♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “newshour” tonight -- president trump meets with the uk 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 "newshour" has been provided by -- >> on an american cruise lines journey along the columbia and snake river, travelers retraced the route forged by lewis and clark more than 200 years ago. american cruise lines fleet of modern riverboats of travel through american landscapes to

historic landmarks, or you can experience local customs and cuisines. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshour. >> 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 by philanthropic work for education and peace. more education at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting at a by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. 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. correspondent: as u.k. prime

minister keir starmer pulled up to the white house today -- >> president trump, can you get a peace deal in ukraine today? correspondent: ukraine was top of mind before they even got inside. in the office, keir starmer made his pitch for the u.s. to include ukraine and all of europe in negotiations. >> we want to work to make sure the pcl is enduring and last but goes down as a historic deal that nobody breaches. but for his temper asks, keir starmer part of sweetener, a letter from king charles inviting trump to a second state visit. pres. trump: the answer is yes. correspondent: from there trump gave a show of confidence that a peace deal between kyiv and moscow would hold. starmer and french president macron have both agreed to send

troops to the region if a peace deal is reached. pres. trump: i do not think it will be necessary, but i do not think it will be a problem keeping the deal was security. correspondent: earlier this week starmer announced the u.k. defense budget will rise to 2.5% by 2027. but as trump praised starmer, he indicated he trust russian president vladimir putin to stick to any pcl. pres. trump: i have known him for a long time now and i do not think he will violate his word. correspondent: that in stark contrast to how starmer and the u.k. has reviewed putin. at the same time trump aide up his relationship with president zelenskyy, who will be in washington tomorrow to sign off on a critical minimal seal.

reporters pointed out comments trump made online about zelenskyy just last week. >> [indiscernible] pres. trump: did i say that? correspondent: trump stood by his push for tariffs in europe, and both leaders stressed the importance of a strong u.s.-u.k. alliance, but trump not so subtly reminded his counterpart about their relative strength. >> could you take on russia by yourselves? correspondent: awkward moments became more open disagreement when a reporter asked about vice president vance's criticisms of the u.k.. vance decried the u.k. is censoring speech, particularly religious expression. arguing this policy was a u.s. concern. >> what the british do in their own country is up to them, but

american technology companies and american citizens, so that is something we will talk about today at lunch. correspondent: starmer responded without back off. in relation to free speech and the u.k. i am part of our history. this has been a good and productive visit. correspondent: side-by-side at a news conference the two leaders continued working on the latest version of their country's special relationship. i am lisa desjardins. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with “newshour” west. here are the latest headlines. a federal judge in california today found that the recent mass firings of probationary government employees were likely unlawful. the office of personnel

management was ordered to rescind directives that initiated the firings at more than two dozen agencies, including the department of defense. the judge granted the temporary relief after ruling opm did not have the authority to order the firings. controversial social media influencers andrew and tristan tate arrived in florida today from romania, after a travel ban on the brothers was lifted for unknown reasons. they're charged with human trafficking in romania among other allegations. andrew tate is also charged with rape. they deny any wrongdoing. the dual us-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. i don't know how it came to this, we were not involved, we

were not notified, i found out through the media. correspondent: the romanian case against the tates remains open and the court said it expects the brothers to return for future court appearances, but it's not clear how that would be enforced now that they're in the u.s. in the uk, andrew tate faces a separate lawsuit from four women who accuse him of sexual violence. mexico is sending an infamous drug lord to the us, along with more than two-dozen other prisoners requested by the us government. caro quintero was convicted of murdering a us 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-percent 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. the new policy was announced late yesterday in a memo from defense secretary pete hegseth. it comes after president trump signed an executive order last month calling on transgender troops to be prevented from serving openly. the memo calls for exceptions for transgender troops supporting or fighting capabilities. today a senior defense official said 4,240 current active duty service members, guard and reserves have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. since 2014 the military has diagnosed 5,773 individuals with gd. and in iowa, more on transgender rights. >> trans rights are human rights, trans rights are human rights! correspondent: 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. trans rights are human rights, trans rights are human rights! overseas: israel's military released its first internal findings on the october 7th hamas attacks. today's highly-anticipated report found that senior officials vastly underestimated hamas and missed early warning signs. meantime, an israeli offiical 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 to mediate negotiations. israel's foreign minister said today they'll still participate. >> 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. correspondent: meanwhile, 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. and, famed actor gene hackman has died. hackman and his wife, betsy ara-kawa, were found dead in their home in santa fe, new mexico, yesterday. 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 ara-kawa's body. john yang has more. >> the best actor of the year, gene hackman received his oscar. correspondent: gene hackman, the versatile actor appeared in some 79 films in a career that

spanned nearly four decades. he was widely praised for his ability to bring a grounded and nuanced quality to flawed characters. it allowed him to play diverse roles across multiple genres. 1967 of us and clyde was his breakup performance, an outlook it was fiercely loyal to his family. he got his first of five oscar nominations for the film. later she was the paranoid conversation expert. 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. correspondent: many of his best remembered roles were gritty, tough guys. and the french connection, he

pretrade a new york city cop willing to get his men at any cost. >> put your hands behind your heads and get on the wall. correspondent: and in 1992 of unforgiven he played a brutally violent sheriff opposite clint eastwood. gene hackman was adept at comedy too as the manipulative lee charming father in the real tenant bonds and a staunchly traditional senator in the birdcage. gene hackman face the challenges of an aging actor. >> the older you get the top of the dialogue becomes. that part is becoming harder. i like it so much, that i find it harder to do now because i am a be more intent than i've ever been. correspondent: gene hackman was

also a published author. he wrote five books from historical fictions to westerns. filmmakers of their love for gene hackman in online tributes. legendary director francis ford coppola posted gene hackman, a great actor inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity. gene hackman was 95 years old. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. amna: still to come on the “newshour” -- 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 newshour from the david rubenstein studio in 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, their, 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. correspondent: 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 very briefly was ebola prevention. i think we all want ebola prevention, so we restored the ebola prevention immediately and there was no interruption. correspondent: 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 about to that ebola prevention is fixed

and there were no interruptions cause, but the workers i talk to say that is not true. where does prevention currently stand? >> let's be clear, elon musk claiming it was turned off but was turned back on again is flatly untrue. this is a theme we have seen emerge whether it is firing nuclear safety experts or bird flu experts at the usda scrambling to try to hire them back and say we fix the problem. the reality is there is no budget line for ebola prevention at usaid or anywhere across the government. the work that goes into preventing a bullet is the same work that goes into preventing other infectious diseases from breaking out across the country and in the world. that involves funding from usaid and support from the cdc were 75% of employees have been laid off. it also involves supporting and

working together with the world health organization, something that our government has made impossible and strictly said you were not allowed to do within the past few weeks. all of them together is what ebola prevention is in this country and not of them have been turned back on. they remained turned off. correspondent: the ebola outbreak in uganda appears to be receding. 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? >> normally we would have these communication teens where ugandan ministry would get indulge -- get in touch with cdc and the cdc will contact the white house. he would have airport screening.

none of those things happened, and i know none of them happened because i talk to people who would have been on a plane to normally respond. i talk to the people who just weeks prior had been in charge of the nfc of global health and the white house who says there was not someone in that role. correspondent: the administration seems to be claiming they have been creating waivers or some of the aid has been turned back on. secretary of state marco rubio said he signed waivers for key aid, including the program that delivers medication to combat aids, but the sources that i talk to and others have reported that aid is not reaching the people it needs to reach. how serious is that? >> it is incredibly serious, and you are right. i have spoken to people all over the world and they have claimed those waivers are not helping. you do not have asid -- usaid

people to pay those out, so those waivers have not been much assistance. the result is that we have 20 million people including 500,000 children receiving hiv treatment as part of the program. the most impactful and successful program ever started under george w. bush. right now 20 million people risk losing access to those medications. the result will be more infections of hiv, or people whose infections were controlled that will be uncontrolled, greater risk of mobile spread, and they have been essential for setting up disease detection systems all around the world. correspondent: elon musk claims foreign aid is waste and fraud, and in a court filing the administration said they terminated 92% of u.s. foreign aid contracts. the white house argues this money should not be spent abroad and that it should be spent at home for americans, so why should americans be concerned

about the dramatic cuts to international help? >> absolutely no one listening to this program has had smallpox. the united states along with the ussr put together a plan to eradicate smallpox, one of the worst diseases in human history, and in 1980 they did. they spent money together to eradicate smallpox, and because of that we saved billions and billions of dollars by stoppig the disease from spreading internationally come up from having to vaccinate or treat for smallpox here in the united states. it was an unbelievable efficient return on investment. diseases around the world can have a similar economic tool into similar to mental. 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 u.s. is not going to show up and support

health system in its disease outbreak around the world, countries will have no incentive to be transparent. they will 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 chance that they impact us and infect us here in the united states. i promise you we will regret this. correspondent: dr. spencer, thank you for your time. ♪ amna: the trump administration is the rentable funding from k-12 schools and universities the consideration anyway. the supreme court ruling out race in college admissions applies more broadly, including using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation,

financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administration support, graduation ceremonies and all other aspects. the deadline for schools to comply is tomorrow. all of this parking confusion and legal challenges. for a look as part of our ongoing series of race matters i am joined by angel perez, ceo of the national association for college admission counseling and david locke, a superintendent in minnesota and incoming president of the school superintendents association. welcome to get both. angel, i want to start with you. based on the guidance the administration sent to you, are these guidelines clear? >> colleges and universities have been struggling what does this mean. 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 to everything on college campus, so does that mean we stop women centers, disability services? it is incredibly confusing and an incredible amount of anxiety is taking place right now. amna: david, you get this letter from the department of education, and what do you think ? how was your district navigating this guidance right now? >> the nicest thing about public education around america is it is a public right. for other items there was a lot of confusion, because we started up president trump's term sankey was pushing state -- education laws and rights back to the states. we have strong laws that

identify the kinds of things we should be looking for, so clarity is key. there was a conflict between what are attorney general and state legislation has happened in this executive order, and superintendents like our post secondary partners are scratching our heads saying which buttons to be follow in what does this mean? specifically in terms of hiring, we are hiring the best candidate no matter what. amna: the american federation of teachers have filed a lawsuit. my colleague spoke to them and they said they do not expect any significant movement on that lawsuit before this deadline, so what are you seeing now? is there a wait and see approach, or our colleges actively working to try and comply with the guidance that is not necessarily very clear? >> it is a little bit of everything. there are institutions working to eliminate programming, but then there is a lot of wait and see. i have spoken to college

presidents were saying we will not change anything until we absolutely have to, so it is a mix. amna: what about you david? are they rushing to put changes in place? >> i do not think brushing into place is a good description. in minnesota and across the country we are getting guidance about executive orders as they come out through the department of education and taking that guidance to our local state associations or state commissioners of education to say what applies to us. and we do not think we are doing harm to our students and certainly in our staffing process we are just trying to fill open jobs, so what we think we are doing is great work to support the public education of our students across the country, and when there is something clear that is in violation, i think we will go back and revisit it, but right now we are looking for clarity about what

does this mean? amna: there was a part of the letter i went to get a reaction to, because this was sent to k-12 schools and universities outlining the policy, and this one part read d.e.i. programs preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique burdens that they should not. they are based on crude racial stereotypes. the word certain is doing a lot of work. i went to get your reaction to that and what that means to you. >> across the country our state has standards required to be covered with in our classrooms, and we anchor our materials on the state standards, so we have an obligation to our state to be instructing our students on what the state standards are, but we are not trying to be divisive within our classroom. the likeliest but with that

would happen it would be in the history of our country and things that have happened. certainly not everything that has happened in the country are things we should be proud of, but we are not trying to divide our community. we are informing our students so that can become critical consumers of information. my colleagues across the state and across the country would say the things we are teaching in our classroom have been identified by our communities and our state as what our students need to know to be successful for the future, so that word certain implies a lot, but there is this long history on how we have divided 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 here is that federal funding could get pulled? what would impact -- what kind of impact would that have? >> universities cannot operate

without federal funding, but students are the ones who will suffer the most, and i would like to connect a few dots that the reality is we have a demographic cliff that we are facing in this country. there are starting this year fewer students in the pipeline to higher education, and the majority of students are actually going to be students of color, the largest multi-racial students and hispanic and latinx, so if we do not figure out a way how to support and cultivate and retain them, we will not have a future workforce. it would be devastating for institutions, for students and the future of our nation. amna: has this guidance had some kind of an impact? >> absolutely, and the other impact we are not talking about is the psychological effect of students applying to college. high school counselors are

telling them that many students feel like they do not want them or when they hear this news they do not want to go the process, and we have fewer students to hiring. amna: angel perez and david law, my thanks to you both. appreciate your time. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: the fda has canceled the meeting of flu experts making this the second policy meeting to be canceled since robert f. kennedy, jr. took over of health and human services. federal health officials must decide in advance what 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 are joined by dr. off it, one of the fda committee advisors and director of the education center at children's hospital. why was this meeting in particular so critical, and why did the fda cancel it? what justification did they give? >> it is critical because it takes six months to make this vaccine. every march we meet with representatives from the world health organization, the department of defense, the cdc, and we look at a map of the world and look at how these viruses are moving across that map to predict what strains will come into the country. we pick strains we think are most likely to cause the coming influenza epidemic, and the manufacturers, vaccine and infectious use that information to make the vaccine. for what is a six month

production cycle, so it is a critical meeting, and it just got canceled. geoff: which justification if any was given? >> 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 good 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 advisory committee which also had a meeting canceled, and you worry 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. they do not need expertise. i just 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. we can 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, 85% of the children were vaccinated. and that is not enough. 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. it will find those who were unvaccinated. this was the first measles death in a child in almost 20 years. that is a tragedy because, one, any death of a child was a tragedy, but this was a preventable death. we basically 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, scared that it has safety issues like autism, 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 that have outbreaks. 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. but by 2000 we had eliminated measles from this country. 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 obgyn's 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 appreciated. 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 there will be 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 these billionaires and doing so on the backs of the american people. geoff: how do you see it? >> 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 who has 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 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 we are all in this fighting to make sure the cost of eggs are not skyrocketing even though this president said on day one he would address the economy. we put our priority is the american people and families, not on the billionaires, which seems to be 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.

again what we have heard is bring down the cost of groceries, we are concerned about the cost of housing. and 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? >> i do not think the american people voted 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 oare 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. senate 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 -- sister 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 senate 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 me. 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. and 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. both of you. what advice has she given? >> vice president harris 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. she told me 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. and it was almost like she wanted us to not negate the success that delaware and maryland had done when 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? or 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. but 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. this is the time -- we are stronger when we recognize all of the talent, the brilliance, the excellence that all of us bring to the table. and 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 is making sure that people have clean drinking water and clean air, making sure they have health care. we have 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. geoff: 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 nerve-racking, not knowing what to expect, whether you'll like your job or not, whether you'll make friends, whether you'll fit

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