amna: good. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. massive federal layoffs and rising unemployment painted on certain picture of the near future. amna: a convicted murderer in

south carolina chooses to be executed by firing squad, the first such execution in 15 years, raising legal and ethical questions. geoff: and what science tells us about transgender athletes as republicans seeks to block them from playing in women's sports. >> there are going to be inherent inequalities between people and how do we limit those and yet allow everybody to play? ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- friends of the news hour including jim and nancy bildner and the robert and virginia shiller foundation. the judy and peter blum kovler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad.

♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. the engine that connects us. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering engaged communities. more at kf.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "news hour."

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs nation from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. the u.s. labor market made solid gains again last month, adding 151,000 more jobs just before the biggest federal layoffs began to hit. amna: unemployment crept up to four point 1%, more than 7 million americans are unemployed. manufacturing had its best report in months with 10,000 new jobs which president trump paled at the white house. >> we have not only stopped that manufacturing collapse but have begun to rapidly reverse it and get major gains. we created 10,000 manufacturing jobs in february alone. that hasn't happened in a long time and these aren't government

jobs which we cut. these are private-sector manufacturing jobs. so we gained all of those jobs and we barely started yet. geoff: the economy actually last added 10,000 manufacturing jobs just a few months ago in november. but there are other warning signs of what could be ahead not fully captured in this report. amna: the outplacement firm reported layoffs last month, more than 62,000 from the federal government. the highest monthly total it has reported since 2020. julia coronado is an economist at the university of texas who runs her own firm. welcome back to the news hour. thanks joining us. >> thank you. my pleasure. amna: 151,000 jobs added in february. that is up from january. how do you look at this report?

>> it was a solid report. that's a very respectable job again. there were under the hood some signs of cooling. as you noted. the biggest federal layoffs that have been announced and actually followed through on really hit after the data was collected. the data was collected for this report through mid february. most of those layoffs have happened since then. we expect 30,000 loss of jobs in the march report or possibly greater. we also saw the unemployment rate creep up. that is still a very low unemployment rate so not in and of itself a warning sign. but we saw underemployment also rise. we had almost half a million people take part-time jobs who wanted full-time jobs. that is something we track as a leading indicator of cooling conditions. we are going to have to keep an

eye on that. amna: you saw the president emphasizing the 10,000 manufacturing jobs added. those were dwarfed by jobs added in other sectors like education and health where we saw 70,000 jobs added. 19,000 jobs added in construction. the president noted that manufacturing has really been struggling. does he have a point in pulling that out? is that number notable to you? >> not really. 10 thousand is a relatively small number in the grand scheme of 150,000 which is about the pace we have been seeing and bounces around from month-to-month. you noted there was a greater than 10,000 job again in november. it has been bouncing around. the sector in general has been pretty subdued after a surge of good spending during the pandemic. consumers have shifted their spending to services and

manufacturing has been flatlining. some sectors suggest some warning signs. manufacturing is going to be the epicenter of any trade wars. we hear a lot of uncertainty in terms of making plans, spending or hiring plans when you don't know what the landscape looks like. amna: what about the concerns about the on-again off-again tariffs from the trump administration that they could be inflationary or lead to a recession? >> i think it's too early to say the u.s. is heading to a recession. we have seen the u.s. continue to be more resilient than people expect. one of the things the u.s. has going in its favor is it is the most diversified economy. we have manufacturing, construction, professional services jobs. leisure and hospitality jobs, government jobs.

health care has been a big contributor to job gains. we have a really robust diversified economy. the federal sector is pretty small, it is less than 2% of the workforce. but there has been a lot of cuts and contract payments to contractors with the federal government and that's probably twice as big as the actual loss of federal jobs directly. so we are really watching that carefully. pretty much everybody contracts with the federal government from farmers to hospitals to universities to primary schools and those are areas where job gains have really been strong over the last couple years. we are watching for signs that those sectors that have driven the gains feel the squeeze of reduced payments as well as the uncertainty that hangs over the environment right now. amna: i know you were at a conference in new york today

where the fed chair, jay powell, spoke. did you get any sense of how the fed is preparing to navigate all this? what's ahead? >> the message today was very clear that they are not in a rush to judgment. the plan has been to lower interest rates further. that's very complicated if they are facing a burst of inflation from tariffs. the message from chair powell was with a still solid labor market, we can afford to take our time and see how this combination of policies, trade wars and tariffs, restricted immigration but on the other side fiscal policy potential deregulation, how does that all fit together and affect the overall economy. they are taking a wait and see approach. amna: julia coronado, thank you for your time and insight. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure.

stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with news hour west. health officials in western texas say an ongoing measles outbreak has infected nearly 200 people. the extremely contagious virus has spread to even more parts of the u.s. the cdc has now confirmed cases in 12 different states. the vast majority of those infected have been under the age of 18 and those that are unvaccinated. at least one person has died and authorities are looking into a second measles related deaths. the cdc says the risk of a broader measles outbreak remains low. the trump administration is canceling 400 million dollars worth of grants and contracts for columbia university. officials cited what they described as columbia's failure to stop anti-semitism on campus. the ivy league school was at the forefront of student protests

last spring over the war in gaza. education secretary linda mcmahon said to receive federal funds, universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws, adding that columbia has abandoned that obligation to jewish students. columbia has vowed to work with the government, saying it is fully committed to combating anti-semitism. the trump administration fired the head of the department of justice's part in office today, citing executive authority. she had served in the role since 2022. she wrote on linkedin, i am sad to share that i was fired today from the job i have poured my heart and soul into for the last three years. deputy attorney general todd blanche was just confirmed by the senate on wednesday. russia launched dozens of missiles and drones toward ukraine overnight in the first major attack since the u.s. paused intelligence sharing with

ukrainian officials. in kharkiv, emergency crews cleaned up after a strike that targeted energy facilities and other infrastructure. at least 10 people were injured across the country. on social media today, president trump said he is strongly considering putting sanctions and tariffs on russia and urged both russia and ukraine to get to the table right now before it is too late. later speaking to reporters in the oval office, trump said he is finding it easier to deal with russia than ukraine. >> we are doing very well with russia. right now they are bombing the hell out of ukraine. i'm finding it more difficult frankly to deal with ukraine. stephanie: u.s. and ukrainian officials are expected to meet in saudi arabia to discuss peace talks. trains are starting to roll at paris's busiest train station once again after the discovery of an unexploded world war ii

era bomb halted rail travel. police released this video of the device which contains more than 400 pounds of explosive material. workers stumbled upon it overnight while working on tracks near the station. passengers were stranded for hours as they tried to defuse the bomb. this one was bigger than most. >> finding bombs around the railway network is something that happens but in a proportion like the one today with a balm of this size, it's really quite exceptional. stephanie: the device was british made. the fourth when they have found in the paris region since 20 19. officials in new mexico say that after gene hackman died of heart disease and showed severe signs of alzheimer's. authorities said the 95-year-old passed away a full week after

his wife, who died from hantavirus. the bodies were discovered last month in their santa fe home. the mission of the lunar lander that touched down and sideways yesterday has come to an early and. athena sent this picture just before the spacecraft went silent today. it ended up in a crater more than 800 feet from its planned landing site near the moon's south pole. this was the second attempt by texas based company intuitive machines to land on the moon. the company has contracts with nasa for two more deliveries but says it needs to figure out what went wrong before launching another mission. president trump announced on truth social this evening that fox news anchors laura ingraham and maria bartiromo would join the kennedy center board. he removed 18 board members last month to install his own team. earlier this week, broadway

musical hit hamilton pulled out of its upcoming kennedy center run. dolly parton has paid tribute to her late husband of nearly 60 years through song. ♪ the music legend released if you hadn't been there earlier today. parton met karl dean outside of the laundromat the day she moved to nashville at age 18. they married two years later. as she rose to superstardom, he avoided the spotlight. he died on monday at age 82. on social media today she made clear that he was always her inspiration, writing, like all great love stories, they never end. they live on in memory and song. he will always be the star of my

life story. still on the news hour, jonathan capehart and ramesh ponnuru weigh in on the week's political headlines and a look at the influence of black musicians in the history of punk music. ♪ >> this is the pbs news hour at weta in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: back in december, ncaa president charlie baker testified that he believed fewer than 10 total college athletes were transgender. amna: president trump signed an executive order to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls and women sports. a closer look at the debate around this issue. >> the president's order was part of the series of moves targeting the rights of trans

people. the order directed federal agencies to withhold funds from schools. more recently secretary of state marco rubio told consulates worldwide to deny visas for transgender athletes coming to the u.s. for competitions. california democratic governor gavin newsom broke with his party when he said but fairness is an issue but said it's important for vulnerable communities to be treated with care. dr. bradley is an endocrinologist and professor at the university of washington. he says that tension is at the heart of the debate. >> in sports we like to have a sense that the playing field is level, that there is fairness and competition. another important value is for everyone to have an opportunity to play, particularly when we are talking about young people. as a result with this topic

there is apparent conflict with those values. >> with his executive action banning trans athletes, president trump said this. >> we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat are women and girls. women's sports will be only for women. >> what does the science say about a competitive advantage or lack thereof among transgender girls competing in sports. >> the evidence is incomplete on that question. the best data we have is from military recruits. 2023 study, they have a manual test where they undergo a one point five mile time to run and do as many sit-ups and push-ups as they can in a minute. they had data from the individuals before and after they started gender affirming

hormone therapy. >> even though the performance of trans women dropped after starting gender affirming hormones, it took two years for their running times to fall in line with women assigned female at birth. the set up scores stayed higher until four years after they started hormones. there push up scores remained higher the entire time. >> what we don't really know is what are the effects in elite athletes. most of the data is not from elite athletes. the other thing we don't know is how significant are these changes over time. >> this ban appears to include school-age children. >> most experts there's a general consensus that before puberty, there is not a significant competitive advantage between the sexes. some data suggests there may be

subtle differences between boys and girls but what's unknown is whether that student to biological factors or societal factors and expectations. always being encouraged to participate more in sports and getting more opportunities to increase their strength, speed and power. >> they have advised major athletic associations on hormones in sports including among trans athletes. he says there are many examples of genetic differences -- heightened basketball, bigger hands and feet. he had a rare genetic mutation that ramped up his production of red blood cells, significantly increasing his endurance. he won three olympic gold medals in the 1960's. >> none of these genetic mutations have incited the same uproar that we currently have

around trans athletes in sports. >> you said we are never going to be able to answer the fundamental question about fairness. why? >> it comes to the conflict between these values. the fairness and the desire to allow everybody to participate in sports. whenever you do that there are going to be inherent inequalities between people and how do we limit those and yet allow everybody to play? i really don't think science is going to give us a perfect answer on this. we can get better and better evidence and data about the effects of gender affirming hormone therapy on athletic performance but ultimately this will be a question for the general public to balance out those very important issues and it will be an opportunity for us to ask the question just how important are sports at the very highest level in our society. this whole debate rages around sports because of how much we

venerate sports. and at this point what an economic engine it's become. >> we really appreciate your insights on this. thank you. ♪ amna: moments ago, a south carolina man was put to death by firing squad after being convicted in a 2000 one double homicide 2-wood she pled guilty. the execution of 67-year-old brad sigmon marks the first time since 2010 that a firing squad has been used in this country and it comes as the trump administration works to expand capital punishment, calling for the restoration of federal executions. i'm joined by the executive director of the nonpartisan death penalty information center. i'll come back to the program. thanks for joining us. >> it's a pleasure.

amna: we just got a release of brad sigmon's final words. he quoted several bible passages and also said i want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow christians to help us and the death penalty. it's worth reminding people he chose this method firing squad in south carolina and this is part of what his lawyer told us about why. >> we know there is something wrong with how south carolina is carrying out lethal injections and he has repeatedly asked for the information that you would want to know why. but he has been denied that at every turn. even though the firing squad hasn't been used ever in south carolina and hasn't been used in the united states and 15 years, he chose that -- in 15 years, he chose that. it was the best choice he could make given all the information

being kept from him. amna: what do we know about how executions have been carried out in south carolina? >> south carolina carried out its last two executions using lethal injection. the problem is that the autopsies of the men who were executed revealed that they received more than double the dose of the one drug protocol that was used, pentobarbital. for unknown and unexplained reasons. the autopsies also showed that one of these men had blood and fluid in his lungs, which indicated that he experienced painful symptoms akin to drowning, a condition called pulmonary edema. all of this prompted very reasonable questions from his lawyers about what drug south carolina intended to use and how they could explain the anomalies. they never received that information.

he was forced to make a very difficult choice to choose a method he knew almost nothing about and chose instead to use the firing squad which had the most information available. the third option was to be executed in a 100 10-year-old electric chair. amna: how common is firing squad nationally? where is it even allowed? >> is not allowed in very many places, only three executions have taken place in the modern death penalty era and they have all been in utah. idaho is considering making it its primary method. amna: the couple that he killed were named gladys and david larkin, his ex-girlfriend's parents. even their adult children who testified at the trial were very split on what kind of penalty they wanted to see here. when you look at where the

american people are on this issue right now, according to gallup support for the death penalty for people of -- convicted of murder has been falling. some 53% today are in favor of it. what does that say to you? >> there is a diversity of opinions about the death penalty even among family members of people who have lost loved ones to violence. that's a big change from what we were previously told years ago. many family members now say the death penalty does not bring them any peace or closure. public support is at 53%, a five decade low. when you dig into those numbers, you see some very interesting facts, including that younger generations, people age 18 to 43, the majority of those people now oppose the death penalty. even among people who support

the death penalty i think there is growing discomfort with the execution of people with severe mental impairments or who are suffering from brain damage and the long-term effects of trauma and violence. amna: within days of taking office, trump directed the u.s. attorney general to pursue the death penalty for all crimes of the severity demanding its use. he has also called for more use of capital punishment at the state level. is that guidance having an impact and cut it down the line? >> president trump has made no secret of his enthusiasm for the death penalty but his influence in the states is going to be limited. decisions will still be made by local juries who have been increasingly reluctant to sentence people to death over the last few years and also i local elected officials who may schedule executions for their own reasons.

i don't think even president trump's enthusiasm will reverse the decades of long-term trends that show a dramatic reduction in support for and use of the death penalty. amna: executive director of the nonpartisan death penalty information center, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: president trump's trade war is in the spotlight this week, with the back-and-forth causing tension for global markets. on that and more of the week's news, we turn now to the analysis of capehart and ponnuru. that's jonathan capehart, associate editor for "the washington post," and ramesh ponnuru, editor for "the national review." david brooks is away this evening. it's good to see you gentlemen. jonathan: hey, geoff. ramesh ponnuru, senior editor, "the national review": thank you. geoff: so, from the indiscriminate firings of federal workers to the now on-again/off-again tariff plan,

confusion has been a real feature of this second trump term. jonathan, let's talk about the tariffs first, because that has been the story of the week. what stands out to you about the degree to which the tariff reversals and delays have really injected chaos into the economy and the financial markets? jonathan: well, that's what i was going to point out. this on-again/off-again, yes, no pause, no, we're a go, no, we're not, i don't cover business, but i have been following business for a long time, and i have long heard that business loves certainty.

and what the president has done since his inauguration and definitely this week is inject an amount of uncertainty into the economy, into business, that we have seen wild gyrations of the stock market. and one of the reasons i think the president backed away a couple of times from these tariffs is that the market was tanking. and even though he said in the oval office, i'm not paying attention to the markets, we have been covering him long enough to know that he absolutely watches the market. he absolutely takes phone calls from fortune 500 and from wall street leaders, telling him, like, hey, you have got to do something about this. and until the president decides that he's actually going to pull the trigger on these tariffs, i think we're going to go through weeks like this for a while. geoff: and donald trump has been a fan of tariffs dating back to the '80s. so why not now have a concrete plan? why this hasty rollout, where things have to be reversed after the fact? or is the chaos and the unpredictability, is that the point? ramesh: well, i think that a certain degree of impulsiveness may be more central to trump than any particular conviction, even one as deep-rooted as his love of tariffs, which he continues to say is a beautiful word. over the last six weeks, i have read dozens of references in the commentary to energy in the executive, how energetic the new administration is being. energy in the executive is a phrase that comes from hamilton, federalist papers no. 70. he says, it's essential. why is it essential?

for the steady administration of the laws. i don't think that's what we're seeing here. i think we're seeing the very opposite of that. geoff: well, meantime, president trump said yesterday that the next phase of his plan to cut the federal work force would be conducted, he says, with a scalpel, rather than a hatchet, in what appears to be a step aimed at restraining elon musk. we will see what comes of it. but the new york times has this incredible reporting on a cabinet meeting, where the cabinet secretaries' frustration seems to have boiled over. and it includes this exchange with transportation secretary sean duffy. it says: "mr. duffy said the young staff of mr. musk's team was trying to lay off air traffic controllers. 'what am i supposed to do?' mr. duffy said. 'i have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?' mr. musk told mr. duffy that his assertion was a lie. mr. duffy insisted it was not. he had heard it from them directly." this suggests that it's not just democrats who are concerned about the speed and intensity of these cuts. jonathan: what's interesting about this story is that, in some ways, it gives me a level of relief that on the surface they seem to be lockstep with

the president, lockstep with elon musk, but, behind the scenes, they are doing the business of governing. elon musk is an unelected person who is wielding a wrecking ball through the federal government, and air traffic controllers, the people who are safeguarding the nuclear stockpile, researching bird flu. there's no nuance. there's no scalpel here. and i think it's too late for the president to say, oh, please go with the scalpel. how can you use a scalpel on an organization that's been ripped to shreds? geoff: here's what doesn't make sense to me about this, the way the administration is slashing government. we know that donald trump seems to relish punishing people who don't support him. but, with these cuts, he's targeting his supporters. i mean, he wants to slash the work force at the va, which nald trump won the veteran vote by a wide margin, something like 60%.

he wants to get rid of the education department, which would hurt red states because red states get far more education funding from the federal government than do blue states. these decisions, these actions don't seem politically aligned in many ways. ramesh: right. but i also think that some of it is government-cutting theater. so if you look closely at the department of education proposals that republicans, including trump and secretary of education linda mcmahon, have talked about, they don't actually get rid of the programs. they just shuffle them to different parts of the federal bureaucracy. you can say, well, we no longer have a department, we no longer have a building called the department of education, but everything is still there. and i think, in some ways, doge is a way of pretending that you're cutting government, while you're not actually doing any of the things that it would actually take to cut the deficit. and you're seeing pushback now from congress also. congress wants to be in on the action. on wednesday, musk met with senators, and they said, these cuts have to go through congress first. they have to have a constitutional form. that's the only way they're going to make any lasting change. but the chasm right now is between what they can accomplish and what musk and trump keep talking about.

jonathan: i'm sort of leaping on your saying that this is cutting theater and pretending to cut the government. but tell that to the thousands of government workers who have lost their jobs or who have lost their jobs and been told they're reinstated because suddenly someone realizes, oh, this person who we thought was not essential is actually essential. this theater is having a real-life impact. ramesh: absolutely. you're going to have the most disruption for the least in savings, right? you may get -- some people are going to lose their jobs. some of them will get reinstated in the legal process. but even if they don't, we're not going to see a balanced budget, which is what trump is talking about. jonathan: well, for sure, right. geoff: if you look internationally, though, as donald trump seeks to downgrade the transatlantic alliance that has kept this world safe for the past 80 years, he has set off this unprecedented rearmament

among nato allies, which is something that a number of presidents have tried to do to get europe to care about and pay for their security as much as the u.s. does. did the chaos, did the unpredictability in that sense work, jonathan? jonathan: sure, it worked. they're going to spend more money on their own defense. but why? because they can no longer depend on the united states to protect them if russia rolls over into the baltic states, if russia rolls over into poland, if the united states doesn't satisfy article 5, which is an attack on one nato member, is an attack on all. i view their comments as, we don't know the united states anymore. we certainly don't know the united states under president trump. and we need to safeguard our own security from him. that's the way i read it. ramesh: well, i mean, i think the u.s. security guarantee has been something that europeans have relied on. and, unfortunately, that has led them to underinvest in their own defense. i understand the impulse among a

lot of americans to get the u.s. to -- and europe to rebalance these commitments. what i don't see from the never really seen from trump is any acknowledgement that nato is the most successful alliance in history and that it still serves an important role in keeping the peace in europe and around the globe. geoff: in the time that remains, let's talk about gavin newsom, shall we? because the california governor, he's broken with many elected democrats by saying he thinks it's deeply unfair to allow transgender women and girls to compete in female sports. take a listen to what he said in this podcast. charlie kirk, founder, turning point usa: would you say no men in female sports? gov. gavin newsom (d-ca): well, i think it's an issue of fairness. i completely agree with you on that. it is an issue of fairness. it's deeply unfair. geoff: so this is coming amid a debate among democrats about, how much did cultural factors play a role in their huge defeat in november and how do they address it? how does this strike, jonathan? jonathan: well, look, governor newsom is somebody whose credentials in lgbtq rights were

cemented 21 years ago, when he, against the advice of every democrat in the country, issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. so this is not a question of whether he has thrown the community under the bus after two decades. but what this shows is, and what i wished he had done, because i actually listened to the podcast and this entire section. and he kept talking about fairness, which i get, but he didn't talk more fully about, what exactly do you mean? in the conversation with charlie kirk, i mean, the way he says no men in female sports, just the way he talks about that, we're not talking about men in drag pretending to be women in sports. we're talking about trans women, trans girls. but what i really like and what i loved about this segment on trans athletes with dr. bradley anawalt, he puts it -- he says

it perfectly. this is -- that there's a tension here between fairness and allowing people who want to play sports to play sports. what we need to do is, as americans, and certainly elected officials, have a more nuanced and thoughtful conversation. this is not a black-and-white issue. this is something that requires a lot of thoughtful -- a lot of thoughtful conversation led by scientists, led by doctors, led by people who actually know something about this. and the last thing i will say is, i -- look, i'm an out gay man. i came up during the 1980s, when there was the aids epidemic and people were out in the streets saying, hey, we are here. "will & grace" comes along, and suddenly there's a cultural change, a change in the country in how they viewed lgbtq folks. we need to have that same kind of cultural conversation when it comes to the t, one that is nuanced and thoughtful, and not sort of bombastic in the way that charlie kirk talks about. geoff: we will have to leave it there. i'm so sorry. we're out of time. jonathan: sorry. [laughter] geoff: jonathan capehart. we will have you back, and we will get you to weigh in. thanks for your time. jonathan: thanks, geoff.

ramesh: thanks. ♪ amna: punk music is known for its raw, aggressive sound, its edgy fashion and its mosh pits. it's also long been known for being predominantly white. that's changed a lot in recent years. and resurfaced music from its earliest days underscores that punk has always been influenced and shaped by black artists as well. stephanie sy has this story for our arts and culture series, canvas. man: we were all convinced that we had a sound that no other rock 'n' roll band had at that time. stephanie: that time was 1971. and three brothers from detroit, david, dannis and bobby hackney, started playing rock 'n' roll. they were inspired by bands like the who and alice cooper, but their sound had a different edge and reason behind it. dannis hackney, musician: in rock 'n' roll, the more times

people laugh at you, the more times people reject you, the more times, it builds up in anger. stephanie: dannis played the drums. dannis hackney: but the only way we would take out our anger is through the music. and i guess that's what made the music louder and faster. stephanie: the rejection, they say, came from an industry that didn't like the name of their band. even though later punk bands had names like the dead boys and the damned, the name death turned off major record labels. bobby hackney, musician: david said, yes, why don't we call it death? he had such a conviction about it that we didn't have no choice but to get on board. and when we did get on board, we were all in. stephanie: bobby was the lead singer and bassist. bobby hackney: we got death shirts printed up. we were death. stephanie: in more recent years, musicians, writers and critics have recognized the music death was playing as the predecessor to punk. bobby hackney: back in those days, if you called somebody a punk, you got one of two things. you got either punched in the mouth or it started a fight.

stephanie: death recorded a seven-song album in 1975, but were unable to secure a record deal that year, and the band never played live. they eventually dissolved in the late '70s. urian hackney, son of bobby hackney: that's the problem with being ahead of your time. stephanie: bobby's youngest son, urian hackney, grew up listening to punk rock, oblivious to his dad and uncle's pioneering pre-punk band. urian hackney: no one really accepted them for what they were trying to do. so i understand why he wouldn't tell us about it because it was kind of like a moment of, like, them coming so close to this thing and then not grabbing the ball. stephanie: but a small number of promo records with two death songs eventually made their way into the hands of record collectors and deejays. and death's music had found a receptive new audience. their album was finally released in 2009 on drag city records, 34 years after it was recorded. raeghan buchanan, author, "the secret history of black punk": there were black punk rockers in

the story of punk rock at every turn. we have always been there. stephanie: raeghan buchanan has been listening to punk music since she was a kid. she began playing in bands in her early 20s, but sometimes felt alienated as a black artist in the mostly white punk scene. the better-known black punk band bad brains was already in her rotation. but it was years before she learned about the more obscure black artists who developed the genre. raeghan buchanan: when i found out about pure hell, i was actually, like, upset and, like, angry. this was a band that had nobody had ever mentioned to me and i had never heard. how could this had never come up? man: this song is called "noise addiction. "kenny "stinker" gordon, musician: we were musicians in philadelphia from the same neighborhood and we were -- basically had the same interest in music.

stephanie: around the time death formed in detroit, kenny "stinker" gordon moved with his friends to new york city, a haven for america's budding punk scene. kenny “stinker” gordon: the younger people were just starting to want to create their own style of music. own style of music. and in new york, you saw people like the talking heads and the b-52's and the ramones. stephanie: but while those bands released albums and became the face of punk, pure hell faded. after a dispute, their manager refused to release their only album recorded in 1978. kenny “stinker” gordon: a lot of people say they got ripped off. ese guys were -- the original ys had gotten written off, and that's because you didn't have an album or record that was out there that was in the mainstream. stephanie: that is, until their music and photos of their classic punk aesthetic resurfaced online. kenny “stinker” gordon: people started to find out who we were. we were elated.

stephanie: legendary punk musician henry rollins released a pure hell single on his label in 2017. for buchanan, who works as an illustrator, discovering pure hell was only the beginning. raeghan buchanan: this kind of really pushed me to start really searching for other bands that i would like that were black. and i just kept finding so many. this is pure hell, my faves. stephanie: her discoveries culminated in "the secret history of black punk," a comic she created profiling black punk artists, like poly styrene from the x-ray spex, pat smear of the germs, and musician and filmmaker don letts. she also started a festival, one of a dozen across the world celebrating newer black and brown punk artists, like soul glo, a hardcore punk band from philadelphia, and special interest, a charismatic black-led band from new orleans.

alli logout, musician: there has been just such a big shift just within the last decade. alli logout is the lead singer of special interest. alli logout: now i feel like i see so many young black and brown people at punk shows. i think that it has really crossed over and is speaking -- speaking to people in a different way. stephanie: of these new bands, there's one that hearkens back to punk's earliest days. urian hackney: death never played a live show before, so he wanted to, like, show people that this music exists. man: we are rough francis. stephanie: bobby hackney's sons, musicians in their own right, formed a band, rough francis, to play death's catalogue front to back. while they say the renewed interest is exciting, for bobby and dannis hackney, death was never just about the fame. bobby hackney: even though we never made it, even though we never had a hit record, i will cherish between 1973 and 1976 as

the best rock 'n' roll years of our lives. stephanie: david hackney, who founded death, died in 2000, but bobby and dannis are still making music together. for the "pbs news hour," i'm stephanie sy. ♪ amna: we will be back shortly, but first take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. geoff: it's a chance to offer your local support which helps keep programs like this one on the air. amna: for those of you staying with us, an encore report about

the power of determination and turning grief into a force for good. 19 female university students from afghanistan whose educations were cut short by the taliban have been given the chance to fulfill their dreams in scotland. geoff: they are all aiming to be doctors and they have been given places at scottish medical schools. the program is the legacy of a young scottish aid worker killed in tragic circumstances in afghanistan 14 years ago. >> saint andrews is the home of scotland's most prestigious university. for trainee doctor, it's worlds away from the taliban. >> i love scotland. the people are so friendly. i love the people because their attitude is so much different. they are open-minded. >> how do you feel about the freedom you have in scotland? the freedom to be a woman? >> actually the freedom is something that existed in the soul of every human. i think here is that

opportunity. we can use from the freedom that every single human has and here is the place i can use it. >> 15 miles north, dundee's medical school has given her a second chance to become a doctor. she was two years away from qualifying when the taliban canceled her studies. >> of course it's very heartbreaking and sad that you are stopped from going to university or to give your exams. like you are taking a basic human right from someone. just like someone is breathing and someone is eating something. you are taking that from them. how can they be surviving in that environment? >> going to the island of lewis, one of the most remote places in the united kingdom. my journey is nothing compared

to the journey of the afghan students. after their daughter linda was killed in afghanistan in 2010, john and launa noor grove channeled their grief into a force for good by creating a nonprofit in her name. linda was killed by the taliban and died in a grenade blast when a rescue attempt by american special forces went wrong. she lives in a simple grave overlooking the bay where as a child she rode horses with her younger sister sophie. >> it wasn't our daughter that the taliban were looking for that day, it was actually her boss. she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. you've got to forgive. it wouldn't have done us any good to blame. and to go down that road. it was much better for us to do something a bit positive and try and do something she would have

approved of and which would help people in afghanistan. >> do you think that you will ever be able to go back to afghanistan to practice medicine or do you think that you will forever be in exile because you are a woman? >> we'll have a hope because that is something i believe in and we all hope for the better. of course i want to go back and serve my people. >> under pressure from the foundation, the scottish government amended education legislation to enable the afghan students to receive free tuition and cost-of-living support. the head of undergraduate medicine. how much do you hope that the taliban is actually watching what is happening here to perhaps learn that women are worth educating? >> i really hope that they see the value in educating women.

i think to undermine that value is so counterproductive and will lead to everybody suffering. you need inequality in education and health care to look after everybody. >> a senior lecturer and clinical mentor at st. andrews medical school says the taliban's interpretation of islam is wrong. >> i think it's vital that women are educated. islam has always taught that women ought to be highly educated because she effectively is taking care of the next generation with her husband of course but she plays the primary role and to have an uneducated woman in a household is not a good thing and is not started by islam if you study the interpretation properly. >> how determined are you to become a doctor? what sort of drive and ambition do you have? >> we are always asked that.

when you finish medicine are you supposed to go to your own country or be here? my aim is to serve the world or serve humanity, not the specific people in afghanistan or other countries. >> while they have obtained serenity and joy from their charity work, they are fueled by the injustice of the taliban regime. >> i am angry because i can't understand their way of thinking. i feel the taliban need women doctors. they don't want their women seen by male doctors. so perhaps a lot of women are going untreated. and i know they are because there aren't a lot of women doctors about. why don't they let women study to become doctors? i just cannot get my head around that. >> we see lots of people in afghanistan having an absolutely awful time and we have the

capability of changing their life and that's a really good thing. that's what it comes down to at the end of the day. tended has created note -- created an unbreakable bond. >> i really thank them and hope to be able to do something. they are so kind. i think we are having a spiritual connection. we are far from our fathers and mothers that have another father and mother here. we are really connected with them. >> the 19 afghan students will continue to enjoy the support of the foundation but the nonprofits focus remains women and children facing draconian restrictions far across the water in afghanistan. ♪ geoff: an update to a story we broadcast last summer. special correspondent and videographer reported from the remote pacific island nation of papua new guinea on a new industry, and deep-sea mining.

a vessel had begun an industrial scale test of a new mining technology a mile beneath the surface but local communities told us of their concerns about its potential impact on local fisheries. government officials in papua new guinea have confirmed that the three reports have in large part pumped authorities to rethink the country's approach to this controversial industry. late last month the government introduced new legislation seeking to formally regulate deep sea mining and its waters for the first time. amna: you can find those three stories from papua new guinea and much more online including our digital weekly show with analysis of president trump's marathon address to congress this week and a deeper look into elon musk's role in the trump administration. that is on our youtube page. geoff: be sure to watch washington week with the atlantic tonight for analysis on the fallout from president trump's extreme shifts in

policy. amna: on the weekend, how fears of arrest by ice agents are forcing some parents to keep their kids home from school. and that is the news hour for tonight. i am amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us and have a great weekend. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the "news hour" including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. >> it really matters when you have an opportunity to give back.

>> being part of something that's bigger than myself is what brings me happiness. >> being able to integrate your career with some of these other things that are important to you. it's critical to being happy at the end of the day. >> this is our community, too. >> people want these opportunities to make an impact and a difference. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "news hour." this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

this is pbs news hour west from weta in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ >> you're

>> just like elections, actions also have consequences. president trump haphazard methods may have cost him this week. his erratic managerial style coming next. >> this is "washington week"