tv PBS News Hour PBS April 11, 2023 3:00pm-4:00pm PDT
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♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, body camera footage of the poli response to the louisville shooting offers new details on the horrific, deadly event. geoff: a judge's ruling on an fda-approved abortion pill opens the door to more politicial pressure on medical regulators. amna: and, a firsthand look at how climate change is threatnening a town nestled in the arct circle. >> the climate emissions in svalbard are crazy. living here, and also for tourism, it's not good. ♪ flex major funding for the pbs
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♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: good evening and welcome to the newshour. the city of louisville released police body camera footage of the shooting that left five people dead and eight others injured. geoff: police are still yesterday's attack, the 146th mass soting this year. but they said the shooter legally bought the ar-15 style rifle used in the attack just six days ago. officials released roughly nine minutes of new video this afternoon. a warning, viewers might find this disturbing. body cam footage released by louisville police show the terrifying moments when officers
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responded to a gunman, who opened fire monday during a staff meeting at old national bank in downtown louisville. >> yesterday's tragedy brings us to 40 people who've been shot to death this year in our city. geoff: at a press conference today, louisville mayor craig greenberg called on state legislators to give the city autonomy to deal with gun violence. >> please, change our state law to let louisville make its own decisions about reducing the amount of illegal guns on our streets, and gun violence that is killing far too many people. geoff: louisville police say the shooter, who worked at the bank, purchased an ar-15 legally a we ago from a local dealership. and officials confirmed the death of a fifth victim. 57-year-old deana eckert succumbed to her injuries last night after multiple surgeries. all of the victims, 63-year-old tommy elliott, 64-year-old jim tutt, 4o-year-old josh barrick,
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and 45 year-old juliana farmer, were bank employees. dr. jason smith, chief medical officer of university of louisville health, described the toll of caringor victims of gun violence. >> i'm weary. there's only so many times you can walk into a room and tell someone they're not coming home tomorrow, and it just breaks your heart. when you hear someone screaming "mommy," or "daddy," it just becomes too hard, day in and day out, to be able to do that. now, my team is fantastic. they're absolute professionals, and they're wonderful. but sooner or later, it catches up to everybody. geoff: 26-year-old rookie officer nick wilt, who was shot in the head while engaging the gunman, remains in critical condition. he graduated from the police academy less than two weeks ago. as the city mourns, an interfaith vigil is planned tomorrow afternoon to honor the lives lost.
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democrats representing louisville called for tougher gun safety laws during that press conference this morning, saying state and federal officials have not done enough to prevent gun violence. joining me now is one of them, democratic congressman morgan mcgarvey, who represents the city. thank you for being with us. i want to extend my condolences because i know you were close with one of the victims. louisville is a tightknit community. how are you and your constituents processing this tragedy, this immense loss? >> it is tough. louisville is a great community. it is what i would call the smallest big city in america, where people know each other. we are 1° of separation and people ask you, where did you go to school? they mean high school. this is a community where we are hurting. this is hard and i hope not just in the days to come but the weeks and months to come, that
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close knit nature of the community is what keeps us together, keeps us healing. geoff: in the press conference, you called on republicans to pass gun reform policies, saying they shouldn't be political, it should be about policy. you are the only democratic congressman representing kentucky. i imagine you have special insights when it comes to working with republicans. what gun safety policies and laws could republicans support? >> i was in the state senate for 10 years. i was in the minority every day. i have worked with republicans every day since being in office. let's listen to our communities. listen to constituents. you heard what dr. smith said as he almost broke down. he said, give us help. we are taking care as many people as we can but we need more.
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i came from university hospital where i met with nurses and physicians who say we need help. let's put policies in place that will save lives. universal background checks will save people's lives and enjoy wild support. let's take weapons of war off our street area that is what they are and they are killing pele. we can do better. in the state legislature i worked on in order that helps people in trouble, people in crisis and gives law enforcement tools to temporarily remove firearms from people who are in imminent danger, to themselves or others. let's bring in the mental health aspect and give people the support they need when they are hurting mentally. geoff: we heard the mayor call on state legislators to change state laws so louisville can make its own decisions on reducing gun violence. tell me about how you think that will be received at the state capital. >> i hope it is received well because this is a no-brainer.
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in kentucky right now the weapon that was used in this terrible tragedy, they are 15 used to kill five innocent civilians, will be auctioned off and can be back on the streets. to me,hat is cruel. that shouldn't be the law. if a weapon is used to hurt another human being we should have the ability to not put that weapon back on the streets. i hope lawmakers see that this is not a political statement. this is the right thing to do. geoff: police said the shooter used an ar-15 style rifle he purchased locally and legally. what law or policy could have prevented someone who poses an imminent threat from obtaining a gun? >> i will stress that this investigation is still ongoing, still very dynamic so i don't want to speculate on everything
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that could or should have happened in this situation. those facts will be coming out. but we don't have that type of law on the books. indiana has had a red flag law on the books since 19 years and it is proven effective. we don't have those tools in kentucky, where if we know someone is an imminent danger to themselves or others, we can step in for someone who is in crisis and protect them by temporarily removing the firearm. as we find out more about this situation, we can talk more about specific laws. the reality is at this point, no policy will bring these people back. we are hurting. we are trying to heal. we are grieving. we don't want any other community to go through this and it is those types of policies we put in place that will keep other communities and families from going through this. geoff: congressman, our thoughts
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are with you when the people of louisville. thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, the fight over indicting former president trump escalated sharply as a new york prosecutor sued a republican congressman. manhattan district attorney alvin bragg, a democrat, obtained the trump indictment in a hush-money case. his federal lawsuit today names representative jim jordan, who chairs the house judiciary committee and is now investigating bragg's investigation. the suit calls that a "transparent campaign to intimidate and attack" the district attorney himself. it asks a judge to quash the committee's subpoenas. south korea today cast doubt on information in those apparently leaked u.s. intelligence documents. one of them, posted on social media, appears to show the u.s. may have spied on south korean officials. but today, the south's top security advisor questioned
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parts of the material. >> after the issue was publicized, we evaluated it internally, and the u.s. is conducting its own investigation. much of the disclosed information was fabricated, and the assessment of it is consistent. amna: anna -- in a separate statement, the office of south korea's president said the episode will not afft the two nations' alliance. in myanmar, witnesses say government airstrikes have killed as many as 100 people, including dozens of children. it happened today, in the northern sagaing region. one account said a warplane bombed a ceremony held by opponents of the military regime. the attack would be one of the deadliest since the army seized power in 2021. israel says its soldiers killed 2 palestinian gunmen today, after a drive-by shooting in the occupied west bank. it was the latest violence since last week's clashes at the al-aqsa mosque compound in jerusalem. today, as in years past, israeli prime minister benjamin
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netanyahu barred non-muslims from the al-aqsa site during the final days of ramadan. tens of thousands of junior doctors in england have begun a four-day strike, demanding a 35% pay raise. picket lines went up today in what could be the most disruptive walkout ever for britain's national health service. the junior-level physicians make up nearly half of all doctors. >> junior doctors over the last 15 years have lost 26.1% of their pay due to inflation. and all we're asking for is for that pay to be restored, because no junior doctor today is worth less than a junior doctor in 2008. amna: officials said up to 350,000 operations and appointments may be canceled due to the strike. president biden has arrived in northern ireland to mark 25 years since the good friday agreement that largely ended decades of sectarian violence. the president landed in belfast this evening, amid a political crisis that has jeopardized the peace agreement.
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he travels to the republic of ireland tomorrow. on his way to belfast, the president called the parents of evan gershkovich, the wall street journal reporter being he in russia. he's accused of espionage, but his family said mr. biden assured them he's doing everything possible to get gershkovich released. the international monetary fund has downgraded its outlook for global growth this year. today's assessment cited concerns about inflation and interest rates. it also said the possibility of a global recession has risen sharply. but u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen offered an upbeat take on the national economy in an online news conference. >> i believe our banking system remains strong and resilient. it has solid capital and liquidity. and the u.s. economy is obviously performing exceptionally well, with
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-- exceptionally well. amna: yellen also counseled against what she called negativism on the global economy. she said the outlook is reasonably bright. the democratic national committee says its 2024 national convention will be in chicago. the city won out over bids from new york and atlta, signaling democrats' hopes of holding the midwest in the presidential election. republicans plan to hold their 2024 convention in milwaukee. and on wall street, investors avoided major moves, waiting for tomorrow's monthly report on inflation. the dow jones industrial average gained 98 points to close at 33,684. the nasdaq fell 52 points. the s&p 500 was virtually unchanged. still to come on the "newshour," texas governor greg abbott seeks to pardon a man who killed a black lives matter protester. the u.n. sounds the alarm on the dire conditions in drought-ridden somalia. millions are at risk of losing medcaid coverage as a pandemic-era program ends. plus much more.
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♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from wbt a studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the cntry is closely watching how the battle over abortion medication unfolds in federal courts later this week. that follows a decision by a federal judge in texas to overturn the fda's longstanding approval of the abortion medication, mifepristone. but there's also concern about what that ruling could mean for the drug approval process in geral. to talk about what's at stake, i'm joined by dr. joshua sharfstein. he's a professor at johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health and former principal deputy commissioner of the food and drug administration. thank you and welcome. you wrote in an op-ed for the new york times, that you found the texas judge's decision was shocking, stunning, and irresponsible.
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tell us why that is. >> this is a medication that has been on the market for over 20 years, used by hundreds of thousands of people. it has the full support of all the medical, major medical professional societies. it is an established part of medicine. out of the blue, a judge says i think the fda got it wrong, it has to come up market. if that kind of activity happens in the courts, it throws up in the air why we have an fda at all. amna: have you ever heard of a case in which a court has invalidated an agency drug approval? >> i'm not aware of any case. this isn't just any approval. this is one where there was a huge body of evidence where all the external advisors, committees voted in favor of verbal and it is a medication that has been used for 20 years with the full support of the medical profession. this is stunning however you
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look at it. geoff: -- amna: on the issue of politics making its way into fda's work and court battles is not new. you cite the fight over making the plan be emergency contraception available over the counter to teenagers over a decade ago. how is this issue, over an abortion medication, different than that battle? >> the fda should make its decisions based on substantial evidence. there are lots of great scientists, experts, doctors, epidemiologists at the fda that look at the data and make a great decision, the best they can possibly make. sometimes what we don't want is fo that decision to be interfered with for political reasons. what we see now is the interference is coming from the courts. previously, that interference was coming from the white house.
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whether it is the white house or the courts, what the american people deserve, what congress intended in passing the food and drug and cosmetic act, is for these decisions to be made on the basis of evidence and science and not political calculations. amna: among the agency's critics are people who aren't political actors. advocacy groups say the agency moves too slowly on things like als drug approvals. does this open the door for more of those groups whoave a different kind of impact, more of an impact on the fda? >> i think this opens the door to chaos. it is important for people to be engaged with the fda, and for scientists to improve the work the agency does. what we don't want our judges waking up in the morning and making a decision to completely change what the fda has done.
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with no compelling reason to do that. that is a danger because the fda , it could be incumbent order -- a competitor suing, and advocacy group on one side or the other, it could be a state legislature that decides we think we can make the decisions about all of this evidence. once you start chipping away at the idea that we should have good science-based decisions for what medications we put in our body, it is hard to find the end point. there could be chaos. amna: we are waiting to see how the appeals court will take up the case. it will likely end up before the supreme court. you said the supreme court will have to decide which side it is on. what did you mean by that? >> i think this is a simple question. either we are going to allow fda to do work as congress intended, to use science and look for
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evidence and make decisions that matter for all of us, or we will say, a judge can come in and change that. if that upends that, that will change the calculation for companies which is why hundreds of ceos are saying they are worried about what the court might do. the supreme court has to decide, will it support and orderly, smart approach to looking at evidence and making good decisions, or will they just say anything goes? amna: joining us tonight, dr., thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: in the northernmost town on earth, average temperatures are up, and sea ice is declining. the arctic town of longyearbyen sits in a norwegian island chain, and because of climate
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change, it's having to adapt to longer summers and shorter, warmer winters. special correspondent john bevir traveled there to meet some of the people living on the frontline of a changing world. john: nestled between glaciers just 800 miles from the north pole, longyearbyen is unlike anywhere else on the planet. with temperatures just a few degrees above zero in the winter, for the 2900 people who live here, life is an adventure. but it's an adventure that's getting more dangerous. 2 people died when an avalanche hit the town in 2015. many say they were the first people here to be killed by climate change. warmer weather can lead to a less stable snowpack, making avalanches more common. >> i was pretty set on working in the snow. john: dr. holt hancock came to svalbard while studying at montana state university. as the fastest warming town on
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earth, his contribution to work on detecting and predicting avalanches is helping keep locals safe. >> there's now a daily avalanche hazard forecast written for town, which gives an overall picture of what the avalanche hazard may be. then there's these structural mitigation measures put up on the slope in town, so all of these things go together to kind of attempt to mitigate that risk. john: you obviously grew up around snow in montana. have you managed to bring some of that montana knowledge here to the arctic? >> montana is pretty cold and pretty windy in the winters, as well, so despite that it's at a lot lower latitude, a lot of those processes are still the same. some of that experience you build up at, for instance, a lower latitude, or what we would call a different snow climate, is still applicable up here. and by the same context, hopefully, some of the things that we learn up here are still
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going to be applicable at a lower latitude setting. john: living safely with polar bears is not a problem that many other parts of the world have to deal with. the town's museum is as close as most visitors get. dwindling sea ice is threatening the bears' very existence and pushing them further north to find suitable hunting grounds. it's the weather here that's the biggest threat for many. the climate here is warming and less snow is falling, but locals say that weather events are getting worse, and days that start with nice mornings can end with incredibly harsh storms. tonight's windchill is negative 40 degrees. even so, longyearbyen has that dubious honor of warming quicker than anywhere else. but it's powered by coal. for decades, this was a company
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town, where coal was the only business. but the global emissions from the very material that built the town are now threatening its future. one working mine remains. its planned closure this year has been postponed until 2025, after the russian invasion of ukraine drove coal prices up in europe. tourism is the big business now. ice cave expeditions are one of the popular activities, but the glaciers are melting at a record rate. >> we are 10 meters under the surface. john: mans gullgren guided our way through the labyrinthine structure, and says he's worried about how much longer activities like this will be possible. >> i've been thinking about this for years and years. if i were to walk around and worry, which i do, i sort of have to shut it off, as well, because otherwise, it would be
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too hard. seeing that nothing is actually happening, iwe are basing our lives on economic growth, that's what we're getting. i don't see anything changing soon, but i hope. john: decades of conservation work has gone into trying to protect the fragile ecosystem here. but there's only so much that can be done locally to limit climate change. this part of the arctic is warming around six times faster than the global average. temperatures in svalbard are up 4 degrees celsius, that's just over 7 fahrenheit, in the past 50 years. trying to limit the impact of the 130,000 or so annual visitors is high on the agenda here. this tour company has invested in 8 electric snowmobiles. they're recharged using a wind turbine and solar panels on the
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office roof. it's a measure that's also being used elsewhere in an attempt to help the environment, as well as appealing to more environmentally conscious tourists. >> the climate emissions in svalbard are crazy. living here, and also for tourism, it's not good, so we need solutions. john: ronny brunvoll runs visit svalbard, the offial tourism board for the archipelago. he's attempting to balance tourist income with tourist impact. >> coming to a high arctic archipelago, tourists want to be part of don't leave any footprints, for instance. so companies have to adapt to climate change, but also to changes in perspectives of the visitors. john: from early settlers, whaling, to mining, and now tourism, life here has constantly had to adapt to survive. but as the sun sets here on an industry that has kept svalbard prosperous and warm, climate change is something they can do
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little to prevent, and is the biggest challenge yet. for the pbs newshour, i'm john bevir, in longyearbyen, svalbard. ♪ amna: a politically charged murder conviction in texas is testing governor greg abbott's pardon power. a man convicted of killing an armed protester during the 2020 george floyd protests requested a re-trial today, but in the meantime, a state board is looking into whether to recommend a pardon at the request of the governor. laura barron-lopez walks us through the case, and the political implications. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty laura: a man convicted of murder in texas may now be pardoned before he's even sentenced. on friday, a jury found army sergeant daniel perry guilty of shooting and killing 28-year-old
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garrett foster in july 2020. but republican governor greg abbott condemned the verdict, and said he'd work "as swiftly as texas law allows" towards a pardon, adding that -- "texas has one of the strongest "stand your ground" laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury. foster was marching in a black lives matter demonstration, when perry ran a red light and turned -- drove into the crowd in downtown austin. both men were armed. protesters surrounded perry's car, and he fired five shots, killing foster. perry's attorneys argued he shot in self-defense after foster pointed his gun first, a claim eyewitnesses disputed in court. in the weeks leading up to the violence, perry had expressed opposition to the nationwide protests. he texted a friend, "i might have to kill a few people on my way to work. they are rioting outside my apartment complex."
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>> this is a legal atrocity, it's so obviously unjust. laura: since the conviction, fox host tucker carlson has championed perry's case on his primetime program and pressured abbott to intervene. >> we wanted to ask if he was considering a pardon for daniel perry. but for some reason, governor abbott's office told us he just can't make it. laura: hours later, the governor announced his request for an expedited review and pardon recommendation by the state pardon and parole board. today the county's district attorney asked to present evidence to the texas board of pardons as it considers the request. extremism experts warn that abbott's push to pardon daniel perry is part of a larger pattern within the gop to normalize violence joining to discuss is jeff sharlet, author of "the undertow: scenes from a slow civil war." he covers the growth of right-wing extremism. thanks for joining us.
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you have covered republicans and the are right for a long time. what is your reaction to abbott saying he supports a pardon for daniel perry? >> i think what we see here, i see abbott's actions on a continuum with legislators, actions taken by ron desantis, receiving a kind of institutionalization of the far right violence that some thought came to a peak on january 6. instead it is being pursued by law. it is entering into a period in this right-wing movement where it is almost like a mythological age of martyrs, the creation of martyrs. ashli babbitt most famously. now the martyr doesn't even need to be killed, they need to be persecuted like that january 6 prisoners or kyle rittenhouse or daniel perry. laura: daniel perry was active
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online. he responded to a tweet that summer from then president trump in 2020 that made thinly veiled threats of violence toward protesters. perry said, quote, send them to texas. that is one example of trump and his supporters normalizing violence, using violent rhetoric. we saw that with january 6. what is the impact of trump condoning violence like that? >> i would say it is more than condoning violence, more than normalizing violence. what we have seen emerging in the u.s. is a political formation for which we can use legitimately with historical reference the word fascism, which is to say it is a celebration of violence. it is more than condoning. it is that one finds one to -- one's true self d violence. there were 73 car ramming attacks on protests that summer,
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2020. we see that in daniel perry's almost boasting, what i'm going to do, i am going to make this attack, in the same way trump has for so long spoken of violence not as something he regrets but sees as necessary. as something that is almost joyful and perversely pleasurable. laura: tucker carlsen last night had kyle rittenhouse on his program to defend perry. rittenhouse fatally shot two protesters during george floyd protests in wisconsin in 2020 but he was a weighted -- acquitted. rittenhouse has become a folk hero on the right. do you think republicans and base voters will do the same for daniel perry? >> i think it is already happening. we have seen daniel perry celebrated not just on tucker carlsen and by kyle rittenhouse,
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by alex jones and other right-wing figures, we have seen qanon figures embracing daniel perry and almost inserting him again into this martyr myth. it is a religious feeling of the figures, they imagine old west heroes standing their ground. even though, he has been found guilty so we don't have to revisit that but the fact is, perry himself said to the police after the event, i wanted to stop him before he aimed. this wasn't an old west quick draw. he shot him. that is part of the violence being celebrated now, to kill a protester. a white man, as of black lives matter protester, in a way is
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read on the right that they perceive the threat of blackness. laura: why do you think republicans are martyrizing people like ashli babbitt, kyle rittenhouse, the insurrectionist that was killed by a police officer, and potentially perry? >> it is a stage in trumpism, gravitating from kind of a prosperity gospel, winning and getting rich, to a conspiracy religion. and now, too, you need victims, not just the broad victimization of white people but you need characters and stories that become icons around which you can organize and imagine, and whose stories, into whose stories followers can project themselves. they can imagine what would i do
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if i was in that situation? like daniel perry was in a sense picking up on the actions of those before him. meanwhile, because i think we want to connect him to the january 6, those imprisoned, we saw the trump rally in waco where it opened not with the national anthem but with january 6 choir. we are replacing political figures with martyr figures, replacing traditional rituals with new rituals designed for this new movement. we are replacing the rule of law with this kind of radical states rights. >> thank you so much for your time. >> thank you, laura. ♪ geoff: somalia is facing its worst drought in 40 years, claiming tens of thousands of lives last year alone.
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today, u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres was in its capital, mogadishu, on his first official visit to the horn of africa in six years, and he called for massive international support for somalia. stephanie sy has more. stephanie: somalia faces one of the world'most acute humanitarian crises. there are many causes, climate change and drought, as well as ongoing armed conflict. across the horn of africa, 24 million people are extremely food insecure. and in somalia, humanitarian agencies warn nearly 8 million people, half of the population, is still in dire need of humanitarian assistance. to discuss the challenges, i'm joined by omar mahmood. a senior analyst for east africa for the international crisis group. he joins me from maputo, mozambique. thanyou so much for joining the newshour. there was a massive humanitarian mobilization last year that brought somalia back from the
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brink of famine, and yet 43,000 people died, half of them children. put that tragedy into context for us. >> essentially somalia is going through a very difficult climactic period because you have five consecutive's rainy seasons that have been below par . that is unprecedented. there is a sixth one underway right now. projections are that this will also be under par. somalia is one of the most climate vulnerable nations out there in the world. on top of it, you have a very pressing security situation where it is difficult access populations in need. it creates a perfect storm. stephanie: that's the reason nearly 2 million people today are living in camps specifically for displaced people within the country. we spoke to mercy corps country director daud jiran who frequently visits the camps, and he described the situation.
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>> when you ask them how do they sustain themselves, they will tell you, they only cook the evening meal. so imagine somebody with five young children, and all he gets is maybe a multipurpose cache of $80 a month to buy some food for those four or five children and try to sustain those five children with that little food, which comes only in the evening, from day to day. and the rest of the time, they depend maybe on just water, and hang around waiting for the next thing that is significant. stephanie: not even within the camps can children and families get enough to eat. when you were last in somalia, how would you compare what you saw till last year when the country was facing famine? have things gotten better or worse? >> it is a continuation. the concerns around famine and whatnot, the humanitarian response, was able to avert that the temporarily. it is still on the horizon area there are concerns that if the
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response wasn't the same level as last year, funding is always an issue, that these dynamics could reemerge. there is no natural relief on the way with climate conditions so that is why the he married -- the humanitarian response is essential. stephanie: i want to go back to climate change but first i want to ask about the security situation. wenow that nearly a million somalis who need assistance, live under territory controlled by al shabab. how does that affect their access to aid? >> it is difficult for those populations that live under al shabab. they have to suffer under that or they make the choice to basically lead to these camps -- flee these camps and that is where the we see numbers growing. it is a perilous journey that takes quite a bit of time to get to these camps. stephanie: not a lot of food there all the time as well.
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besides the urgent need for immediate food assistance, secretary guterres said today that somalia needs the conditions to build resilience, and also get on what he called a path toward development. you study policy in this region. billions of dollars have gone into humanitarian aid over the years. what other kinds of investments are needed? >> if you look at the vulnerability of somalia to climactic changes and how the intervals between climactic changes is reducing overtime, it increases the vulnerability of the country and the population. climate adaptation work can take that reality into context rather than simply responding to humanitarian response and developments, but move the needle forward. there are lots of projects around finding new water sources, digging deeper holes, rebuilding infrastructure around
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irrigation systems that have fallen out of repair. channeling some of that focus and work into some of those things can help for the future. stephanie: thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. ♪ amna: last night, we reported on the expansion of medicaid in north carolina, one of a number of states once opposed to doing so. medicaid has grown substantially over time. more than 90 million people now are on it. but the end of the pandemic is also leading to another big change with medicaid. as many as 14 million people could lose medicaid coverage in the months ahead. william brangham has the details. william: amna, before the pandemic, people had to re-enroll every year for medicaid by submitting paperwork
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to prove they were eligible. that was suspended during the height of the pandemic and afterward. but starting this month, medicaid recipients now have to make sure they are enrolled again. the problem? well, there are many. among them, not everyone will receive a notice or complete the applications on time. many will fall through the cracks due to changing addresses or language barriers. we'll hear more about these problems and the efforts to re-enroll people in a moment. but let's begin by hearing from some of the folks on the ground trying to help recipients get the coverage they need. >> the thing is, there's not enough advocates to assist every person who's going to be unenrolled from medicaid in our state. so what we're trying to do collectively in a coalition is to get as much information out into the community as we can and do that ecation. >> florida is one of now just ten states that has refused to expand medicaid under the affordable care act, which means we're going to end up with a lot
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more individuals who don't have any health coverage. and those people are going to be reliant on places like their local community clinics, federally qualified health centers, and charity care. but that's not health coverage. that maye access to care, but it's not coverage. and it comes with costs. >> much of the application process is online, and we know there's digital equity issues in these transient and lep communities as well.o there's a lot of hurdles, there's a lot of gaps, there's a lot of barriers. >> there is significant room for error in the renewal process and missing a key communication from the state. whether that's a -- a significant portion of cases will be closed due to those sorts of procedural errors. and so for those people, they're going to have to start again at the beginning. >> so we're trying to be as
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proactive as we can be to educate multilingual community members on what this process is, what to look out for in the mail, and to contact us if they need any interpretation assistance. >> we know medical debt is a huge issue and we know it's a more significant issue in states that have not expanded medicaid. so for fear of accruing debt, there will likely be people who do stay away from care once they've lost their health coverage. >> this is really the time for our legislators to recognize that health care is a human right. the people have truly benefited from having this this access to medicaid over the past three years. william: to help us understand more about what's at stake and what needs to be done, i'm joined by jennifer tolbert, director of state health reform at kaiser family foundation and associate director for the
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program on medicaid and the uninsured. jennifer, nice to have you here. the pandemic is waning. the medicaid auto enrollment is waning. in the gap, lots of people who were eligible for that care may be losing the care. how will this happen? will it do hard deadline were millions of people are out? >> states will have up to 12 months to conduct a renewal on everyone who is enrolled in the program. it is important to note that no one will be disenrolled until there has been a full redetermination done to assess the ongoing eligibility or determine whether they are no longer eligible. the process will occur over the next 12-14 months. it is not like everybody will get a notice they have been kicked off tomorrow.
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that's the good news. it will be important for people to look for notices from state medicaid agencies in the mail in the coming months. when they get the notice, it will be a them to take whatever action they need to take. william: anyone knows that if you rely on something coming in the mail, that can cause snafus. if you shift to a different address, mail doesn't come on time, could people think they are still enrolled and go to the doctor or hospital or pharmacy and find out they are not? >> yes. that very often happens. it is something we are concerned about area we estimate about half of the 14 million people expected to lose coverage will remain eligible but lose coverage anyway because of these procedural and administrative barriers. william: half? >> yes. it's a lot of people. william: we heard from some of
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the navigators helping people try to figure out and keep them on track. are thoseeople out in the world? can you find healthy lee? >> -- easily? >> there is not a single place where people can go to find a list of people available to help them, but there are people available. it might take a little bit of legwork, but reaching out to their providers when they see care, some of those navigators wille available at provide offices, community health centers are a great place for people on medicaid to go if they need assistance. william: you study how states operate these programs. are there certain states that are better prepared for this and do a better job of this kind of navigation? >> we do know this will play out differently across state and that is partly because of different policy decisions
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states are making, as well as issues like staff capacity and the capacity of systems to process all of the renewals states will have to do. we are anticipating this will come of things will go differently across states. the good news is, they have had months to prepare, and they have tten a lot of guidance from the federal government on how to do this. william: of that estimated 14 million people who might lose their eligibility, are there certain groups in partilar that might be those falling off the roles? >> yes, there are certain groups that are at greater risk. certainly people with limited english proficiency who are may be less likely to get a notice in the mail in the language in which they speak. people who have moved durinthe pandemic and maybe didn't or -- didn't update their information
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with the state. it will be harder for the state to reach those individuals. people with disabilities may face greater challenges. they often have greater documentation fireman's to maintain eligibility and that can be challenging to find the documents and send them back. william: you mentioned reach out to your provider. if someone is worried about this, what should people do? >> if people are concerned, they can reach out to their medicaid agency proactively to find out when to expect the notice from the state. they can also simply be on the lookout for information from the state. the notice will likely come in the mail and there are also other ways the state may communicate, via email or text message. the greatest advice is to be on the lookout for those notices, when the notice comes, open it
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right away and take the necessary action. william: jennifer, thank you so much. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: betty reid soskin recently retired at 100 years old as the oldest national park service ranger. but this achievement is just one of many during her multi-faceted career. here, betty shares her brief but spectacular take on finding herself through song. >> i have been so many women so many different times. i've been a daughter, a mother, a businesswoman, a federal worker. i was 85 before i became a park ranger. i retired at a hundred. i've actually been so many things, it's hard to remember. i'm 101 years old.
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when i was in my forties i believe, i suffered a mental break. during my breakdown, i would be singing. i remembered several songs, only to find that i'd written them. ♪ little boy black, city streets calling ♪ they're fascinating songs. they tend to be about life as i was living it. i think that music has the power to change anything, because i could sing things that i couldn't say. but when i sang them, they were acceptable. i was discovered any number of times, but i couldn't do that. i had four children i wanted to be a betty who sang. i didn't want to be a singer. i set the box of songs in the closet, and they stayed in that box for 40 years, only to be found a few years ago by a filmmaker who was doing a film about me.
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and they have provided a soundtrack for a film that tells my life story. when my two husbands and my father all died within three months, i was no longer defined by someone else's name. i didn't consider myself a feminist, because the men in my life were suffering the same kinds of oppression that i was. it wasn't until the 1990s that i began to take on feminism as a role for me. that's when i began to really feel like betty. the advice i would give to myself as i was a young woman would be to never marry. i could have done all the things that i have done without a man. what's more important in life? the questions are the important things. each time they get asked,
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there's a different meaning because you've grown so much from the last time you asked it. the answerare only temporary. being 101 is really something, because you feel as if you're starting all over again. i don't know what comes next, but i do know that i'm ready for it. i never really dreamed that there were so many parts to me. i don't think i'll be remembered as a park ranger. i want to be remembered as betty. my name is betty, and this is my brief but speccular take on signing my name to freedom. geoff: she is exceptional. you can watch more briefut spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. amna: later tonight on pbs, frontline presents the second of three parts chronicling the war
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in afghanistan. america and the taliban asked yours how the war began, american efforts to oust the taliban and how some decisions lead to afghans turning against the united states. >> in this province, they have had their share of civilian casualties. >> digging graves for nine children. >> general petraeus apologized. >> karzai complaints the raids were backfiring. protests were mounting, as was anger at karzai's government and the ited states. >> the accumulation of civilian casualties and mistakes, we were very tough. >> he complained and you had to stop running night raids. >> i asked -- i understand the pressure karzai was under and i
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conveyed to him the challenges i had to deal with as they coalition leader in afghanistan. war is full of mistakes and incredible loss, tragedy, heartbreak, hardship. and casualties. amna: frontline airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern on most pbs stations and on youtube. geoff: that's the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provid by -- >> actually you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind and yes, i am responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a
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team driving technology forward. i think that is the most rewarding thing. people who know, no -- know bdo. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting the advancement of international peace and security. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible r -- by the corporation for broadcasting.
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♪ christiane:ello and welcome to "amanpour and company." 30 years since the oslo peace accords for the middle east and yet it is endless death between palestinians and israelis. as tensions continue to grow, the palestinian prime minister joins me for an exclusive interview. then, 25 years since the good friday agreement for northern ireland, an imperfect peace holds there. the leader of the centrist alliance party joins me. also ahead -- >> districts are not giving teachers what they need to supply classrooms. christiane: a year inside the country's most needed and vulnerable profession.
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