July 25, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode
07/25/2023 | 57m 46s | Video has closed captioning.
July 25, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode
Aired: 07/25/23
Expires: 08/24/23
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
07/25/2023 | 57m 46s | Video has closed captioning.
July 25, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode
Aired: 07/25/23
Expires: 08/24/23
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Good evening.
I'm William Brangham.
Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett are away.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Climate change is a definitive factor in the heat wave gripping much of the world, as yet another study provides further proof of the human impact on our warming planet.
Uncertainty abounds at the border after a judge blocks a key part of the Biden administration's asylum policy and Texas refuses to remove floating barriers in the Rio Grande.
Plus, on the front lines in Ukraine, the grinding counteroffensive continues with incremental progress, as soldiers and medics face the horrors of war.
RITA, Paramedic (through translator): With time, you understand that you need to tune out and do your job very calmly, because on how composed you are a person's life depends.
(BREAK) WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Welcome to the "NewsHour."
In coming days, more than 100 million people in the U.S. will be living under a heat advisory, as a brutal heat wave moves into the Midwest and Northeast.
A new analysis finds the heat that's been baking the U.S., Mexico, and Europe over the past month would be -- quote -- "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change.
It comes from an international group of researchers known as the World Weather Attribution.
To help us understand more about this real-time assessment, we're joined by Bernadette Woods Placky.
She's the chief meteorologist and director at Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and communicators.
Bernadette Woods Placky, so good to have you on the "NewsHour."
This new report is part of a field of what is known as attribution science.
Can you tell us a little bit about what this study showed about the connection between climate change and these heat events?
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY, Climate Central: So, attribution science is when we can go into individual weather events and tease out the role of climate change.
We do that through three ways, one, our knowledge of a specific weather event.
And heat is one where we know a lot.
Two, historic temperature records.
We can go back in time to see what's happened before.
And, three, model data.
We can look and we can model different scenarios in our Earth's environment.
And when we bring down our levels of carbon dioxide or bring those up, we see changes in that.
When we put all of that together, we have what's called attribution science, and we get our confidence in whether we could recreate this event or not.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And that's what this report seemed to indicate, that it was impossible for these heat waves to be as long and as severe, absent climate change.
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Correct.
And, sadly, that's not surprising.
We know when we add more heat to our atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, that that translates into bigger, stronger heat events, which is the foundation for all of the climate changes that we see.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And is it simply a factor of the fact that this is a warmer atmosphere and we see warmer events?
Is that -- is that how the mechanism works or is it more complicated than that?
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: So it doesn't mean every single place is getting the extreme heat all the time.
We're still going to have whether.
But when we really raise that platform to a different level, where we start with our heat, and you add additional heat into the whole Earth system, it's going to play out more intensely and more frequently with these big heat events.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The reason I ask this is that, every time we do a story like this, the critics always say, well, oh, it's hot in summertime?
How surprising.
So how can we really tease out the distinctions between summer weather and climate change?
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: It is always hotter in the summer than it is in the winter, correct.
But certain summers are hotter than others.
And what we're talking about right now is record after record after record after record.
So you have to look at the pattern.
It's not just one individual event in one season.
We are looking at southern parts of Europe, a lot of North America and Mexico, China all at the same times, right?
So that's a lot of the globe spiking records like we have never experienced before.
And this continues to happen.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We're also entering the period of El Nino, which can warm the oceans and change the weather.
Remind us what El Nino is all about and how that might be playing into this.
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: So, El Nino is a natural phenomena that happens in the Pacific, where we warm our -- well, the waters are warmed naturally.
And that changes some of our weather patterns around the globe.
It also adds additional heat to the atmosphere.
So when we get El Nino years, there's that boost in our global temperatures.
The thing is, when you want to look at the big picture, once again, our El Nino years of current years are breaking records.
And they're well above our El Nino years of the past.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I want to ask you about some of the solutions here.
I mean, we know that we have to drastically reduce our emissions to stop this human contribution to climate change.
But as your organization well knows, and as you strive to try to overcome, getting this change implemented is very, very difficult.
Do you believe that this current series of records falling globally, as you described, is going to be able to move the needle in any meaningful way?
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: People are understanding more and more that connection between what we're experiencing and climate change.
The thing is, the warming is just happening faster than our responses.
So two things are happening at once.
There are some amazing solutions happening and being implemented around our country and around the globe.
But we have waited a long time to implement those solutions.
So our warming curve is faster.
What we need to do is bend that warming curve.
And that's where it gets really interesting.
Yes, we baked in a certain amount of warming already.
However, this isn't, per se, the new normal.
This is a changing normal.
We're still on a path to even hotter, unless we make those changes.
So it is upon us to make those changes so we can limit that future warming.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And how confident are you that we're going to do that?
I mean, the reason I ask is that we have had 30 years of international negotiations to address this, and very little to show for that.
Emissions keep going up.
Temperatures keep going up.
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: They do.
It is frustrating, and especially when you follow this daily, and this is your world.
That is frustrating.
However, we do know a couple of things that do help people stay focused on a future of this.
One, if you take us back pre the Paris agreement, we were on a path to, say, five, six degrees Celsius of warming, right?
What we're experiencing right now, just for perspective, is 1.2 degrees Celsius of warming.
With the implementations and the changes we have made in the world, that five or six degrees of warming has come down.
It really has.
It's come down closer to like a three.
If you squeeze out all of the commitments, it could be a two.
There's a range in there.
It's not exactly precise.
However, it really depends on human behavior.
And as we all come together, we have already bent that curve.
We just need to accelerate and supersize our actions and bend it even faster.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Bernadette Woods Placky of Climate Central, thank you so much for being here.
BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Thanks for having me.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the day's other headlines: Wildfires raged across Southern Greece, and the tragedy deepened when a tanker plane crashed, killing the two pilots.
These fires come as temperatures there pushed back above 104 degrees.
Emma Murphy of Independent Television News reports from the Greek island of Corfu.
EMMA MURPHY: With one natural resource, they seek to save another, scooping water from the sea to douse the flames engulfing the land.
Fires now threaten thousands of hectares in the north of Corfu, record high temperatures, tinder-dry land and the suspected work of arsonists now leaving live, homes and livelihoods in peril.
WOMAN: I would say here is close enough.
DARKO GAJIC, Tour Guide, Quad Corfu Adventure: I was from this side up.
Now the wind -- look, the wind changed, so that is the danger thing.
When wind become stronger, like, that is not good, yes, when comes the wind, and now the wind comes to us.
So, the flames are here behind.
The flames are there.
So... EMMA MURPHY: (INAUDIBLE) was meant to be the village festival tonight.
Now they just hope the village will be saved from the flames.
As the flames encroached, more villages were evacuated.
MAN: There is nobody there.
Took them all.
EMMA MURPHY: Took them all.
MAN: Yes.
EMMA MURPHY: Those caught in the path were taken to safety in nearby towns.
Even the animals were gathered up and moved away.
Scenes like this are being replicated across the island.
But police are closing roads because fires that were previously under control have been whipped up by the wind.
It's the middle of the day here, and it already feels like it's going dark, but that's because of the smoke.
And there are constant flurries of ash coming down.
The heat wave across parts of Europe and North Africa has had a devastating effect.
In Algeria, it's now been confirmed 34 people have died, including 10 soldiers involved in rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, in Italy Palermo Airport was forced to temporarily close when fires came to close for it to safely operate.
Elsewhere in Palermo, fire crews were tackling ablaze dangerously near to one of the biggest hospitals.
Patients were evacuated as the flames approached.
Temperatures are expected to remain high for the next 36 hours as efforts to contain their impact continue.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That report was from Emma Murphy of Independent Television News.
In Israel, the ongoing backlash over Parliament's vote to weaken the country's Supreme Court was on full display today.
Full-page ads of black ink covered major newspapers with the message "A Black Day for Israeli Democracy."
And thousands of doctors walked off the job in protest for a 24-hour strike.
HAGAI LEVINE, Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians: Tomorrow, and the physicians will go back to work.
But I can say that thousands of them are not going to be silent, because there is a strong feeling, including myself, that we cannot work as physicians when Israel is no more a democratic state.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Israel's military also acknowledged today that more and more military reservists are asking to be excused from duty as a form of protest.
Meanwhile, new violence erupted in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army said its troops killed three Hamas gunmen in a shoot-out near Nablus.
China today removed its foreign minister, Qin Gang, with no explanation.
He's been on the job for less than a year and was an outspoken defender of China's increasingly aggressive foreign policy.
Qin had disappeared from public view almost a month ago, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry has issued no comment on his removal.
Russia has rejected new calls from the United Nations to reinstate the Black Sea grain deal.
Moscow pulled out of the agreement last week, cutting off exports of food products from Ukraine.
In Brussels today, European Union officials discussed how to ship that crucial grain to nations that rely heavily on it.
LUIS PLANAS, Spanish Agriculture Minister (through translator): The decision the part of Russia the use of food as a weapon of war is absolutely intolerable.
The consequences of the closure of the Black Sea route a few days ago pose a problem for the output of grain from Ukraine, but also for international markets.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Separately, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog reported that land mines have now been spotted around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Southern Ukraine.
This site has been under Russian control since shortly after the war began.
Back in this country, UPS reached a tentative deal with the Teamsters union, likely averting a crippling strike.
On any given day, the company ships about a quarter of all packages in the U.S.
If ratified, the five-year agreement will mean higher wages for workers and air conditioning in delivery trucks, among other things.
Legacy admissions for children of university alumni are under new scrutiny.
The Education Department said today it will investigate whether the policy at Harvard is biased in favor of whites.
It's the latest fallout from the Supreme Court decision against affirmative action in admissions.
Bronny James, the oldest son of basketball superstar LeBron James, is in stable condition this evening in Los Angeles after suffering a cardiac arrest.
The 18-year-old collapsed on the court Monday during basketball practice.
James ranks as one of the nation's top high school point guards, and he's committed to play at the University of Southern California this fall.
The Biden administration today issued new proposals to expand insurance coverage for mental health care.
They'd require insurers to assess whether there's equal access to mental and physical health benefits and take remedial action if needed.
The proposals are subject to public comment before being finalized.
And, on Wall Street, stocks made modest gains ahead of tomorrow's Federal Reserve action on interest rates.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 26 points to close at 35438.
The Nasdaq rose 85 points.
The S&P 500 added 12.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": President Biden designates a national monument to Emmett Till; Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy discusses his run for the White House; Steph Curry reflects on his remarkable basketball career and the new film that documents his rise; plus much more.
There are several new legal fights brewing over migration across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Today, a federal judge blocked the Biden administration's attempt to limit asylum seekers after several immigrants rights groups sued, arguing that Biden's policy was unfair and a repeat of the Trump era policy.
Separately, the Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas for putting floating barriers on the Rio Grande River to try and deter people from crossing from Mexico.
The DOJ says Texas failed to get authorization for the buoys and that they pose a risk to public safety.
Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott shot back, writing: "Mr. President see you in court."
To dive into the latest, we are joined by Texas Tribune reporter Uriel Garcia.
Uriel, thank you so much for being here.
What is the argument that the Department of Justice is making here?
URIEL GARCIA, The Texas Tribune: What the DOJ is arguing is that the Rio Grande is an international border, and for any states who want to implement any kind of barrier on international waters, it needs the federal government's permission to do so.
And, in turn, like I said, it's an international border that's shared with Mexico.
So Mexico would have to be involved in those talks as well.
Mexico has also filed a complaint and is investigating if Texas violated any sort of international laws or agreements between Mexico and the U.S.. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, again, people who might look at that video and see those floating buoys.
It's not totally clear how they stop people from crossing.
What is the governor arguing those things actually do?
And why is he putting them in the water?
URIEL GARCIA: Well it's -- something to note is that we're talking about the Texas-Mexico border being about 1,200 miles.
And those buoys are in a very small section of the border.
It's about, I believe, about 1,000 feet.
And so people can cross around it, but for the migrants who are crossing through Eagle Pass are encountering these buoys.
And what it's supposed to do is basically make it difficult for migrants to swim across the Rio Grande.
And, of course, if it makes it more difficult, we're talking about a very consequential thing, which is migrants dying in the Rio Grande.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This also comes after, about a week ago, we saw this leaked memo that was urging Texas State Troopers to treat migrants coming across in some truly inhumane ways and using barbed wire, including pushing some of those people back into the water, even though there might be children in those groups.
Remind us again what else that memo might have said and what the impact of that has been.
URIEL GARCIA: It was The Houston Chronicle who first reported this.
And we were able to see those e-mails ourselves.
It was an e-mail that a DPS trooper who works as a medic had told his superiors or his bosses, basically, that he was concerned about some of the tactics that -- or some of the orders that Troopers were given.
Among the orders was to deny water to some of the migrants who were waiting already on the riverbank something American side.
And, in one case, the e-mails say that Troopers were ordered in one case to push migrants into the -- back into the water, which included children there.
There were other cases -- the e-mails also detailed other instances in which a pregnant woman who was having a miscarriage was entangled in some of these wires as well, and a child had his leg broken as he was trying to swim around some of the wires that were actually in the river.
So, the e-mails provided very specific examples, but also alluded to potential inhumane orders, as the e-mails say, that were given to the Troopers.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And has there been any blowback to this, to this revelation?
URIEL GARCIA: Yes.
Shortly after that reporting, DPS told The Texas Tribune that they have opened up an investigation to determine if the -- if these allegations from these Troopers are true or false.
And, at the same time, DPS has been on a P.R.
campaign, tweeting out videos and pictures and sending out e-mails detailing cases in which Troopers have been helping migrants who are dehydrated or need medical attention.
So they're on the defensive.
At the same time, the governor has defended his policies, but has denied that there have not been -- there have not been any orders to deny water or pushed migrants back into the Rio Grande.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I want to talk about this judge's order knocking down the Biden asylum policy.
Remind us what Biden's policy was, and what the judge said about it.
URIEL GARCIA: The Biden administration policy, what it said is that it required migrants to seek asylum in a third country before trying to seek asylum in the U.S.
If they didn't seek asylum in third country, they would most likely be denied asylum if they were seeking those protections in the U.S. And, today, a judge, as you said, struck down that policy.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I understand that this is going to be appealed and may go up through several other courts.
In the meantime, though, does this change things for people who are waiting on the other side of the U.S. border, hoping to appeal for asylum into the U.S.?
URIEL GARCIA: Well, at least for the next two weeks, as the district judge said, he will keep the policy in place.
We will see how the appeals court decides.
But, for now, the status quo stays the same.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Uriel Garcia of The Texas Tribune, thank you so much for being here and sharing your reporting.
URIEL GARCIA: Thank you for inviting me.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The fighting is continuing at a grueling pace along the 900-mile-long front line in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.
Russia has put up stiff and deadly resistance to the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
With the support of the Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Jack Hewson, filmmaker Ed Ram, and produce producer Volodymyr Solohub on the war and its ghastly effects.
Two notes: We have blurred some imagery at the request of the Ukrainian military to disguise certain locations and sensitive equipment.
And a warning: Many details in this story are violent.
JACK HEWSON: Deep in the forest on the outskirts of Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces are back on the offensive.
We're on our way to an artillery position that.
We're having to move quickly through this undergrowth, making sure we spend as little time in the open, for fear of being identified by Russian reconnaissance drones.
Under threat from return fire, soldiers rush with a Soviet-era and prepare to fire on Russian forces.
Their target is a small village a few miles away occupied earlier this year just south of Bakhmut.
PETRO KACHAN, Soldier (through translator): In Klishchiivka Village, there was a command post and may be a machine gun position, and we were firing at it.
JACK HEWSON: As we talk to the gunner, we're cut short by incoming rounds.
PETRO KACHAN (through translator): Watch out.
Fire.
JACK HEWSON: Then, immediately, a command to fire.
Protected from shell fire, the command identifies its targets on the ground.
The situation is a reversal of three months ago.
Back then, the Ukrainians held the town as Russians encircled them and pounded them with artillery.
But now the Russians hold the center while the Ukrainians are making gains on the flanks.
IHOR SYDORENKO, Unit Commander (through translator): We were targeting the enemy's infantry unit's and we achieved our aim.
Some units were destroyed and some fled.
But Russians are well-trained and educated.
They use formulas to calculate their targets, so there artillery is very precise and they have more ammunition than we do.
JACK HEWSON: Tired, but determined, Ukrainian troops are pushing forward to take what is theirs, under pressure to make gains.
But Russian forces are learning to fight smarter.
And it's easier playing defense.
With approximately 100 square miles taken in three months, progress is slow and comes at great cost.
At field hospitals like this one, soldiers with horrifying injuries arrive every day, dozens of casualties, wounds inflicted by shrapnel, bullets, and land mines.
ANDRIY, Soldier (through translator): Everything is fine, for God's sake.
I'm fine.
JACK HEWSON: But everything is not fine.
Andriy has lost his foot and will be disabled for life.
We are at a stabilization point near to Bakhmut where Ukrainians are making gains, but it's still coming at a huge human toll.
This man just behind us has just his right leg blown off by an anti-personnel mine.
It is hard to comprehend his stoicism, showing few outward signs of pain, as the remnants of his right foot were sliced from his body and placed into a plastic bag.
Ukrainian military hospitals are actively targeted by Russian shells.
These medics risk their lives just by coming to do their work.
DMYTRO, Doctor (through translator): Artillery strike to our building, you can see it around.
We are walking in this place only in the basement, because the main reason, it's to be close to the front line.
Only in this case, we can treat heavy patients.
JACK HEWSON: Their job is to keep patients alive.
To outsiders, it is shocking.
But, for Rita, a paramedic, the blood has been normalized.
RITA, Paramedic (through translator): A regular person has not seen anything like this, but, with time, you understand you need to tune out and do your job very calmly, because on how composed you are a person's life depends.
JACK HEWSON: One might think all this suffering would push the Ukrainians to negotiate for peace.
But, right now, scenes like this just make them more furious.
Most want to fight on until they retake all their invaded land.
How long do you think you can keep doing this?
RITA (through translator): We will take it on no matter how much time it takes.
We hope it won't take too long.
JACK HEWSON: His injuries resulted from pushing into occupied ground.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian land mines are proving a deadly obstruction to Ukraine's counteroffensive.
As Andriy is evacuated to a city hospital, medics prepare for the next patient.
Since Kyiv's offensive push begin in June, there have only been modest gains.
Now, 100 miles north of Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces are coming under increased pressure to hold the line.
In Ukrainian-held Kupiansk, there has been a buildup of Russian forces over the last two weeks in one city.
Under forest cover, soldiers load a rocket battery on the back of a truck.
They race off to target a position a few miles from here.
Relaying the coordinates, taking aim, and they unleashed their first salvo.
They are trying to match Russian firepower.
MAN: In the past week, we have been working more actively than before.
They're trying to advance from a location I won't name.
We're trying to suppress them every day.
JACK HEWSON: They need to be quick as they switch positions, because they're always being watched.
That's seven rockets.
That is the biggest salvo they have fired so far.
So, they must have found something of value to be throwing that much weight at it.
With ammunition running low, the U.S. has started to supply Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions, which, as of last week, are being fired from these very forests.
VOLODYMYR, Soldier (through translator): Well, in comparison to what we use, the launch of one cluster munition is equal to four or five ordinary shells.
Sure, cluster munitions would be really helpful here.
JACK HEWSON: Most of the world's nations have agreed not to use cluster munitions, because unexploded bomblets litter landscapes for years after conflict, maiming innocent civilians.
Back at the stabilization point near Bakhmut, a casualty arrives.
His unit says he was killed by a Russian cluster munition, an example of how devastating these controversial weapons are.
Human rights groups deplore their usage by both sides.
What do you say to people who criticize Ukraine for wanting to use cluster munitions against the Russians?
RITA (through translator): To these critics, I can say come here and fight shoulder to shoulder with our boys, and then you can criticize.
JACK HEWSON: It is back to the battlefield and the grueling fight, the troops' resilience driven, as is their nation's, by a seething anger the every loss.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jack Hewson near Bakhmut, Ukraine.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A new national monument dedicated to the murdered teenager Emmett Till and his mother honors three sites critical to Till's story and central to the birth of America's civil rights movement.
This announcement comes in the middle of a heated debate over how best to teach children about race and American history.
Laura Barron-Lopez has more.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On what would have been Emmett Till's 82nd birthday, President Biden designated the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley monument, enshrining the ground where Till's brutal murder propelled the movement for civil rights.
KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States: Let us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget.
We will be better if we remember.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Till was 14 years old in 1955, when he was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered after being accused of whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi.
His mother chose an open casket at his funeral, forcing the world to confront the violent racism of the Jim Crow south.
The new monument protects three places critical to that story, the spot on the Tallahatchie River where Till's body is believed to have been found, the Illinois church where they held his funeral, and the Mississippi courthouse where his killers were acquitted by an all-white jury.
Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., Till's cousin, who witnessed his kidnapping, marked the country's progress.
REV.
WHEELER PARKER JR., Cousin of Emmett Till: Back then, in the darkness, I could never imagine the moment like this, standing in the light of wisdom, grace and deliverance.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The president's declaration comes as a number of Republican-led states are restricting how Black history and the country's legacy of racism are taught.
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: At a time when there are those who seek to ban books, bury history, we're making it clear, crystal, crystal clear.
(APPLAUSE) JOE BIDEN: While darkness and denialism can hide much, they erase nothing.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, came under fire last week after his state introduced new standards for teaching Black history.
Among other lessons, the curriculum says middle schoolers should be instructed that -- quote - - "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."
DeSantis defended it.
GOV.
RON DESANTIS (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: They're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into -- into doing things later -- later in life.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Today's announcement comes a year after the president signed a law named after Till that makes lynching a federal hate crime.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.
To discuss all this, we turn to Eddie Glaude Jr.
He's the chair of the African American Studies Department at Princeton University.
Professor Glaude, thank you so much for joining us.
The designation today of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley monument come 68 years after Emmett Till's murder.
What's the significance of today's announcement?
EDDIE GLAUDE JR., Princeton University: Well, I -- first, let me just say it's a wonderful - - it's a pleasure to be in conversation with you.
And I'm no longer the chair of African American studies at Princeton.
I'm just a regular professor.
I -- it's an extraordinary moment to insist on the importance of history, to, in some ways, memorialize, to recognize the power of everyday, ordinary people, to call attention to the extraordinary violence and brutality that surrounded the death of Emmett Till.
It's unlike traditional memorials, right, or civil rights monuments.
It's more like that in Montgomery, where you see, right, the violence of our history in the forefront, not the triumph of the story.
And it's important in this moment, when you have people denying history, engaging in book banning, curricula shenanigans and the like.
So, it's really, really a critical intervention in the battleground, in the battle for our story, it seems to me.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Biden gave these remarks today as Republican lawmakers and conservative organizations at the state and local level are challenging the teachings of race and Black history.
The state of Florida just released its new African American history education standards, which include instruction that -- quote -- "Slaves developed skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit."
Professor, is that historically accurate?
EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: No.
(LAUGHTER) EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: Remember, history is not just simply the dispassionate detailing of facts.
It's also -- it's an interpretation of what happened.
And so we know that those who were enslaved acquired certain skills as they were conscripted to labor on behalf of those who owned them.
But that's the equivalent of saying that the Holocaust was beneficial because those who were conscripted helped build the German war machine.
It doesn't make sense factually and it doesn't make sense morally.
So the claim is really about kind of absolution, trying to make sense of or trying to make the claim that the evil of slavery actually produced good, so that then you could wash your hands of responsibility of the consequence of that evil institution.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Another part of this curriculum that I want to ask you about its for lessons on some of the worst incidents of mass racial violence in U.S. history, the Tulsa Massacre in Oklahoma, the Ocoee Massacre in Florida.
And these are listed as examples of instruction on -- quote -- "acts of violence" perpetrated against and by African Americans.
What do you make of that framing?
EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: I find it insulting.
I understand the anger of the vice president in this regard.
But it's as, if when African Americans strike the blow for freedom, when they defend themselves, somehow, that's the equivalent of those who seek to oppress them.
I think much of this debate is rooted in the necessity for forgiving.
These -- many people don't want to believe what has happened and what is happening to Black folk in this country.
They don't want to know about the cruelty of slavery.
They don't want to know about our encounters with police.
And so there's this ongoing denial because they refuse to believe what we're saying.
And so what we have to do in the face of that is to do exactly what President Biden suggested in quoting Ida B.
Wells.
We have to tell the truth to shine a light on the lie.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Professor, I do just want to ask you, with the few seconds we have left, what are the stakes of this the, stakes of children learning history in this way?
EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: Well, I mean, we have to produce the kinds of people democracies require.
If we don't tell the story correctly, what we choose to leave out of our stories and who we choose to leave on our stories, actually reveals the limits of our understanding of justice.
So, are we going to be moral monsters, or are we going to be the kinds of people that democracy requires and needs?
So the stories are absolutely critical to whether or not we're going to survive.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. of Princeton University, thank you for your time.
EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: Thank you for having me.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the crowded race for the Republican presidential nomination, there are governors, a senator, even a former president.
Then there's Vivek Ramaswamy, a first-time candidate who has spent millions of his own money to capture the attention of primary voters.
And as of now, it seems to be paying off.
He is polling higher than many of his competitors who have far more political experience.
Lisa Desjardins has our conversation.
LISA DESJARDINS: William, Ramaswamy will share the stage with several of those candidates at the first GOP debate next month after his campaign announced recently that he has met the fund-raising and polling qualifications.
Before jumping into politics, Ramaswamy ran a biotech company, managed a hedge fund, authored books, including "Woke, Inc.," and made regular appearances on conservative media.
The son of Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy is clear and vocal on the campaign trail, criticizing the left on cultural issues and pledging to pardon Donald Trump.
Just 37 years old, he's also hoping to be the youngest president in American history.
And Vivek Ramaswamy joins me now.
The big question, why should Republicans choose you as their nominee?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), Presidential Candidate: I think I'm best positioned to advance our America first agenda, take it even further than Trump did, but also unite the country in the process.
I think we live in an interesting moment today in the year 2023.
I think it's a 1776 moment.
If you want incremental reform, there are plenty of other candidates who promise to offer that.
I stand on the side of revolution, the American Revolution, reviving those 1776 ideals today, when it comes to shutting down the administrative state, restoring three branches of government, rather than four, declaring independence from our enemy, communist China, reviving national pride in the next generation, growing the economy.
I think I'm the candidate best positioned to achieve these things, because I'm delivering on my own vision of how to actually accomplish them.
And that's why I'm in this race.
LISA DESJARDINS: As you and our viewers know, former President Trump has a massive lead right now in polls about the Republican race.
I want to ask you, who, other than President Trump, do you think is your next toughest competition?
And what makes you a better candidate than former President Trump and that other person?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: I think there's only two candidates who matter in this Republican primary.
That's President Trump and myself.
I went from 0.0 percent now to polling third nationally, second in one national poll that came out last week.
So I think very soon this is going to be a two-horse race between Trump and myself.
I think the question is this.
Who's going to actually take our America first agenda even further?
I think he was a good president.
I agree with many, if not most of his policies.
But the reality is, about 30 percent of this country suffers from psychiatric illness when he's in the White House.
People start to disagree with policies they otherwise would have agreed with just because he's the one advancing them.
And my question is -- for the Republican base is, who's your actual loyalty to?
If it is to this country, then ask who's going to advance that agenda even further.
I have said I would secure the Southern border, not just by building the wall, but by using the U.S. military to secure the Southern border.
I'm achieving more than Trump did with our own shared agenda to put this country first, but at the same time uniting the country in the process?
LISA DESJARDINS: Well, let me ask you.
I hear you talking about trying to unite the country, but you're also talking about pushing an agenda further from a man who you say people suffered under in some form.
What does that mean pushing that agenda further?
And how is that better for the country?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: I think the way we get to national unity is not by compromising on our principles.
I think it is about being uncompromising about the principles that set this nation into motion 250 years ago, principles like self-governance over aristocracy, principles like the pursuit of excellence and meritocracy, the idea that you get ahead in this country, not on the color of your skin, but in the content of your character and your contribution.
LISA DESJARDINS: Let me ask you about that.
I know that you are someone who opposes affirmative action.
You and I have talked about this, and you told me that you don't see a difference in opportunity for people based on color in this country.
But we do know data say that Black mothers and babies are more likely to die at a rate of two to three times those of whites.
We also know, when it comes to income, for example, that Blacks and Hispanics often earn, on average, a third less than whites.
Where do you think those disparities come from?
And how would you, as president, address them?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: They come from disparities in the fatherlessness epidemic across this country; 25 percent of kids, sadly, of all skin colors are born into fatherless homes in the United States of America today.
Those kids are eight times more likely to end up in jail, in poverty.
Those kids are more likely to suffer from mental health disorders later in life, to underperform in schools, regardless of what race they are.
Now let's actually take a look at the racial disparities.
It's upwards of 50 percent, 40-plus percent of Black kids born into single parent households.
For Asian American kids, it's single digits.
That's what explains the difference in achievement, not systemic racism.
That's the problem we need to fix.
LISA DESJARDINS: I want to do come back to former President Trump.
You have said that candidates should pledge to pardon him in his classified documents case.
We now expect an indictment for him related to January 6.
Does your pardon approach extend to his role on January 6?
And how would you describe his role in fueling that day?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: I'm guided by the facts and the law.
So, if that indictment should be issued, I would read it before making a commitment on a pardon.
I did read the first two indictments, both Alvin Bragg's disastrous and politically tortured indictment in the state of New York, invoking federal law to bring a local case, and then, also, I did read the documents and case.
And I think, in both of those instances, those are politicized persecutions.
LISA DESJARDINS: And on January 6?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: So, on January 6, I have to read the indictment to say.
But I personally, based on the facts that I'm aware of, I think that it would be a mistake to bring that indictment.
I would have, to be clear, in each of these instances, made very different judgments than Trump did.
I wouldn't have handled those documents in the same way.
I would have handled January 6 very differently had I been in the White House, instead of him.
But a bad judgment, even a very bad judgment, is not the same thing as a crime.
And when we start to conflate the two, I think that is a dangerous precedent for the political weaponization of police power in this country.
And I think that's going to take us in the wrong direction, closer to a national divorce, when I actually want to lead us forward to a national revival.
LISA DESJARDINS: You are number three in national Republican polls, but some of your views on things like abortion, affirmative action, those are out of step with where independents and some swing voters are nationally.
How do you win in November?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: I actually respectfully disagree with you on that, because there's something fundamentally un-American about using racial quota systems.
I think the same comes to securing the Southern border.
Most Americans err on the side of actually doing it.
So, when you look at my top policy measures for this country, I think more Americans are actually united around the basic principles.
And that's why I'm confident we're going to deliver a Ronald Reagan-style mandate, an electoral mandate, a landslide like Reagan did in 1980.
That's what I'm delivering in 2024.
If that was the Reagan Revolution back then, it's the Ramaswamy revolution this time around.
I'm confident that's exactly what we're going to deliver.
LISA DESJARDINS: Vivek Ramaswamy, candidate for president, thank you for talking with us.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A new documentary gives insight into what turned NBA superstar Steph Curry into the generational game-changer that he is right at the time when he was just starting to break through.
Geoff Bennett has that story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
ANNOUNCER: Here's Curry for the record.
It's good!
There it is!
GEOFF BENNETT: He's the best shooter to ever take to the court.
ANNOUNCER: The all-time three-point king of the NBA!
GEOFF BENNETT: With seemingly unlimited range... ANNOUNCER: Bang, at the buzzer!
GEOFF BENNETT: ... Steph Curry transformed how modern basketball is played since he entered the NBA.
But to call him just a shooter is to undersell his magic.
Curry's acrobatics around the rim... ANNOUNCER: A layup off the glass!
GEOFF BENNETT: ... his passing vision, and his leadership on and off the court are just some of the skills he's showcased... ANNOUNCER: The Golden State Warriors, they're on top of the NBA world.
GEOFF BENNETT: ... in a career packed with NBA records and four championships.
ANNOUNCER: The Dubs dynasty is still very much alive.
GEOFF BENNETT: Curry's career is as inimitable as it is improbable... ANNOUNCER: And he got it!
GEOFF BENNETT: ... for a player recruited in high school by only one college, the small liberal arts school Davidson College.
STEPH CURRY, Golden State Warriors: It was a moment of energy for me.
GEOFF BENNETT: His underdog story is chronicled in a new documentary, "Stephen Curry: Underrated," produced by Curry's media company, and by Ryan Coogler of "Black Panther" and "Creed" fame, who himself grew up a Warriors fan in Oakland.
I spoke with them last week about the film.
Steph Curry and Ryan Coogler, welcome to the "PBS NewsHour."
STEPH CURRY: Thank you for having us.
RYAN COOGLER, Producer, "Stephen Curry: Underrated": Thanks for having us.
GEOFF BENNETT: Steph, given all of the success that you have had over your career, it's really in many ways easy to forget your origin story, that, in the early days, you had your detractors, you had your skeptics, people who said that you weren't tall enough.
MAN: "At 6'2'', he is too skinny for the NBA shooting guard position.
Do not rely on him to run your team."
That was the draft report on Stephen Curry.
GEOFF BENNETT: Looking back now at all of that, did that serve as a motivator for you?
STEPH CURRY: Absolutely.
I was undersized, kind of a scrawny, skinny kid on every team I played, even going through the middle school and high school ranks and starting, like, recruiting, quickly found out that those big-time schools weren't going to knock on my door and offer you scholarship offers.
And I had to really try to find out what my identity was, proving people wrong, in a sense.
I tried to channel that.
I had some -- my mom painted a very good perspective for me at those ages of everybody just wants to be seen, have an opportunity to showcase who they really are and what they're really capable of and what they offer to the world.
But my motivation was to prove myself right.
GEOFF BENNETT: Ryan Coogler, why did you want to have a hand in telling this coming-of-age story?
RYAN COOGLER: Being a Warriors fan, like I owe Steph a lot of favors.
Man, I owe you a lot of debt.
You know, he's been responsible for a lot of pride and just good times for me and my friends and my neighborhood.
I wasn't as familiar with this story as I should have been.
When I watched the first cut, I was like on the edge of my seat.
With everything that's going on, man, people need things that make them feel good and things that inspire them and are fun to watch, but also make them think deeply about themselves and how the world views them, how to move through it.
And I think this film hits all those boxes.
GEOFF BENNETT: Steph, much of the documentary focuses on your years spent playing basketball at Davidson College.
What does your former coach Bob McKillop mean to you?
STEPH CURRY: There is no me on this level without Coach McKillop finding that connection with me, coming in, in my junior year of high school, and just the way that he built me up and saw me, my potential, more than I even saw for myself at the time.
He had been building the Davidson program for over 20 years by the time I showed up.
And the way that he teaches and coaches the full person, the athlete, and the man, you know, it resonated with me in terms of truly finding somebody that was going to help me to realize my full potential.
GEOFF BENNETT: Ryan, was it a challenge to tell the story of someone as universally well known as Steph Curry is?
Was it hard to find something new to tell folks?
RYAN COOGLER: This film is about the power of family, community, and mentorship, and the power that comes with truly being seen.
And I think -- I think, in that -- from that viewpoint, it wasn't hard at all.
The masses know Stephen Curry, but I don't think the masses know this story.
I think knowledge of Steph will get people into the door, in terms of going to the theater or pressing play on a film, but the story is so universal.
It's so relatable.
This film is about self-discovery, but, also, it's about the power of love.
You know what I'm saying?
And watching Steph kind of transform into what he's going to become just because somebody recognized what he was at the he was at the time, not looking at him and said, oh, this guy isn't this tall, so X, Y, or Z, or he can't do this.
So, I just want to see.
No, this is what he can do right now.
This is what he can do.
And that thing he could do, shoot the basketball at a prolific level, it's changed basketball.
GEOFF BENNETT: What was it like sitting and watching this film?
STEPH CURRY: It illuminated so many great memories, but it also reintroduced me to the impact that we were able to have through that run and what's kind of come of it.
I also realized, my first college game at Davidson, I had 13 turnovers in the first game.
And you have a memory of how bad it was, but then I watched the film, and I saw the highlights for the first time in 15 years, and it was 100 times worse than I remembered.
(LAUGHTER) STEPH CURRY: And so I think about, like, how low it was at one point to where it is now, definitely gave me a lot of gratitude and appreciation.
GEOFF BENNETT: Ryan, what resonated the most with you about Steph's story?
RYAN COOGLER: This film has a profound effect on me as a parent watching this, because it - - there's two relationships, I think, kind of at the heart of this movie, Steph's relationship with his mom and his relationship with his coach.
Obviously, the mom -- his relationship with his mom is about him going back to school.
And he's doing his thing that's incredibly difficult at a time when he's doing a lot.
He's got sponsorships and Subway commercials and trying to take his team to the championship and trying to break the three-point record and trying to raise his kids.
And he's doing a term paper over Zoom.
And I'm just thinking, like, I know that's difficult, man.
That's not easy.
But why is he doing that?
And you realize, man, it's because he said - - he told his mom that he would.
I look at Coach McKillop.
I look at the fact that he actively saw Steph for what he was, not what was missing or what he could give him in a few years, but he saw what Steph could give him now.
And I thought that that was just so exceptional.
We had an event in New York a couple of days ago where I got to see Coach McKillop again.
And I shared that with him.
And he said: "Hey, do you have kids?"
And I say: "Yes, I do."
He said: "Make sure you look at your kids that way.
Look at them for what they are right now in a moment, not what they could be, not for what they're missing."
And I have thought about him every day, every day since.
GEOFF BENNETT: Steph Curry, your legacy is still being written.
How do you want people to view your contribution to the game of basketball?
STEPH CURRY: I still feel like I -- I'm in the prime of my career, in a sense of what I'm able to accomplish.
ANNOUNCER: Curry to the basket lefthanded.
STEPH CURRY: Just out there and what the future may hold, trying to achieve, hopefully win more championships, and push the envelope as far as I can.
But, I mean, the biggest thing is just inspiration, right?
Like, there's something outside of me and the stats and the three-point record and championships and all that that gives people hope and belief of everything that this film speaks about, everything Ryan just said about what Coach McKillop has taught me along the way.
Basketball has opened up so many amazing doors, and it's changed so many lives for the better.
And to be able to do that in a very meaningful way is very surreal to me, just because this is a game that I just loved to play from the time I could walk.
And now you realize, like, how it's overdelivered on impact.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, Steph Curry and Ryan Coogler, I appreciate you both.
Thanks for your time.
RYAN COOGLER: Thank you.
STEPH CURRY: And thank you for having us.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Online, watch Steph Curry ace another sport he is passionate about, golf.
He tells Geoff what it felt like to recently sink a hole in one.
That's on our Instagram.
And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm William Brangham.
On behalf of the entire "NewsHour" team, thank you so much for joining us.