crash within a 2 hour drive of houston. you would never anticipate that. i said, we need to send somebody there right now. reporter: he made some quick calls and hopped on a coast guard helicopter. >> we go to the nacogdoches airport and there's debris in the airpt. pieces of shuttle. i think that might be a piece of the space shuttle. then i put it back down and decided, what are you going to pick up every piece? reporter: in east texas, debris was scattered over two thousand square miles. soon after kelly landed, he heard about he was found in hemphill. >> one of my classmates' remains. reporter: on board were in his three of the on board were in his class - laurel clark, willie seven mccool and dave brown. he helped recover them all. >> obviously going to this business, you know the risk. but in many ways it's an

abstract. when you see that what goes through your mind at that point? >> it wasn't really so much at that point, for me it was days later and youtart to process what happened. reporter: the last crew of columbia recorded these scenes on the flighdeck moments before they perished. three and a half yea later, when mark kelly was in the same place, he and commander steve lindsey took a moment to remember the lost crew. >> occasionally, you get a little spare time, a few seconds here and the, and we actually mentioned it, we mentioned the columbia accident during our reentry on sts-121. reporter: but it was all avoidable. the orbiter disintegrated in the searing heat of reentry because there was a gaping hole in its heat shield. >> booster iition and lift-off of space shuttle columbia -- reporter: it happened 16 days earlier on lunch today.

81 seconds after columbia left the pad, a suitcase-sized piece of foam, part of the insulation covering the external fuel tank, hit the leading edge of the left wing. everyone saw it, including me at the launch site. there was a piece of debris that struck the shuttle as it came off. it made of what is called carbon-carbon. if something fell on that and caused damage, who knows what the implications might be . as soon as i saw this video after launch, i called my nasa sources. engineers were looking at it. they determined -- looking very closely at these high-speed very close, close cameras -- that they have that this was not a significant issue. they said that foam had been flying off shuttle fuel tanks since day one. how much had this been kind of ingrained into being something that just happens? >> we spend a lot of time and effort on engineering and engineering analysis and trying to chase down athing that

could be an issue, and this one, for some reason, it just got dismissed. reporter: in july of 2003, the accident investigation board did what nasa should have done years before, run a test. and there it was. the smoking gun. just shy of a year later, president bush announced the shuttle was on its way to retirement. where do you think we would be if the columbia accident hadn't happened? >> i thinke would have still retired the space shuttle. maybe it would have been a couple of years later. the space shuttle was designed to fly a lot of flights. it was not designed to last 30 years. we started to see more problems come up with it, and we started to realize, we can't buy this forever. reporter: the seed was planted foan entrepreneurial revolution in space.

twenty years later, spacex leads a vibrant group of space enterprises. the astronaut office was very skeptical, almost to a person, on this whole endeavor, wasn't it? >> we were aware that there was a lot of skepticism. yeah. including with me. spacex you have got to give them , a lot of credit. this has put us on the path back to the moon may be in our lifetimes, to see somebody walking to mars. reporter: what about mars? is that worth the risk? we can send robot to mars and learn a lot about mars without people. >> first of all, for forever, people want to see what is over the next hill. what is on the other side of that ocean. the risk is big to individual that decides to go to space. but the benefit to society is really big as well. reporter: it is likely the last

crew of columbia with dame. for the pbs newshour, i am miles o'brien in washington. ♪ geoff: there is a lot more online at pbs.org/newshour. including a discussion from our archive shortly after the columbia disaster, in which science fiction author octavia butler and otherseflected on how space fits into our collective imagination. amna: and janice again here -- and join us again here tomorrow night, when we speak with ukraine's top prosecutor about his work to hold russia accountable for possible war crimes. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. >> and i'm goeff bennett. thanks for joining us. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy, visit ncicap.org] >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that

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. hello, everyone and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what is coming up. >> what we're seeing from palestinians is a shrinking verizon of hope. >> u.s. secretary of state antony blinken in the middle east as the cycle of violence escalates and the far right government gets up and running. th. >> nothing in my life with bullies and all that that were not fun and so my only goal is let's make people happy. >> famous for freaks and geeks and bridesmaids, comedy genius joins me for a candid conversation about his career an his cocktails. plus. >> if i have a sense my life has meaning and purpose, i'm more likely to feel happy more hours

of the day. >> how to lead the good life.