Transcripts For KQED PBS 20240703

Military aid to ukraine at risk. The secretary of the army discusses a Major Overhaul to boost recruitment. Despite a low overall unemployment rate, people with disabilities still struggle to find work and are sometimes paid aluminum wage. Minimum wage. Major funding has been provided by consumer cellular, how may i help you . I thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. That is kind of our thing. Have a nice day. The kendeda fund. Carnegie corporation of new york , supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement , and the advancement of International Peace and security. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Welcome. Today in the oval office, the president convened his military and nationalistic arity leaders Security Leaders for a briefing on the war in ukraine. Russian airstrikes struck a village, killing more than 50 civilians. It is the most deadly attack in months. It comes at a moment when critical assistance from the u. S. Is running out. Our White House Correspondent and National Security correspondent are at the table with me for an update. Good to see you both. Just yesterday, the president was concerned about securing additional assistance for ukraine. What is the plan right now . The president plans to give a speech where he will layout the stakes. He will essentially try to send a signal to foreign allies and adversaries but also domestically that the u. S. Needs to be and this. The u. S. Needs to continue support of ukraine. The White House Press secretary was asked today about the urgency behind more aid for ukraine. We can go a bit longer. But it is not a longterm solution. The big piece of this right now is we need congress to keep their promise that they made to ukrainians. I spoke to a number of people today about this. One source close to the white house said what they want to hear from the president is a timeline and a big declaration for urgency. That this cannot be something that is kicked down the road. I also spoke to senator tim kaine who sits on the Foreign Relations committee. He said he wants biden to layout the stakes but also not to necessarily just ask for congress for a big request. He wants biden to say what exactly the white house once in terms of the longerterm. Into next year, just the end of this year. What is the situation when it comes to funding in ukraine . How can they last without additional funding . The simple answer is not very long. We just got back from the front in southern ukraine. The situation is incredibly difficult. We saw special forces units like this. We saw ammunition shortages up and down the front. A lot of rationing by ukrainian soldiers. That was even before the political chaos in washington prevents the next package from passing. Some officials believe the ukrainians are firing too much. Ukraine cannot continue to fight the way it has been fighting unless u. S. Levels of support remain. Officials tell me they hav about 5. 6 billion of ammunition and weapons that they can draw down from existing stocks. But here is the real number. 1. 6 billion is the number of replenishment funds they can give to the military services for sending all of those weapons to ukraine. Zero dollars is the longterm military assistance to ukraine. That is why you see the alarm from the administration right now. There is no fulltime speaker of the house. There is a race unfolding in real time. How does that impact the potential funding for ukraine right now . It affects it a lot. It is incredibly important to the speaker is. We have a couple of declared candidates. They are the majority leader Steve Scalise, the judiciary chairman jim jordan, and kevin hearn. When you look at their grade somewhere they live on support for ukraine, the republicans for ukraine outside of europe has created them. Steve scalise has a b. Jordan has an f. Hearn has an f. When asked about the potential for more aid, jim jordan threw cold water on it. I have been clear all along, why should we be sending american taxpayers to ukraine when we dont even know what the goal is . No one can tell me what the objective is. I dont think we should continue to spend money there when we have the problems on our border. Talking to democrats like senator tim kaine, they see these comments and they say that is not this is nearly a hard no. What could happen is the senate could try to piece together a larger ukraine aid package with some Border Security funding in it. They think if they are able to do that, they could potentially get jim jordan or Steve Scalise and they are republican conference on board for that. If those House Republicans try to add on anything that would restrict refugee applications or Asylum Seeker applications and go beyond basic funding for the border, they will meet resistance. What is the strategy moving forward . Ukraine has failed to push russia out. They have failed to change putins calculus. Some officials are saying they doubt ukraine can make any progress in the next few weeks or months. If the current strategy of providing weapons that they have provided so far is not producing battlefield gains, the level of support will probably go down. You can go big and provide weapon systems you have not yet provided to ukraine like longrange fires. You could go small, spend less expensive weapons. Send ammunition and smaller systems to make that 1. 6 billion last longer. What they are unwilling to do publicly is plan b, to even talk about any kind of negotiated settlement. They think even talking about that with their allies would pressure ukraine concede. That is not their policy right now. Thank you so much for your reporting. The president of mexico criticized a u. S. Plan to build new sections of order wall border wall. Divide formally waves 26 federal laws to allow construction in south texas. At the white house today, the president said he still thinks a wall will not work but he argued Congress Gave him no choice. The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate it. They would not. In the meantime, there is nothing other than they have to use it for that program. I cannot stop that. The Trump Administration directed erected 450 miles of wall. He said biden should apologize for taking so long to get moving. The administration will resume deporting people from venezuela if they enter illegally. Migrants have been arriving at the southern border in growing numbers. Deportation flights are expected to begin shortly. A panel of federal judges have selected a new congressional map in a longrunning fight for redistricting in alabama. It creates a Second District with a substantial black population. State lawmakers had submitted their own version, but the judges ruled that it failed to fix racial gerrymandering. The late Dianne Feinstein was laid to rest today in san francisco. Mourners gathered on the steps of city hall where she once served as the citys first female mayor. The Vice President said she had a warm but nononsense approach. She was a serious and gracious person who welcomed debate and discussion but always required that it would be well informed and studied. I believe that this city, where she started, had a lot to do with that. Feinstein died last friday after serving more than 30 years in the senate. She was 90 years old. Exploding drones struck a military Graduation Ceremony in syria today, killing at least 80 people and wounding 240. This was just after the defense minister had left the proceedings. The military blame terrorists but no group claimed responsibility. In northeastern india, flash flooding has killed at least 18 people with nearly 100 still missing. Heavy rainfall trigger the daily dish on wednesday. Deluge on wednesday. Official state is the worst flooding in the region in at least 50 years. Authorities and iran are denying they arrested a woman whose daughter was severely injured. Activists say she was beaten into a coma by morality police. She is shown being pulled unconscious out of a train in tehran. Activists are demanding to know what happened inside the car. The year ago death of a similar person sparked protests. A norwegian playwright claimed the nobel prize in literature today. The announcement said his works focus on anxiety and voice to the unsalable. Unsayable. He spoke from western norway. I stand here and feel a little numb but of course very happy for the great honor. I have been involved in the discussion of the nobel prize for 10 years. That i got it this year is unexpected. He is the first norwegian to win it in nearly a century and a fourth overall. Former President Trump moved on two fronts in the battery of cases facing him. His lawyers asked a federal work to dismiss charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 election. In florida, he ate asked that his classified documents trial be delayed until after the 2024 election. On wall street, stocks were little changed. The dow jones lost 10 points. The nasdaq fell 16 points for the s p 500 dropped five. Still to come, a former editor of the Washington Post examines journalism in the trump era. A winner of the nobel prize in medicine on how her work helped fight covid. Ringo starr discusses his career and his new music. Plus much more. This is the pbs newshour, from our studios in washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. The army is unveiling new plans for recruiting soldiers. The service has struggled to make recruiting goals. We have more on the challenges and proposed solutions. The army has not met its recruitment goals since 2014. The army fell short of 65,000 by 15,000. Leadership has been studying the problem of how to staff an all volunteer army. This week they unveiled their new plan. Welcome. One of your big initiatives is to recruit College Students and graduates for the enlisted ranks rather than for officers. You want one third of new recruits to have more than a high school education. That is where the labor market is. I would not say we are so much focusing on College Graduates. We are looking at folks with some college. Maybe they have graduated from community college. There may well be College Graduates who want to join the army. What we have recognized is only about 20 of the labor market are Just High School graduates. So we need to fish any bigger pond. And you compete against yourself . College graduates would normally end up in the officer track. I dont think we are really competing against ourselves. There are folks who join the enlisted ranks with a college degree. For the enlisted folks, we will be looking more at some community college. You also acknowledge you are dealing with generation z that has a declining trust in institutions. Trust is declining. We call it propensity. They are doing part of it. They have skepticism about authority. Some in conservative circles say the military is acting out of a woke agenda. Trust in the military is still very strong. Next to small businesses, the u. S. Military is the most trusted institution in the country. But it has declined. There is work to be done. You are also creating fulltime readers. Marines at the very least have been doing this for a while. Why hasnt the army been doing it . The reason we were not doing it was because quite a while we were doing fine with recruiting. We have recognized when the market is changing as much as it is, they need to have a specialized routing worse that can help us compete against private sector companies. That is part of the challenge. A shrinking job market. It is very competitive. I want to talk about another challenge. Recruiters have told us that the perception of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault inside the military, especially highprofile cases. Take a listen to a former recruiter who i spoke to earlier today. There is definitely an impact on whether women want to join the service with news that has come out in recent years. The instances that are happening in the u. S. Military become so egregious because there is all this coverup happening. No one looks like they are protecting the victim. Her family is who had to fight for her. Not the military. The army did not go to bat or her. This is going to affect whether women will join the service. Who wants to join a job knowing that there is a High Percentage for you to be physically violated . What is your response to that . I have heard that as well. I have heard those concerns expressed by young americans. What i would say is Sexual Harassment and assault is a national problem. It is not exclusively a military problem or an army problem. We need to focus on it as a society. A bright spotlight shines on the army. Especially since the terrible murder of vanessa guillen. We have worked to prevent those types of assaults in the first place. Starting at basic training we are talking to our soldiers about what it looks like. How to respect each other. To make sure we stamp out that kind of behavior. We have tried to improve how we respond to those situations. To make sure we are taking care of the victim and holding perpetrators accountable. We have taken cases outside of the chain of command. We now have a special trial counsel that handles those types of cases. The problem remains, take a look at this statistic that we have. Survey data it that 64 of young female prospects believe they would be sexually harassed. 61 believe they will be sexually assaulted in the military. The problem remains. It does. We have to step up and talk about it. We have to let people know what we are doing to try to get after this problem. Our attention is historically high. That says women coming into the army want to stay in the army. I think we have to keep getting after that. They advocate that these things have to happen. Kick creditors out of the military. Strip them of their retirement benefits. Put them in jail. Until then, the military will struggle to recruit women. Is there any attempt to counter that . What we need to do is arm our routers with information about what we are doing you in roof our prevention of these harmful behaviors and respond effectively to them. Thank you very much. Thank you. He has had a decades long career in journalism, including leading some of the nations must acted newspapers. He sat down with us to discuss his first book. Welcome. Thank you for having me. You open this book with a secret white house dinner. Donald trump was the host. What did that dinner revealed to you about the level of contempt and disdain trump had for the press and how it would affect your work moving forward . That entire dinner was an attack on our coverage. To try to put leverage on jeff bezos to lean on us. He thought he would submit to pressure. And he would pressure us to modify our coverage. We were not going to do that. He talked about the supposedly unfair treatment by the press. There was total contempt for us. He felt that we should do his bidding. That was the role of the press. We were not there to hold him accountable. We were there to be subservient to him. Jeff bezos purchased the family paper less than a year into your tenure. You were initially concerned he would interfere with coverage of amazon. Did he have an agenda . I did not see one. And that was over seven years. I was worried about that at the beginning. He has enormous commercial interests. They could be threatened by the president. He couldve used the newspaper to try to influence policy. I never saw him do that. He did not interfere in our coverage. You take the reader inside the decisionmaking around worries like edward snowden, testimony against brett kavanaugh, and coverage of movements. There was internal pressure from some journalists about how to cover those stories and what they could say on social media. There is a generational divide about how these jobs are viewed. What they should be permitted to do. Social media did not exist when i grew up in journalism. Journalists should speak for themselves. I still believe that. It should be powerful journalism. Whatever repulsive thoughts they have. I stick by my position on that. I think journalism should speak for itself. During your time of the boston globe you were instrumental in the coverage of the Catholic Church abuse scandal. What were the key challenges that journalism faces . In this area when the pursuit of truth is cast as a partisan enterprise. People cannot agree on what is a fact. That is the biggest challenge we face. The financial pressures that we face in this industry. The transformation to the Digital Media environment. All of this is enormous. The fact that the public cannot agree on a common set of facts and how to establish that something is a fact is clearly the biggest challenge. After nearly a decade of following donald trump, have we gotten better at figuring out how to cover him accurately and responsibly . I think we have gotten somewhat better. But we are still struggling on how to cover him. The media in countries throughout the world are struggling with how to cover politicians who are like donald trump. People who have an authoritarian impulse. That is a huge challenge. I think we are being more direct. That is very important. From all of you decades in journalism, you had not written a book until now. Why was now the right moment . I really did not have the opportunity to write until now. I was busy being an editor. I did not have time to write a book. It would not of been appropriate. I think it was important to write this now because i was at the posts during a credible moment in history. For the u. S. And the world and the press. We had a newspaper owned by the same family that was sold to one of the richest people in the world. And then along comes a president ial candidate and ultimately a president unlike any. I was the only one to tell that story. The press is an important part of democracy. I needed to tell our story. Thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Only about 20 of people with disabilities in the u. S. Have a job. Some with intellectual and Developmental Disabilities are paid less than the minimum wage. He is into all sorts of things. The gophers are one of their favorite teams. He has cerebral palsy. That limits his ability to speak. He uses a communication device to express himself. He visited six different employers before finding this job. He earns 17 an hour. Was difficult to get the employer to understand the value i could bring to the job. But i was persistent. I was able to succeed. Before this, he worked in a program where he was paid below minimum wage to place labels on bags of bagels. That made it legal for workers with disabilities to get paid less than the federal minimum. It was designed to help wounded war veterans get access to jobs. There are now some 42,000 people in 14c work nationwide. The average hourly wage is 4. 15. It was strange because we get these little checks. I am going, what is he doing here . He says while some of his sons first jobs were training opportunities, he was surprised by just how little he was earning. I guess the other side of it was he was ready and able for some more challenges. He cannot walk or talk but he has the ability to get up there and do a job. It is all about having the right training and the right support around them. Support like in if he needs. Today, almost all workers have an intellectual or developmental disability. Critics have long said no one should be paid that little. A couple of years ago, the Minnesota State legislature set up a task force to create a plan to phase these programs out. 17 states have taken action. The issue around increasing wages for people with disabilities is a human rights issue. She cochairs the Minnesota Task force on a limiting sub minimum wages. When it happens suddenly and without planning, it is very important for me to make sure when minnesota pursued this, we had a program, we had investments, we had support. Everybody was protected. 200 miles north in this small town, this 32yearold says 14c has been a crucial lifeline. She has autism and excessive compulsive disorders. What do you really love about this job . I love shopping. Putting things out on the shelves. She has become an employee of the store can count on. She makes about five dollars an hour. You could not do some of the job that you do now, what would you think about that . How would you feel . I would be very sad. I dont want to work in a competitive job. Job supervisors who do not understand my disabilities would not know what to do if i get upset or anxious. She got this job and another one making rugs through a mental achievement center. The nonprofit provides day programs and job services. The center is required to talk to them about other employment opportunities. While some workers make under four dollars an hour, others will make up to 10 an hour. After several years, she began making over 10 an hour this year. She said the decision to work is all her own my work and my life are my choice. It should be your choice. Her mother says her daughter requires constant support. Most competitive work is not an option for her. Some of them need assistance with seizures. Some people need some people there every minute if there is an exciting issue. You cannot stick somebody in a Rural Community like this into some job and say accommodate them. You will not find an employer who can handle that. Without this program, she would be home. But people can keep getting work like this as long as they are all paid minimum wage. We are not saying people he needs to change where they spend their time. They can continue to do it the way they do it now. But just paying people more money. She told us because her daughters Living Expenses are covered through medicaid, or jobs are not just about the money. One would think that it would be seen as a fair thing to do. Fare does not mean equal. It does that mean exactly the same for you or me. Because we have different needs. I am all about equal rights. That right will be taken away. People with disabilities can bring value to your businesses. She is the ceo of a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities find support services. Like volunteering and field trips. They stopped connecting clients to jobs that paid less than minimum wage. 88 of employers we are working with transitioned to minimum wage. What really made a difference was making the Business Case to employers. Think of this as your diversity strategy, bringing in diverse employees who will have life experiences, unique skills, and tremendous amount of value. They are not capable of putting out the Job Performance that people usually make in minimum wage. A former Business Owner and Minnesota State senator says most employers cannot afford that business model. You have to make things work at the end of the day. Your output versus your investment. We are all paid for what we can do. Their reimbursement is faced based on what they are able to put out. In minneapolis, he works eight hours a week. For now he has a job he loves. I would like to be able to buy my parents things for their birthdays. It makes me feel proud. What do you want for other people who have disabilities to know . I am sharing my story to help make sure other people with disabilities can find success as well. Do not be afraid. It may take some time, but it is worth it. Just what opponents of these programs want to hear. Even as some families worry other meaningful jobs with the bow with disabilities will go away. The nobel prizes are highlighted groundbreaking work in the sciences and medicie. We spoke with one of the winners whose work led to a profound change in tackling the pandemic. This award was given to two people whose breakthrough work on messenger rna made possible the creation of the covid vaccines that have saved millions of lives around the world. One of them joins us now. She has just published a welltimed memoir. So good to have you on the show. In normas congratulations on this award. We are just a few days after the announcement. I am curious, houses all sitting with you . Thank you very much for inviting me. It is a little bit of a hectic time. I have had time to settle all of this news about winning the nobel prize. I cannot believe it. Did you do anything special to celebrate . Not really. I was so tired. Not a single glass of champagne or anything . We drink. A little hungarian wine. Excellent. You were oh worded this four years of work that you did on messenger rna and your belief that it would prove to be revolutionary. How is it that when you look back you explain your belief that this little molecule could be so powerful . In 1989 when i started to work with it, it was not as powerful as today. A tiny amount of protein could be produced. It was seen as irrelevant for any kind of therapeutic use. As time went by, incremental improvement would be made. Later when we could see in mice this effect, we thought maybe it is useful for humans. It was incremental. We could improve the product. As you detail in your memoir, you had to push through years and years of skepticism. People who did not believe you. People who pushed you out and forced to to retire in some instances. And yet you kept persevering. You knew somewhere that your work would be vindicated . I do not blame anyone. I am not focused on those people who were naysayers. There were people who believed. And then we proceeded together. I do not blame. I am not the kind of person. The arrival of the pandemic and then the development of the covid vaccines using this breakthrough obviously was prove to the world. Your breakthrough saved millions of lives. That has to be incredibly gratifying. Indeed. Loan 10 years ago i started to work at biotech. There was an agreement to develop a vaccine for influenza. When covid came, we had to change the template. I was always happy that i was part of this process. As your memoir details, you came to the u. S. From modest circumstances back in hungary. You came here with 1200 in cash stitched into your clothes. When you look at that trajectory to where you came from to where you are today, do you ever reflect on that . Do you stop and think how far you have come . Of course. If i say that my father had a sixth grade education and i grew up in a very modest home in a very small place and i went on i went to university and then to get my phd. If i keep looking back it would be such a distance. Im more look forward and ahead then keep looking back. No resting at all it sounds like. I know you also did not go into this to become a champion of women in science. But very few women have won this award. How do you view all of the accolades you are getting . That you are another champion for women in science . Many talented scientists are there and they could not advance because we have children to take care of. We had to share that responsibility with our partner. I keep telling them to find the right guy. [laughter] that is good advice. I tell her you do not have to choose between family and profession. My daughter turned out fine. She finished an ivy league school. She did very well. She learned seeing me and my husband working hard. It is a truly remarkable career. Such a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for talking with us. Thank you. He was inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame twice. He has acted in films and tv. To the world, he is simply ringo. Now 83 years old. He has a new recording out this month and is on tour. We joined him in los angeles. He is beautiful and fit and recognizable as when the beatles first took the world by storm nearly 60 years ago. Performing with his own band. They are now releasing a new ep. For ringo starr, the music has always been there. It is what i do. I knew i wanted to be a drummer. It was like magic. I love music. I wanted to play. Theres no point being the drummer if you have no one else. It doesnt work. You need the others. The others would be john lennon, paul mccartney, and george harrison. The most beloved, important, and influential band in rock n roll history. Ringo was worldfamous. He gave the beatles a lot of personality. But he started life as richard starkey, a poor kid trying to make his way in workingclass liverpool. We talked about it recently at a famed Hollywood Hotel complete with its own Recording Studio in the basement. I was always working, on the railways and the boats and the factory forever. What were your hopes and dreams at the time . What could you imagine . It all felt like something i was doing. The first band i was in was a factory band. We used to play at the lunch hour. Eventually joined one of the top groups in the verbal. Then he got to know the beatles. They were booked into the same club. It was 12 hours between two bands. You get to know your own band. We were trying to top them and they were trying to top us. The top was not very high. It was a great learning space. The beatles asked ringo to join them and the rest is history. And what history . Especially if you are on the inside. He noticed a 1964 photo of the group with muhammad ali. This was early the first time in america. We were finally in america. The land of the music that we love. They would bring records over. There was a lot of country and blues. They had countless hit songs and epic albums. Are you trying to attract attention again . Everyone knew the beatles. The music and the individuals. Ringo grew up an only child. It was as personal as could be. We only ever got two rooms. It was part of our makeup that we stay together. We stayed close. We really got to know each other. That certainly happens. Behind his drum kit he sang several songs written by the others, including this one he did write a few himself. That helped later in his post beatles career. The interesting thing that not a lot of people know is when i first presented my songs, the rest of the band would be rolling on the floor laughing. I really just rewrote some of the songs. It wasnt my song at all. I just reworded it. I started making my own moves. George was really helpful. He produced the first couple of singles that i put out. God bless him. A 2020 when democracy series focused on a key final. He loved the film. Capturing the closeness as well as the tensions. We hooked up in los angeles several times. I kept telling him, we were brothers. We had arguments. We had fun. We were playing with each other. It is not all that dark. I wanted that to come through. It was a real band. After the breakup, each beetle went solo beatle went solo. Ringo had a string of hits. It did not come easy. You also talked about some of the difficulties. And lakehurst that have, i sat in the garden when we first split up, i sat in the garden. I did not know what to do. It was over. It was really over. I had a moment of reflection. I started to play with other artists. That is what he has continued to do. Along with a few other things, including acting. He met his wife while working on a movie. This new train schedule is balderdash. He played mr. Conductor on a childrens series. He marks his birthday every year with ap said love celebration a peace and love celebration. The music endures. Our audiences are bigger and younger than they were. That is really where. Weird. We will see. There is no guarantee. We Start Talking about that young boy back in liverpool. And here you are. I live in los angeles. It is weird. You are still going. I am still going. [laughter] peace and love in the music endures. On behalf of our entire team, thank you for joining us. Major funding has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. And friends of the newshour. Architect, beekeeper, mentor. A raymondjames Financial Advisor taylors advice to help you live your life. Actually, you do not need vision to do most things in life. That is the most rewarding thing. The ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change. And the ongoing support of these institutions. And friends of the newshour. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. Its to die for. Now you wont miss a thing. This is the way. The xfinity 10g network. Made for streaming. Hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. Heres whats coming up. The far right marches into the mainstream, from americas maga to sweden and italy and beyond. We look at whats driving this trend now. Also ahead when you educate yourself, wh