amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "news hour" tonight, president trump meets with the u.k. prime minister as relations with europe grow increasingly fraught. amna: elon musk says doge accidentally cut funding for

ebola prevention. a doctor who survived the disease speaks out about the risks worldwide. geoff: and we sit down with the country's two black women senators who are serving together in an historic first. >> i believe representation matters, that all of us should be represented in these spaces and that the solutions are incomplete unless every single lived experience is represented in the senate. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs "news hour" has been provided by. >> on an american cruise lines journey, along the colombia and snake rivers, travelers retrace the route forged by lewis and clark more than 200 years ago. american cruise line's fleet of modern riverboats travel through american landscapes to historic

landmarks, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs "news hour." >> in 1995, two friends set out to make wireless coverage accessible to all. with no long-term contracts, nationwide coverage, and 100% u.s.-based customer support. consumer cellular, freedom calls. >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. more information at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 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: welcome to the "news hour." british prime minister keir starmer continued a week of oval office diplomacy today, arriving at the white house for meetings with president trump and his team. amna: starmer is the second of three critical european allies to meet with the president this week, french president macron was here monday, and ukraine's president arrives tomorrow. on the agenda today, as with all three leaders, the brutal war in ukraine, and president trump's efforts to make a deal with the invader, russia's vladimir putin. lisa desjardins reports. lisa: as u.k. prime minister

keir starmer pulled up to the white house today. >> can you get a peace deal done in ukraine? lisa: ukraine was top of mind before he and president trump even got inside. >> we are going to be discussing many things today. lisa: stamer made his pitch, for the u.s. to include ukraine and all of europe in negotiations >> we hope to work with you to make sure the peace deal is enduring and lasts and goes down as a historic deal that nobody breaches. lisa: but starmer brought a letter directly from king charles inviting trump for a historic second state visit seven years after his first. >> the answer is yes. on behalf of our wonderful first later in myself the answer is yes. lisa: from there, trump gave a show of confidence that a peace deal would hold. starmer as well as emmanuel macron have both agreed to send troops to the region to keep the

peace if a deal is reached. the u.s. on the other hand. >> i don't think there will be any problem with keeping the deal. lisa: earlier this week starmer announced u.k.'s defense budget will rise to 2.5% by 2027, a move clearly aimed at pleasing trump. >> we get along very famously, as you say. lisa: but as trump raised starmer, he indicated he trusts vladimir putin. >> i have known him for a long time now and i think -- i do not believe he is going to violate his word. lisa: that is in stark contrast to how everyone else views putin . at the same time trump, played up his relationship with volodymyr zelenskyy, who will be in washington tomorrow to sign off on a critical mineral steel. reporters, -- pointed out comments trump made about

zelenskyy just last week. >> do you still think mr. zelenskyy is a dictator? >> did i say that. lisa: trump stood by his push for tariffs including with europe and throughout both leaders stressed the importance of a strong u.s. u.k. alliance but trump not so subtly reminded has counterpart about their relative strength. >> could you take on russia by yourselves? lisa: awkward moments became more open disagreement when a reporter asked about vice president vance's criticisms of the u.k. earlier this month vance decried the u.k. as censoring free speech, particularly religious expression. today vance seemed focused on the internet and how to handle inflammatory, threatening speech, arguing reddish policy blocking some was a u.s. concern. >> what the british do in their own country is up to them.

but that is something we will talk about. lisa: starmer immediately responded with a polite, back off. >> we would not want to reach across to the u.s., and we don't. in relation to free speech and the u.k., i am very proud of it. this has been a very good and productive visit. lisa: side-by-side, the two leaders continued working on the latest version of their cou ntry's special relationship. i'm lisa desjardins. ♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines, controversial social media influencers and rapists andrew and tristan tate arrived in florida today from romania, after a travel ban on the brothers was lifted. the pair briefly addressed reporters after touching down in fort lauderdale.

they're charged with human trafficking in romania, among other allegations. andrew tate is also charged with rape. they deny any wrongdoing. the dual u.s.-british nationals are vocal supporters of president trump and have millions of followers online. andrew tate has described himself as a misogynist. florida governor ron desantis said today that he had no part in allowing them into florida. >> no, florida is not a place where you're welcome with that type of conduct in the air, and i don't know how it came to this, we were not involved, we were not notified, i found out through the media. geoff: the romanian case against the tates remains open and they still must appear before the court when summoned. and in the u.k., andrew tate faces a separate lawsuit from four women who accuse him of sexual violence. today, their spokesperson said a court lifted the seizure of some of their assets, and their bank accounts have been unfrozen. mexico is sending an infamous

drug lord to the u.s., along with more than two dozen other prisoners requested by the u.s. government. caro quintero was convicted of murdering a u.s. anti-narcotics agent in 1985. it was considered one of the most notorious killings from mexico's bloody narco wars. the extraditions come as top mexican officials are in washington in a bid to ward-off the trump administration's planned 25% tariffs on mexican imports. in a social media post this morning, president trump confirmed those tariffs will take effect next week, as planned. the pentagon is ordering transgender troops to be removed from the military within 60 days. fense secretary pete hegseth. it comes after president trump signed an executive order last month calling on transgender troops to be prevented from serving openly. it's a dramatic shift from prior policy, which had prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. though the memo calls for

exceptions for those supporting warfighting capabilities. there's more on transgender rights, this time in iowa. >> trans rights are human rights. trans rights are human rights. geoff: protesters crowded iowa's state capitol today, as lawmakers passed a bill that would strip protections based on gender identity from the state's civil rights code. if approved by the governor, iowa would be the first state to remove such protections. opponents say it will expose transgender people to numerous forms of discrimination. today's vote in iowa comes on the same day that georgia's house backed off a plan to remove gender protections from that state's hate crimes law. turning now overseas, israel's military released its first internal findings on the october 7 hamas attacks today. the highly-anticipated report found that senior officials vastly underestimated hamas and then missed early warning signs. meantime, an israeli official

says the military will not withdraw from the philadelphi corridor along gaza's border with egypt, which is required by the fragile ceasefire agreement with hamas. the first phase of the deal is set to expire this weekend. u.s. envoy to the mideast steve witkoff is expected in the region in the coming days, and hamas says it's ready to negotiate. israel's foreign minister said today they'll still participate in talks for now. >> our delegation will go to cairo and see whether we have a common ground to negotiate. we said we are ready to make the framework longer in return to release more hostages. geoff: also today, israel confirmed that the four hostage bodies handed over in last night's exchange match the names hamas provided. meantime, in gaza, there were scenes of jubilation as some 600 prisoners who were detained by israel, including women and

minors, reunited with their families as part of the swap. on wall street today, stocks ended lower after a pair of negative reports on the economy. the dow jones industrial average fell nearly 200 points on the day. the nasdaq sank more than 500 points, or nearly 3%. the s&p 500 also ended firmly in negative territory. and, famed actor gene hackman has died. hackman and his wife, betsy arakawa, were found dead in in their home in santa fe, new mexico yesterday. authorities are still investigating the cause, but a search warrant affidavit described their deaths as suspicious. police say both had been dead for some time before their bodies were found, along with one of their dogs. an open pill bottle and scattered pills were also found close to arakawa's body. as john yang reports, hackman was one of the great actors of his generation. >> as best actor of the year, gene hackman received his esker

-- john: gene hackman was in some 79 films spending more than four decades. he was widely praised for his ability for grounded and nuanced quality. he played verse rolls across multiple genres. 1967's bonnie and clyde was his breakout performance, an outlaw who is fiercely loyal to his family. he got his first of five oscar nominations for the film. later he was the paranoid and isolated surveillance expert in the conversation. the iconic villain lexa luther in superman. and the no nonsense fbi investigator in mississippi burning. >> so few people ever get what they really want in life. it is a make-believe world and as i say, it is what i wanted to do as a child and i fulfilled a lot of my dreams. john: many of his best

remembered roles were gritty tough guys. in the french connection, he portrayed a new york city cop willing to get his man at any cost. >> bought by -- popeye's here! john:? and in unforgiven he played a brutally violent sheriff opposite clint eastwood. he was adept at comedy, too. as the manipulative yet oddly charming father in the royal tenenbaum's. >> i haven't been here for years. john: and a staunchly traditional senator in the birdcage. as the years passed, he faced the challenges of an aging actor. >> the older you get, the tougher some of the dialogue becomes. you don't retain all of it. that part of it has become harder. i like it so much that i find it harder to do now because there

may be more intent than i have ever been. john: hackman was also a published author. he wrote or cowrote five books, from historical fiction to westerns. filmmakers and fellow actors showed their love for hackman and his work in online tributes. legendary director francis ford coppola posted, gene hackman, a great actor, inspiring and then deficit in his work and complexity. gene hackman was 95 years old. for the pbs "news hour," i'm john yang. geoff: still to come on the "news hour," education leaders face a deadline to cut diversity initiatives under new trump guidelines. the fda cancels a crucial meeting to update flu vaccines, sparking concerns from health officials. and more pregnant women are experiencing life-threatening sepsis in the wake of strict abortion laws. >> this is the pbs "news hour" from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at

arizona state university. amna: former usaid employees who have been fired or placed on leave by the trump administration began making their final visits to the agency's headquarters today to pack-up their belongings. carrying bags of personal items, workers were surrounded by supporters cheering them on. they include samantha power, who served as the agency's administrator under president biden. >> the people who are walking out of this building are american heroes. they did not come to usaid for the money. they didn't come for the glory. you know, we rightly honor our men and women in uniform. these are heroes who don't wear uniforms and they are being treated in a manner that nobody should treat their worst enemy and they're being treated that way by their own government. amna: with nearly all of the agency's work abroad now suspended, our laura barron-lopez takes a closer look

one usaid effort that's been caught in this political crossfire. laura: in a meeting with president trump's cabinet this week, elon musk, the architect of the trump administration's jobs cuts and contract cancellations, defended the actions his team has made over the last month. >> we will make mistakes. we won't be perfect, but when we make a mistake, we'll fix it very quickly. so for example with usaid, one of the things we accidentally cancelled was ebola prevention. i think we all want ebola prevention, so we restored the ebola prevention immediately and there was no interruption. laura: but public health experts and current and fired usaid workers say musk is wrong. usaid's ebola prevention efforts have been frozen since the agency was largely dismantled. for more, i'm joined by dr. craig spencer. he's professor at brown university school of public health, and survived ebola after treating patients in guinea with doctors without borders in 2014.

you heard elon musk's claim that ebola prevention is fixed and there were no disruptions caused about the usaid workers i talked to say that is not true. where does ebola prevention currently stand? dr. spencer: let's be clear. what elon musk is claiming is flatly untrue. this is a theme we have seen emerge. whether it is firing hundreds of nuclear weapons safety experts or bird flu experts scrambling to try to hire them back and saying we fixed the problem. the reality is there is no budget line for quote, ebola prevention either at the usaid or anywhere. the work that goes into preventing ebola is the same work that goes into preventing other infectious diseases from breaking out in places around the country and around the world. that involves funding for usaid and support for the cdc, where 750 employees have been laid off, some of our best detection

experts in the world. it also involves working together with the world health organization, something our government has made impossible and strictly said you are not allowed to do. all of these things together are what ebola prevention is in this country. none of them have been turned back on. as of today i can guarantee after speaking with the people who would be doing these things they have remained turned off. laura: the ebola outbreak in the uganda to be receding however. but in the immediate weeks after the january 29 outbreak you said there was a lot of confusion in uganda about how to get help from the u.s. can you give us a quick sense of what that was like? dr. spencer: normally we would have these communication chains with the cdc getting in touch with the white house and where they would mobilize. usaid would help set up security

screenings and border screenings at the airport in uganda. none of those things happened. i know none of them happened because i talked to the people who would be on a plane to respond. i talked to people who weeks prior had been in charge of an embassy of global health and the white house who said there was not someone in that role. laura: the administration is claiming they have created waivers for some of these agencies to be turned back on. marco rubio said he signed waivers for key aid including cap far which is a program that delivers medication to combat aids. but the sources i spoke with and others have said that aid is not reaching the people he needs to reach. how serious is this? dr. spencer: it is incredibly serious. i have spoken to a lot of people all over the world and they have guaranteed to me and confirmed that those waivers, if they are coming at all, are not helping.

you do not have usaid able to pay that out. so those waivers have not been any assistance. the result is that we have over 20 million people around the world including 500,000 children who were receiving hiv treatment , the most impactful and successful global health program ever started under george w. bush. right now 20 million people list losing access to those medications. the result is going to be more infections of hiv, more people whose infections were controlled that will be uncontrolled. a greater risk of global spread. it is also been essential for setting up detection systems all around the world. laura: elon musk claims that all of this is waste and fraud. and the administration said they terminated 92% of u.s. foreign aid contracts. the white house argues this money should not be spent abroad and it should be spent at home for americans.

why should americans be concerned about the dramatic cuts to international health? dr. spencer: absolutely no one listening to this program has had smallpox. but the united states along with the ussr at the height of the cold war put together a plan to eradicate smallpox, one of the worst diseases in human history. and in 1980 they did. they spent $300 million together to eradicate smallpox. and because of that we saved billions and billions of dollars by stopping the disease from spreading internationally. from having to vaccinate or treat in the united states. it was unbelievably efficient and incredible return on investment. the diseases we are seeing other places around the world have a similar economic toll in addition to a similar human toll. it is in our best interest to detect and fight outbreaks where they occur as opposed to waiting for them to come to where we are. as of right now if the u.s. is not going to show up and support

health systems around the world countries will have no incentive to be transparent and have no reason to share with us that there is a disease outbreak, they will get bigger faster and create more of a risk on the ground and there will be a greater impact to us in the united states. i promise you, we will deeply regret this. laura: dr. craig spencer, thank you for your time. dr. spencer: thank you. ♪ amna: the trump administration has threatened to pull federal funding from k-12 schools and universities that consider race in any way. the education department argues the supreme court's ruling outlawing race in college admissions applies much more broadly, including quote, using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid,

scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects. the deadline for schools to comply is tomorrow. all of this sparking confusion and legal challenges. for a look now, as part of our ongoing series race matters, i'm joined by angel perez, ceo of the national association for college admission counseling. and david law, superintendent of the minnetonka school district in minnesota, and incoming president of the school superintendents association. welcome to you both and thank you for being with us. based on the guidance the administration has sent out, is it clear to you what compliance looks like? what does it mean to meet this deadline? angel: the challenge is it is not clear. the letter was pretty evasive. colleges and universities have been struggling as to what this means. maybe some of the things they might consider is eliminating

student clubs and organizations that are race-based. that might seem obvious. but diversity is embedded into and everything. can we no longer have women sectors? do we stop disability services? does that mean halel organizations for jewish students should not exist? an incredible amount of anxiety is taking place. amna: you get this letter from the department of education and what do you think? how is your district navigating this guidance right now? david: the nicest thing about public education across our country is it is a guaranteed right. race-based admission criteria is relevant to us. for the other items there is a lot of confusion because we started out trump's term saying he was pushing decisions for education back to the state and our state has clear laws with the minnesota human rights act that protects the rights of students within our system and

identifies the kind of things we should be looking for. clarity is key. there is a conflict between what our attorney general and our state legislation says and this executive order. and superintendents are scratching our heads saying which guidance do we follow, and what does this mean? specifically in terms of hiring, we are hiring the best candidate no matter what and i can share some data on that. amna: the american federation of teachers has filed a lawsuit. our colleague spoke with them and they say they do not expect significant movement on that lawsuit before this deadline. is there sort of a wait-and-see approach right now or are colleges actively working to try and comply in some way with guidance that is not clear? angel: it is a little of everything. their institutions working to eliminate programming. some consider to show's are scrubbing their website around

dei programs. but there is a lot of wait and see. some college presidents are saying they will not change anything. so it is a mix. amna: what are you hearing from other superintendents? are they rushing to put changes into place? david: i don't think rushing to put changes into place is a good description. specifically in minnesota and across the country, we are getting guidance about executive orders as they come out through the department of education and we are taking that guidance to our local state associations or state commissioners of education and legal counsel for our school districts to say what applies to us. we do not think we are doing harm to our students. we are just trying to fill open jobs. what we think we are doing is great work to support the public education of our students across the country. when there is something clearly in violation i think we will revisit it.

but right now we are just looking for clarity about what this means and we are committed to meeting the needs of our students. amna: there is a part of the letter i want to get your reaction to because this was sent to k-12 schools and universities outlining the trump administration's policy. quote, dei programs, for example frequency referenced -- teaching students that -- the word certain is doing a lot of work. i want to get your reaction to that and what that means to you. david: across the country our states set aside standards that are required to be covered within our classrooms and we anchor materials on those estate standards. so we have an obligation to our state to be instructing our students on what those standards are. we are not trying to be divisive

within our classroom. the likeliest spot that would happen to be in the history of our country and things that have happened. certainly not everything that has happened in our country are things we are proud of. but we are not trying to divide. we are informing our students so they can become critical consumers of information. my colleagues across the country would say the things we are teaching in our classroom have been identified by our communities and our state is what students need to know to be successful in the future. so that word ":certain" implies a lot. there is a long history of how we have defined what students need to know and we are obligated to be instructing our students about what our state determines to be critical. amna: the threat is that federal funding could be pulled. what impact would that have? angel: it would be devastating. the reality of colleges and ing.

but it would be devastating if you take it away, students are the ones who are going to suffer the most. i would like to connect a few dots here. the reality is we have a demographic -- starting this year there are fewer students in the pipeline to higher education. the majority of students are going to be students of color. largest multiracial students and then hispanic students. if we don't figure out a way how to support cultivate and retain them, we will not have a future workforce. we are going to have to do this through economic imperatives. it will be devastating for institutions, but also for students in the future of our nation. amna: regardless of how the legal challenges here play out, has this guidance already had some kind of an impact that will be hard for schools and universities to shake? angel: absolutely. the other impact we are not talking about is the psychological effect on students currently applying to college. high school counselors are

telling me that many of their students say that colleges don't want them, or they don't even want to go through the process anymore. so this could be devastating even we already have fewer students in the pipeline to higher education. amna: angel perez and david law, my thanks to you both. appreciate your time. dr. offitt: thank you. david: thank you, amna. ♪ geoff: the fda has canceled a critical meeting of flu vaccine experts, making this the second vaccine policy meeting to be canceled since robert f. kennedy jr. took over as secretary of health and human services. the annual gathering is key. federal health officials must decide in advance which strains to target in the next vaccine since production takes months. it comes amid one of the worst

flu seasons in 15 years, with more than 19,000 deaths according to the cdc, nearly 100 of them children. we're joined by dr. paul offitt, one of the fda committee advisors and director of the vaccine education center at children's hospital of philadelphia. it is good to see you. so why was this meeting in particular so critical, and why did the fda cancel it? what justification did they give? dr. offitt: it is critical because it takes about six months to make this vaccine. so every march we meet with representatives from the world health organization, department of defense and cdc and we look at a map of the world and how these viruses are moving across that map as a way to predict what strains are likely to come into this country. we then pick strains we think are most likely to cause this coming year's influenza epidemic and then the manufacturers, the vaccine manufacturers then use that information to make the vaccine for what is a six month

production cycle. though it is a critical meeting and it just got canceled. geoff: and what justification, if any, was given? dr. offitt: there was no justification. we don't know who did it, why it was done. we were told later the fda will essentially take this in-house. they will make the decision themselves, presumably based on the same information but we don't know that. what is critical about this meeting is it is open to the public, it is transparent, and you can hear how we discuss what should or should not be in this vaccine. more importantly we do a postmortem for the previous year. did we get it right the previous year? if we didn't, why didn't we, and how can that inform this year? that open and transparent process is critical to let the public know what we are doing and how we do it. geoff: this was not the first meeting of its kind to be canceled. what do you think is happening here? dr. offitt: i am worried.

you have the -- if you look at project 2025 and the way they comment on the cdc, they think the cdc should no longer be a recommending body about vaccines, eliminate expertise. just let the doctors and patients figure it out on their own. i fear that we are slowly tearing apart the public-health process that has served us well. we lived 30 years longer than we did 100 years ago primarily because of vaccines. i think vaccines have become to some a dirty word. geoff: amid all this confusion we learn the fda and cdc are participating in a meeting this week about flu plans for next year with the world health organization after president trump took the u.s. out of the w.h.o. so what does that suggest to

you? dr. offitt: you would think if nothing else the covid pandemic would have taught us that it is an international community in terms of the way viruses move and affect people. what happened in wuhan, china in 2019 clearly affected this world. more than 9 million people died of covid. so we can withdraw from the w.h.o. and say america first and whatever and hope we close our borders to viruses, but it does not work that way. it is an international community . our withdrawal from the w.h.o. was a big mistake. geoff: texas reported the first death of a child in the u.s. from measles this week, the first measles death in the u.s. in 15 years. how worried are you about the potential of a major outbreak? dr. offitt: very worried. we have had clearly a decline in

immunization rates. if you look at the mennonite community, not enough of them are vaccinated. it has to be in the 95% range to protect against measles, which is the most contagious infectious disease, more contagious than any other infectious disease. we will find those who were unvaccinated. this was the first measles death and a child in almost 20 years. that is a tragedy because, one, any death of a child was a tragedy, but this was preventable. we eliminated measles from this country by the year 2000. it has come back because people have chosen not to vaccinate their children, in part because they are scared of the vaccine, something rfk junior has been promoting loudly for the last 20 years and this is the result of that. geoff: when it comes to measles in particular, are you confident

the surveillance in place right now is effective and prepared to meet the moment? dr. offitt: the way this usually works is a state and local health departments take on those local efforts and they feel it has gotten out of hand or they need more resources then they turn to the federal government. so i worry with the federal government in some ways pulling back on public health, that these outbreaks will continue. we are now at nine states without breaks. we have gone from 58 cases in 2023 of measles two to 25 cases in 2024. i am sure that number will be exceeded this year. get to a couple thousand cases and then children will die every year from this virus. that is unconscionable. what you want to hear from the white house and rfk junior is get vaccinated. and you will not hear that all. rather you hear these glib statements. well, every year we have measles outbreaks. we didn't used to. in 2000 we eliminated visas --

measles. it has come back largely because of people like rfk junior. geoff: sobering insights. dr. paul offitt, thank you. dr. offitt: thank you. ♪ amna: in the years since the supreme court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022, and since texas instituted one of the country's strictest abortion bans, the state has seen an increased rate of sepsis among women who lost their pregnancies in the second-trimester. that's according to a new investigation by propublica. stephanie sy has more. stephanie: amna, propublica found that the rate of sepsis jumped by more than 50% in the two years since the texas abortion ban went into effect. sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by the body's extreme reaction to an

infection. in 2021, there were 67 patients in texas who were diagnosed with sepsis after losing a pregnancy in their second trimester. that number rose to 90 in 2022, and in 2023 it grew to 99. texas is one of 12 states in the country with a near-total ban on abortion. to discuss all this, i'm joined by lizzie presser, one of the investigation's authors and a health reporter at propublica. lizzie, thanks for joining the "news hour." so your reporting team arrived at these statistics by looking at hospital discharge records of pregnant women who had experienced a 2nd trimester miscarriage in the years before and after texas's abortion bans. what exactly were you looking for in these records? lizzie: we wanted to understand if there were statewide trends in the complications that women were experiencing when they showed up to the hospital with a miscarriage. and when we looked at the data

and we broke it out by different complications, sepsis was the one that we saw changed dramatically. and you can see in the charts that before the first abortion ban went into effect, the rate of sepsis for this patient population was remarkably steady. after the first ban was passed in 2021, it shoots up by more than 50%. and when we showed these charts to experts around the country, to doctors and maternal health researchers, they saw a really clear sign in the data. and they said that it was exactly what they had worried would happen, which is that women were experiencing significant delays in care, and were contracting infections and developing sepsis at far higher rates than they used to. stephanie: just to dig into the data, you found a little bit deeper, you compared the rate of sepsis in women who arrived at the hospital carrying their fetus with a heartbeat or not. following the abortion ban, patients who were miscarrying but still had a fetal heartbeat contracted sepsis at a higher rate.

you see that higher line on this chart, 6.9%, than those whose fetus had already died when they arrived at the hospital, 3.1% rate of sepsis. unpack how you analyze this data and how it relates back to texas's abortion bans. lizzie: the way the law is written, if you're a doctor in the state of texas and a patient comes into the hospital experiencing a miscarriage, those doctors often have to wait until one of two things happens. either the fetus no longer has a heartbeat, and the doctor can document that, or their patient experiences some life-threatening condition like sepsis, and then they can intervene. so what you can see in this data is that if you are a patient who walks into the hospital in texas and you are experiencing a miscarriage, but your fetus still has a heartbeat, you're more likely to develop an infection, because your doctor is waiting for you to get extraordinarily sick before they intervene. and that's what's so difficult to wrap your head around in this

data, like what this shows is a statewide trend that doctors are saying to their patients who come in with miscarriages, who they know are at a higher risk of developing an infection, they have to say to them, we cannot help you unless you become extremely sick with a complication like sepsis. stephanie: the assumption is that these women were given less timely treatment, and that's what led to these potentially deadly infections. were there any other possible explanations that you explored for the jump in cases? lizzie: there are a number of different possible explanations, and we spoke to many maternal health researchers and doctors about them. one is that there's been uh an effort across the state to identify sepsis at a much quicker rate in texas hospitals. that effort, however, started long before the texas abortion ban went into play. and so, when we looked at the sepsis rates across all hospitalized pregnant women in

the state of texas, you saw a gradual increase starting around 2018. it is a steady rate of cases up until 2021 and then the number shoots up. stephanie: lizzie, how many of these incidents have led to serious injury or even the death of a woman? lizzie: we can't investigate these cases just by the statewide discharge data alone. but last year we dug into the deaths of two women who died after texas banned abortion. and both developed sepsis after experiencing long delays in care when they were miscarrying. right now, the state is not investigating deaths of pregnant women, maternal mortality in the state of texas in the years 2022 and 2023. and so it falls to journalists to investigate what's going on with specific individuals in the state. stephanie: what do physicians have to say about all this? do they acknowledge that the law may be putting women in unnecessary danger, and is texas doing anything about it? lizzie: they do acknowledge that, and last year, more than

100 obgyns wrote a letter to the legislature, asking them to amend the law, and it seems to be that there has been some openness among legislators, even republican legislators, even the author of the first abortion ban, known as the heartbeat bill in texas, to amend the law. it just remains to be seen if the proposed amendments, the session, will receive a public hearing. stephanie: lizzie presser at propublica, thank you so much for joining us. lizzie: thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: for the first time in the 236-year history of the u.s. senate, two black women are serving simultaneously. i sat down with senators angela alsobrooks of maryland and lisa blunt rochester of delaware for a conversation about breaking barriers, shaping history, and how democrats aim to meet the current political moment. senators, thank you so much for

making time. i would like to start with some news because the gop led house this week asked a sweeping multi trillion dollar plan that supports president trump's policy agenda. how are democrats planning to address it, especially if it makes significant cuts to the social safety net? >> the billionaires have gotten what they paid for. you will see in this budget significant cuts for medicaid and other significant cuts that matter to the american people. there is nothing about this budget that addresses the germane concerns of americans around ability to afford health care and ability to be able to bring down the cost of groceries. this has not been the focus of this administration. instead it has been lining the pockets of billion errors -- billionaires. >> i totally agree. a lot of times people say if you want to see their priorities look at their checkbook. they are showing us exactly what

their priorities are. when you have 72 million people in this country on medicaid in some way, it might be a parent with a child with a disability, it might be a family whose grandparent is in the nursing home. people are going to be touched and hurt and die if these things move forward. and so for us as democrats, it is really important that we make sure people know what the stakes are and make sure they recognize you're all in this fighting to make sure the cost of eggs are not skyrocketing even though donald trump said on day one he would address the economy. our priority is the american people and families, not on the billionaires, which is the intention with these tax cuts. geoff: how do you make that message stick? one of the takeaways of the last election is many working-class voters did not see democrats as

their champion. >> i think they will see after this period. what we have heard is bring down the cost of groceries, we are concerned about the cost of housing. instead you have seen anything about that. you have seen elon musk, who is unelected, who has focused heavily on making sure that we cut in a way that i believe has nothing to do with efficiency. geoff: when democrats push back do you risk as being seen as defending the status quo when people in november said they want to change? >> the american people did not vote for this. did they vote for us to cut critical funding to the national institutes of health, people researching cancer who are coming up with cures to diseases? we did not vote for that. we did not vote to fire people who make sure we have air safety or that our water is clean. a third of the workforce that they are cutting our veterans. so i think it is really

important in this moment for us to amplify what is happening. geoff: i want to talk about your history making election victory. to be a black woman in the u.s. that is to be part of a small club. what does this moment feel like to you and what does it feel like to do it together? >> we call ourselves a senators and it has been great to have her here serving with me. we recognize the privilege that it is to represent so many people who fought hard for us to get here. and our voices matter. i believe representation matters and all of us should be represented in these spaces and the solutions are incomplete unless every single lived experience is represented in this scent of every background. people from rural america should be here, urban spaces, black, white, latino, every background, so that our solutions are complete.

>> when you think about the quarter of a century it took to get from carol moseley braun to vice president kamala harris, and then almost a decade until we got from kamala harris to laphonza butler, the two of us came in immediately, seamlessly. we don't really talk about we made history. what we talk about is what kind of impact can we make on the lives of the people who sent us here, on our country. and who knows, maybe the world with the work we are doing. for us it is about the impact. but we also don't lose the fact that there may be a kid -- just this week a kid did a book report on may. that was kind of strange. or just recently over the past summer, the way i got to this job was after the unexpected death of my husband.

i had a constituent walk up to me and say in a diner, you were sad, you were depressed, but you got up and so i got up. and so you don't know whose life you are touching or impacting by being of service. but that is really what this moment is about. and i will tell you, it is really important to have a sister senator next to me. we sit next to each other in committees, we are on the same row on the senate floor. just to even say basic stuff like what do think about this, or you know, we'll how do you wear your shoes on these hard marble floors? it is really different here. but to have that kind of support has been really a blessing.

geoff: i imagine it is also important to have mentors. i know you count kamala harris as a friend and mentor. what advice has she given? >> she has been amazing, she really has been. i have been really blessed to have her for the least past 14 years. she told me a number of things that matter. you should be joyful even in these difficult times. that we have the right to go into these spaces and bring joy with us. to never forget of course the people that we represent. but do not internalize it and not make it personal has been helpful to me. >> after getting elected to the senate i was just kind of running almost on autopilot. it was not until the day we were sworn in that i raised my right hand and i looked at her face that it hit me. the significance of the moment. and she hugged me and whispered

in my ear, enjoy this moment. and i think that was really important because so many people were focused on, oh, we didn't win this race. it was almost like she wanted us to not negate the success that delaware and maryland had done and they elected, for me, the first woman sent to the senate as well as the first person of color. and so i felt that reminder was really important. don't forget the joy of this moment. geoff: how do you reconcile this moment with the challenges posed by the current administration's stances on race and diversity issues? poor do you reconcile the two? >> i think what we know is we have been in difficult times before. when we speak about our grandparents, they have seen some difficulties.

they know what challenge looks like. it gives us the resilience to walk through this moment and i refuse to justify my being here. this administration has made, and unfortunately has tried to make it a dirty word the fact that we should care about inclusion and equality and those things. i refuse to relitigate that. i do not think it is necessary. i think we are going to continue working hard because we care about our country, we love our country, we love the people of our states. and i am here to serve them and do everything i can to ensure every one of us has the opportunity to experience the american dream. that is what this is about. >> people have to ask themselves, who are you talking about? well, we have heard it is women, it is people of color, it is people with disabilities. you can go down the list. well, who you are talking about is america.

our strength is the fact that we bring these different professional and lived experiences. this month, black history month, the theme this year is african-americans and labor. of all times in our history to be pulling people out of the workforce, telling people they don't have a seat at the table, this is not the time. we are stronger when we recognize all of the talent, the brilliance, the excellence that all of us bring to the table. so folks can try to distract. we are going to keep our eyes on the prize and that is making sure people have good jobs, that people have clean drinking water and clean air, making sure they have health care. we had our eyes on the prize. ours is not about tax breaks for billionaires and the ultrarich. it is about making sure all of us have opportunity and a fair shot. geoff: senators, thank you again

for your time. >> thank you. ♪ amna: and that is the "news hour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs "news hour" has been provided by. >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure, and british style. all with cunard's white star service. >> you know, as somebody coming out of college, it can be very

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