Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20170707

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influence on american music. >> he's one of the primary sonic architects of rock and roll. he helped establish this art form that we all know and love, and that really took over the world. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump faced dramatically different crowds as he made his way across europe today. his second overseas trip began in poland, before he moved on to hamburg, germany, the site of the g-20 summit. special correspondent ryan chilcote reports. >> reporter: president trump kicked off his second trip to europe by doing something he was criticized for not doing on his first: offering america's full commitment to the nato alliance. >> the united states has demonstrated not merely with words but with its actions that we stand firmly behind article 5, the mutual defense commitment. words are easy but actions are what matters. >> reporter: mr. trump was addressing a friendly crowd of some 15,000 in warsaw, poland, some of the spectators bused in by the country's center-right governing party. to the delight of poles concerned about russia, their neighbor to the east, he declared the west would triumph over its many adversaries. the fundamental question of our time is whether the west has the will to survive. i declare today for the world to hear that the west will never, ever be broken. our values will prevail, our people will thrive, and our civilization will triumph. >> reporter: the president, though, reiterated criticism of some nato allies in western europe for not committing more to defense spending mr. trump also offered his most forceful condemnation yet of russia, just a day before his meeting with president vladimir putin. >> we urge russia to cease its destabilizing activities in ukraine and elsewhere and its support for hostile regimes, including syria and iran, and to instead join the community of responsible nations in our fight >> reporter: hours earlier, at a press conference with poland's president, though, mr. trump skirted questions about russian meddling in the 2016 election. >> will you once and for all, yes or no, definitively say russia interfered with the 2016 election? >> well i think it was russia and i think it could've been other people and other countries. it could've been a lot of people interfered. nobody really knows, nobody really knows for sure. >> reporter: mr. trump also cast blame on former president barack obama. >> i think what happened is that he thought hillary clinton was going to win the election and he said let's not do anything about it. had he thought the other way, he would have done something about it. >> reporter: president trump then flew to hamburg, germany for the g-20 summit. there he met german chancellor angela merkel. the two have publicly tussled on a variety of issues including trade and climate change. all the while the "welcome to hell" protest, its actual title, was already under way, turning violent almost immediately. thousands of protesters clashed with police in riot gear who used water cannons to disperse crowds. others rushed demonstrators, tackling them to the ground. president trump's most important meeting, is of course, tomorrow. that will be his first ever meeting with the president of russia. judy? >> woodruff: ryan, you've covered the kremlin. how do you think mr. president will react to what president trump had to say today about russia's interference in last year's election? >> well, look, i don't think mr. president wilpresident putie remarks. i think he will appreciate they were made here in poland and not alongside the president. they're well aware that president trump is optically challenged. it will be very difficult for him to say something pro russian at this point. they feel that, at this point, it would be very difficult for him to really achieve much when it comes to improving the russian-american relationship. they just don't want to see it get any worse. so i think they'll think that he was sort of speaking to the crowd, speaking to the parlor, if you will, and what really matters is what president trump tells them in that -- or tells president putin when it comes to polls yand namely what president putin is hoping is two things, that one, president trump will listen to some of the issues he's had when it comes to russia's conflict in ukraine, and secondly president putin will be hoping he can use what russia is doing in syria as a bridge to the united states, find common ground, encourage president trump to persue islamic state in syria together with syria. that is a lot of challenges but that has always been russia's hope that they can team up with the united states or at least lower the level, the temperature in the relationship by working together in syria. >> woodruff: ryan chilcote reporting from hamburg, thank you. >> thank you. we'll hear more about president trump's visit to poland and germany, after the news summary. in the day's other news, world powers are jousting over how to handle north korea's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. the president of china, pyongyang's closest ally, called for restraint. president trump says he still hopes beijing can help resolve the north korea tensions, but said the u.s. has a range of options. >> i don't like to talk about what i have planned. but i have some pretty severe things that we are thinking about. that does not mean we are going to do them. i don't draw red lines. it's a shame that they're behaving this way, but they are behaving in a very, very dangerous manner and something will have to be done about it. >> woodruff: meanwhile, there's word russia blocked the u.n. security council's approval of a statement strongly condemning the launch. the trump administration has renewed its offer to cooperate with russia over the syria conflict. in a statement last night, secretary of state rex tillerson said the u.s. is open to coordinating on no fly-zones in syria. later, state department spokeswoman heather nauert said the broader american strategy remains the same. >> if our two countries can establish stability on the ground, we believe that will lay a foundation for progress on the political settlement of syria's future. the policy has not changed, some of the words and phrasing may have changed at this point but overall it's just one of a series of options that the united states would consider. >> woodruff: for his part, russia's foreign minister, sergei lavrov, asked for more information on the proposal, but said cooperation is a "step in the right direction." a survey commissioned by the state department shows diplomats are frustrated and confused by the trump administration. the "wall street journal" first reported on the document, which was released to state department employees yesterday. it comes as the president seeks drastic cuts to diplomatic and development funding. the state department says the u.s. refugee admissions program won't be suspended until next week. after the supreme court upheld part of the trump administration's travel ban, re-settlement agencies were told to schedule refugee arrivals only through today. but they can now continue until july 12th, when refugee admissions are expected to hit their cap of 50,000. the government ethics director who's prodded the trump administration over conflicts of interest is resigning. walter shaub is stepping down months before his term was set to expire. in a statement on twitter, he said: "it has become clear to me that we need improvements to the existing ethics program." it follows the resignation of a top justice department official over ethics concerns. democratic attorneys general in 18 states and the district of columbia are suing education secretary betsy devos, over her delay of rules on for-profit colleges. the lawsuit demands the implementation of the rules created under the obama administration. they're meant to cancel the student-loan debt of people defrauded by the schools. the illinois house of representatives has voted to over-ride the governor's veto of a budget package. it means illinois will have its first annual spending plan since 2015, the longest state fiscal crisis since the great depression. lawmakers voted 71 to 42 to approve the $36 billion budget plan, which is funded with a $5 billion income tax increase. on wall street today, stocks had their biggest drop in more than six weeks, amid signs hiring has slowed. the dow jones industrial average lost 158 points to close at 21,320. the nasdaq fell 61 points, and the s&p 500 dropped almost 23 still to come on the newshour: a deeper look at europe's response to president trump. hobby lobby accused of illegally importing artifacts. a city in new york that sees refugees as a boon for economic development, and much more. >> woodruff: as we've heard, president trump has voiced, at times, contradictory views on the u.s.' relationship with its european allies and with russia. to parse out where things stand after the first full day of the president's trip abroad and the road ahead we turn to paula dobriansky. she was under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs during the george w. bush administration. she's now a senior fellow at harvard university and is in warsaw. and karen donfried was special assistant to the president and senior director for european affairs on the national security council during the obama administration. she's now the president of the german marshal fund in the u.s., an organization which seeks to straighten relations with europe. and we welcome both of you to the program. paula dobriansky, to you first in warsaw, overall, what would you say the message is from president trump that's come across to his european listeners? >> well, the primary message was that european security matters to us greatly, that towards that end that the forward deployment of our troops on the border matter greatly. they reassure not just the pols but the neighborhood and also the important of the alliance that article 5, our collective defense is crucial and to the end that alliances played an important role in the past and will in the future. combined with that, it was very clear that, related, the president also made it very clear that he was very concerned about russian aggression and the need to have a cessation of the violence and conflict in ukraine as well assyria. he talked about islamic radical terrorism, and then he also talked about energy security, which hasn't got an lot of attention and it's behind me here at the royal castle where he gave a speech before what's called the 3c summit, an initiative paid by the pols pols,croats and europe that spoke about the need of energy dependency, security and efficiency and the establishment of a agency in central europe. >> woodruff: what you thought about the trip. >> one thing was what a big boost this was to the current polish government. poland is an overwhelmingly pro american country and that's significant in the context of a european union that's critical of backsliding in poland. so looking to whether poland is staying true to rule of law and freedom of the press. so it was very important to the polish government. the speech had many elements of the traditional transatlantic speech, reaffirming the commitment of u.s. to the article 5, defense piece for the n.a.t.o. alliance and support of strong transatlantic relationship, but, wonder, you had a dark view of a clash of civilizations and in the opening scholarship, the president's comment about the west and our ability to stand up to this challenge, and i think some people are wondering how we in the u.s. under president trump are defining that west. >> woodruff: how do you respond to that, paula dobriansky? because it did raise, i think, questions in people's minds about what is this conflict as the president sees it? >> well, first, i think karen was right, the president did high light the importance over decades of the polish relationship with the united states and even cited the roles of such generals, so our relationship mattered greatly. i saw it in a broader context than karen expressed. i saw it as a bond. on the other issue, i saw and looked at the words he enunciated. he really spoke a great deal to freedom, to liberty, to captive nations, he referred to in his remarks. he did talk about the importance of values and even towards the end of the speech expressed how it's not just only about military might, but it is also about the will of the people and, towards that end, i did not see that as a dark. i saw that as underscoring the kind of values that we do hold very dearly. >> woodruff: so if he was stressing the common values, karen donfried, how then do you read what the president has said? because we know it was on his other trip to europe where he withheld a statement about so-called article 5, the mutual commitment to defense among the n.a.t.o. countries but this time he did. how do you square that? >> on the one hand, i don't think we would have been so focused on the more tradition diggsle aspects of the speech were it not to the earlier trip to europe for the n.a.t.o. leaders meeting where the president tid not affirm u.s. support for article 5, that's why it was significant. in the transatlantic context it was significant he didn't mention the european union because europe definds its relationship through n.a.t.o. and through this body that emphasizes cooperation among europeans. i was struck by the focus on values but actually searched the speech for the word "democracy" and it didn't appear and that was striking to me, and though he did talk about the imoshes of rule of law and freedom of press in the speech, when you looked at the press conference he gave with the president, he was asked about the issue of the press and expressed concern about fake news and the dishonest media. so it was a bit of a mixed message i thought around the principals. >> woodruff: we know the president's view of the press in the united states has been a subject of controversy and a lot of subject of discussion and debate recently. >> well, i think, in the speech, which was his primary platform, in my view, not the press conference but the primary platform where he had an opportunity not just to speak to poland but, as i mentioned, to the region at large and also to set the foundation for his meetings coming up in hamburg and particularly with president putin where he did underscore this importance of communism. he talked about it, about the freedoms that were deprived, the kind of oppression the region was under and how, in terms of the present time, this is a different period. this is a period where we do have to reaffirm these kinds of values, so i saw it in a broader strategic sense of setting a foundation that has applicability to a number of the issues that we've just mentioned, not just poland, the region at large, but also for russia. >> woodruff: karen donfried, just about 30 seconds here. how does this play into expectation for tomorrow's meeting between president trump and president putin? >> it's much more complicated for president trump when he is in germany for the gentlemen. in germany, the chancellor has a public not supportive of president trump's policies. she very much values the relationship with the u.s. so she wants to try to reach an agreement with president trump while also staying true to her principle stands on climate and trade, so it will become very challenging. the meeting with president putin will be something everyone will be watching and sounds he won't be raising the issue of russian meddling the u.s. elections. >> woodruff: he said yes it may have happened but it may not have, nobody knows for sure what was behind it. >> which was u.s. intelligence, i would say. >> woodruff: we thank you both. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: now to a major legal case involving the alleged smuggling of ancient religious artifacts. late yesterday, the department of justice said that the nationwide arts-and-crafts company hobby lobby illegally imported thousands of ancient relics from the middle east. william brangham has the story. >> brangham: the government's complaint against hobby-lobby involves the purchase and importation of 5,500 rare clay tablets and artifacts from israel and the u.a.e., antiquities that likely once came from iraq. prosecutors allege that hobby- lobby missed several red-flags indicating the purchase was highly suspicious. hobby lobby argued this was an innocent mistake caused by inexperience in an agreement with the justice department, the company must now turn over all the artifacts and pay three million dollars. hobby-lobby is a family-owned evangelical company. they were at the center of the 2014 supreme court case that ruled companies can't be forced to cover birth control for their employees, and they're also constructing a multi-million dollar bible museum in washington, d.c. that will open this fall. for more on this case, i'm joined now by deborah lehr. she's chairman of george washington university's capitol archaeological institute and founder of the antiquities coalition, which works to stop the looting of world cultures. welcome to the "newshour". can you tell me just the basics? you heard what i said about the overview of this case. what is the government alleging hobby lobby did wrong here? >> the government is alleging that they imported knowingly items from iraq and that they used falsified shipping labels and that they didn't get the appropriate import permits to be able to bring these a antiquitis into the country. >> brangham: what are the items we're talking about? >> things that are destined for their biblical museum, and they are clay tablets and cylinder seals and ancient items that were part of that time period in iraq. >> brangham: my understanding is the company says these were not destined for the museum, they said they were just part of their larger collection. but the government also argues there were all sorts of red flags that should have tipped off hobby lobby that this was not an appropriate purchase to make. can you tell us what were some of those red flags? >> absolutely. first, hobby lobby is a sophisticated importer and they know very well you have to designate the country of origin and the appropriate tariff line when bringing these into the country. this was not done. instead of being declared as antiquities, these were declared as clay tiles or samples. they were not noted that they were coming from iraq but, instead, they were coming from turkey, and it's no mistake that we have an agreement with iraq that if they were being brought in and declared coming from iraq, they would have to get an appropriate permit. yet, we don't have a similar type of agreement with turkey. they're also coming from a part of the world where conflict antiquities are being actually excavated by groups like daesh or i.s.i.s., and knowingly being exported and used as a means for funding terrorism. so there are quite a few red flags that they should have known, and at a minimum they should have done proper research, which they didn't do. they paid five individuals through seven different accounts and, as i said, then, shipped these in different packets, which might be understandable, but to several different locations in the united states and without the appropriate or accurate shipping records. >> brangham: now, the company agreed they're going to give back these items and willing to pay this $3 million to the government. the company argues that they are new to this business and that this was really sort of a rookie mistake, that inexperience is what caused these problems, not any intentional looking past these kerns you've raised. >> well, that's a very interesting argument for a group that has a business based largely on importing into the country and it's those two claims they are actually being fined for. we can understand potentially they may not be sophisticated about the specifics of what importing antiquities from iraq are involved, but they are building a museum where they are importing and collecting historic items from around the world, so we hope that there are not other rookie mistakes they have made within their bible museum and the antiquities that are there. >> brangham: hobby lobby is certainly not the first organization or institution to trip this particular wiemplet major cultural institutions in the united states in the past have had similar problems. it's not an uncommon problem. >> well, it's not an uncommon problem, but we haven't seen a find quite this large, and that it's very hard to bring about these kinds of cases, though we commend the united states government and i.c.e. for the seizures they're making but the trade in antiquities is a global problem and we're seeing it on the increase as we see conflict in the middle east where there are millions of sites still yet to be excavated. it's very much just an endless, almost excavation that's out there for thieves to take advantage of. >> brangham: they're building this enormous museum and some of hobby lobby's 40,000 other items apparently are testenned to go into this museum, and other experts in antiquities have raised concerns about the speed at which some of those items were gathered. have you heard those same concerns? >> yes, we've heard those same concerns and one hopes they have actually tone the type of research that they should be doing to ensure these are not part of the illicit trade. they actually had consulted one of the leading cultural heritage lawyers in the case of specific imports coming of these 5,000 items who recommended they do a lot more additional research, so they actually ignored the warning they received from their own attorney. >> brangham: debra messing of the an -- debra lehr of the antiquity's coalition. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, the trump administration has set a lower refugee limit for the u.s. for this fiscal year. in the coming week, the u.s. will hit that ceiling of accepting 50,000 new refugees. the city of utica, new york has long taken a more welcoming approach. one out of every four citizens there is a refugee and the evidence is they're helping revitalize the community. economics correspondent paul solman has our update, part of his weekly series, making sense. >> reporter: post-industrial utica, new york, upstate, downtrodden, and, in the heart of downtown, where the united methodist church used to be, a thriving mosque. in the world beyond utica, the tide of refugees rises, the fear of foreigners swells. muslim terrorists, real and imagined, haunt us. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> reporter: president trump's calls for even a partial muslim ban were repeatedly rebuffed in court, but the supreme court has now let some of it stand until it considers the ban's legality this fall. but when we asked utica mayor robert palmieri if the city would be willing to resettle syrian refugees? >> i would say, absolutely, we would be, because utica starts with you. it's as simple as that. >> reporter: there's the humanitarian aspect, of course, america's historic promise to extend a hand to huddled masses yearning to breathe free. but utica likes the economics. >> they're willing to work and they work extremely hard. it's the rebound for our great city. >> reporter: refugee resettlement as an economic development tool, a rust belt revival strategy utica has pioneered. after decades of decline-- the city lost a third of its population when its factories closed-- utica is growing again, back up to 62,000 people, thanks in part to its reputation as" the town that loves refugees," who now make up one out of every four residents. thousands are muslims from bosnia, refugees of the war there in the 1990s. >> basically, we left everything what we have at that time and start from zero again. >> reporter: sakib duracak, who trained in bosnia as a construction engineer, started a small business in utica rehabbing cheap, often crumbling, houses for refugees looking to build a new life. >> a huge opportunity, because, at the time when we came in utica, it's a relatively very dead and poor city. >> reporter: bosnians have visibly spruced up utica's east side and beyond. but there's an even more basic reason to welcome refugees to a town like utica. >> to have an economy, you have to have workers, and you have to have consumers. >> reporter: professor ellen kraly teaches demography at nearby colgate university. >> the influx of refugees to utica allowed us to retain some smaller industries that were looking for highly motivated labor. >> reporter: and if past suffering helps fuel motivation, tha da paw has plenty to spare. >> i work very hard because i want to live american life. >> reporter: an ethnic karen, a persecuted minority in burma, she spent 23 years starting at age four in refugee camps in thailand. when she was 14: >> burmese army, they just shoot our refugee camp and make it burn. my sister's best friend, she burn alive. >> reporter: a week later, her 17-year-old sister committed suicide. >> i think she tired of life. whole, our life, we have to run, run, run, run for safety. >> reporter: paw came to utica nine years ago, worked as a nursing home aide and housekeeper while studying english, then as a medical interpreter. four years ago, she joined the direct sales firm mary kay cosmetics. within months, she'd worked her way up to the coveted pink cadillac. >> i travel in albany, buffalo. it's really hard, but now i love to live here. >> reporter: ok, so we get why refugees for utica, but why utica for refugees? >> utica was close to syracuse, and tom cruise is from syracuse, so i thought i was going to see tom cruise. >> reporter: sadly, for bosnian refugee ibrahim rosic, no cruise, happily, the mohawk valley resource center. >> we receive $1,125 federal to be spent on behalf of each arriving refugee. >> reporter: with those dollars, says executive director shelly callahan, the refugee center rents an apartment, furnishes it, gets the utilities turned on, and starts teaching the basics. >> so, it's how to lock your door, how to work the stove, the thermostat, the plumbing. >> reporter: there are also english lessons. >> is somebody sitting to the left of you? >> left? >> yes. >> right? >> left, right. >> you have got to shop around. >> reporter: introductions to strange new foods. >> celery. we're going to make celery and kale. >> reporter: and for those who can drive, the all-important class in parking tickets, a veritable auditorium of babel. but within a few months, they're on their own. >> they actually come here owing their airfare back to the federal government. so, they are expected to get a job as soon as possible. >> reporter: although there are no hard statistics on how many refugees do or don't find jobs after their aid ends, some qualify for public assistance. ibrahim rosic was literally torn apart in the bosnian conflict. >> in 1994 i stepped on a landmine. i lost my left leg, and my right leg was severely damaged. i have no knee. i can't bend it. >> reporter: he is officially 100 percent disabled, but, says the former engineer: >> i work two jobs. i work full-time as a director at mohawk valley community college, and i also work as an adjunct instructor at suny poly. i am not a burden on the community. i am not a burden on social services. yes, community helped me to get this, but now it's my time to pay back. and i would say most refugees do the same. >> reporter: so, are refugees the economic boon that motivated immigrants famously have been? yes, says economist jeffrey sachs, but there are negatives. >> some workers face increased job competition and their wages can be driven down. if lower-skilled immigrants come, then lower-skilled american workers may see a decline in their wages, whereas business owners may see more workers at lower cost for them. >> reporter: and what if, as many americans fear, even just a few are terrorists? shelly callahan's response? this isn't europe. >> refugees are the most intensively screened immigrants really to come to this country, about two years of intense scrutiny by the department of homeland security, the f.b.i., ice, department of state. there's d.n.a. testing involved. >> for those people who is proven as bad people, we don't want them here. >> reporter: the al saad family, palestinians who for decades lived in baghdad, fled during the troop surge of 2007, the deadliest year of the iraq war. >> i got kidnapped there by, i don't know, some militia. >> one of my other brothers, too. >> my other brother. >> they beat him up. >> he got beat up. i lost many friends of mine. >> reporter: they spent three years in a camp on the syrian border, before being cleared for transit to the united states. yousif al saad went to work at the chobani yogurt plant outside utica, whose c.e.o., hamdi ulukaya, has championed the rights of refugees and hired hundreds of them. we were supposed to tape there, but at the last minute, chobani pulled out, citing security concerns, fear for the safety of employees in the current political environment. understandably, as right wing media had targeted a chobani plant in twin falls, idaho, where some 30% of the workers are refugees. >> so let's look at the headlines. >> reporter: according to conspiracy theorist alex jones, citing breitbart... >> t.b. spiked 500% in twin falls during 2012 as chobani yogurt opened the plant. idaho refugee boys admit to sexually assaulting five-year- old. okay. twin falls refugee rape special report: why are refugees moving in? oh, the chobani plant. >> reporter: but the sexual assault by minors is shrouded in secrecy, and the t.b. case spike was from one positive test to six, in a nearly 12,000 square mile area that included twin falls, none of the cases contagious, none involving chobani employees. >> this isn't some game people. there's a total islamic takeover taking place. behind the scenes they got muslims following me around. >> reporter: so in april, the company sued jones for false and defamatory reports. >> and i'm ready to take them on christ please help us win this, please help me be strong. >> reporter: the following month, jones issued an apology and a retraction. >> on behalf of infowars i regret that we mischaracterized chobani, its employees and the people of twin falls, idaho the way we did. >> reporter: two final follow- ups: unemployment in twin falls has dropped from 7% to 3% since chobani came to town in 2012. >> please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. >> reporter: and the trump administration is seeking to cut the number of refugees allowed annually into the u.s., from 110,000 to 50,000. >> with liberty and justice for all. >> let's have a round of applause for our new citizens. (applause) >> reporter: last february in utica, yousif al saad joined 29 others, from 15 different countries in becoming a u.s. citizen. >> congratulations. your new flag. >> reporter: almost all were refugees. we leave the last word to judge david peebles. >> america is now your country. i cannot overemphasize the need now, more than ever, for you and your fellow citizens to unite, answer the call and assist in bettering our society and our world. congratulations on becoming a citizen of the greatest nation on earth. god bless all of you and god bless america. (applause) >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman. >> woodruff: the tech sector, and especially the start-up culture in silicon valley, has long been criticized for its record on diversity, gender and inclusion. now, a series of exposes and resignations have shone a spotlight not just on the tech companies themselves, but on the investors and funders in the valley. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the scrutiny has intensified in recent weeks after two publications, "the information" and the "new york times," documented how prominent venture capitalists had been accused of making unwanted sexual advances through texts, phone calls and physical intimidation. these powerful investors used their power to harass dozens of women in whose companies they might invest. it led to the resignation of dave mcclure, who was the c.e.o. of tech incubator, 500 startups. mcclure apologized after he was accused of harassment by other women and wrote to a prospective employee, "i was getting confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you." freada kapor klein is an entrepreneur and leading voice pushing companies to increase culture and diversity. her firm, kapor capital, was a limited partner in 500 startups. she joins me now from oakland. so, freada, you have been working on this for decades, why are those two stories in the past couple of weeks resonating? >> well, i think, finally, silicon valley is willing to look at itself and to recognize it may be on the leading edge of investing in tech. it's certainly on the trailing edge of dealing with its own ecosystem, diversity and inclusion in particular. venture capital is now looking at behaviors that it's engaging in that were addressed on wall street more than 20 years ago. >> sreenivasan: there aren't exactly any stats on this but a but how pervasive is it? you've started projects to include women and people of color to try to foster change in the pipeline and it's important to point out that this isn't just about gender, this is also about race and sexual orientation sometimes. >> exactly, and i think a term that's a bit bulky but a very important concept, what we see is intersection that, meaning we can have multiple identities. it's important to point out that the women who told their stories to the information about binary capital and the women who came forward against dave mcclure in the "new york times," all of those were women of color, and talking about unwelcome advances from caucasian men. so we need to look at that racial dynamic as it's layered in with the gender dynamic. and you're absolutely right, it's an abuse of power. >> sreenivasan: one of the interesting things people point out about uber is there were so many different scandals where nothing happened to the c.e.o. until his big investors signed a letter and asked him to step down. seems that money talks much louder here. >> unfortunately, money does talk much louder. i think we've hit an era in venture capital where greed is everything and it, again, mimics wall street in the 1990s where greed is good was a commonplace statement and, in fact, in a commencement speech. i think now we have to look at is the only thing that matters dollars? is it the dollars that get invested in the entrepreneur? is it the "unicorn" status maning the bill-dollar evaluation of a startup? and when are we going to expand the ledger sheet to include how people are treated, to include how venture capital and startups behave as citizens of the community and country. >> sreenivasan: how do you change wanting to get rich quick and funding the right startup to make billions of dollars and enabling a culture that's all about profits? >> well, i think that's right, and i think there are several groups that are going to need to join forces to make that change. the venture capital community itself has to say, wait a second, we aren't with the bottom of the bottom here, and we need to work to clean up our own industry. but we also need to see the limited partners who invest in these venture funds need to start doing different kinds of due diligence, different kinds of demands about diversity and inclusion in the venture capital firm itself, in the companies that are funded and the values of the startups that are created. so the limited partners can create a lot of change. the entrepreneurs themselves, one of the things we need to point out is that venture capital as currently constructed is leaving billions of dollars on the table because they're overlooking underrepresented entrepreneurs who have great ideas and who can serve real communities' real needs. >> sreenivasan: freada kapor klein joining us from oakland. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: chuck berry was a pioneer and often referred to as the father of rock 'n roll who influenced a generation of musicians. and now, three months after his death at age 90, he's back, in a way. jeffrey brown explains. ♪ ♪ >> brown: you know it when you hear it: beginning in the mid-1950s chuck berry helped define the sound and look. the attitude and raw power of rock n' roll. the man is now gone, but his music lives on, in a new album, titled "chuck," berry's first album since 1979. he'd worked on the project off and on for several decades, and on his 90th birthday, five months before his death, had announced its imminent release. alright, so here's one of his cadillacs. >> yes. >> brown: i was joined recently by the star's son charles and grandson charlie, for some personal memories of the man and his music. >> this was a guy when he was a little boy he sold vegetables off a cart with his father. this is a man that worked at a general motors plant, not assembling the cars, but as a janitor. he heard from other people the significance that he brought to the table, but he didn't really dwell on that. >> i remember in elementary school i'd have teachers coming up to me like, "who's your grandfather?" i'd be like, "pawpaw." they were like, "that's so cool." >> brown: did you have any idea who your grandfather was in history? >> i always knew he played the guitar but i didn't think he was this bigger than life person to everybody else because he was just pawpaw. >> brown: oh, boy, did he play the guitar, huh? >> oh, yes. >> brown: in fact, both charles and charlie play the guitar and had the chance to play with chuck, charles as part of the band for many years. ♪ ♪ since chuck's death they've played on, here just recently promoting the new album on the tonight show. the album charts chuck berry's life in stages, an autobiographical epitaph of sorts. in "big boys," he returns to his childhood with the ambitions of a teenager. while "the eyes of man" describes the wisdom of women in his life. >> it's almost to the point that he was being philosophical over his life and letting everybody else know, "hey, from a wonderful woman to a big boy to an eye of a man, here's my book. here's the next chapter of my life that you get to have, and i hope you enjoy it." my favorite song with chuck is all of 'em. (laughter) >> brown: his influence sef where in rock his influence is everywhere in rock music. ♪ ♪ the initial cultural jolt was jokingly portrayed in the 1985 hit movie, "back to the future"" and honored nine years later i"" pulp fiction." >> rock and roll has such a firm place in our cultural memory. >> brown: kevin strait is a musical historian and curator at the museum. >> he's one of the primary sonic architects of rock and roll. he helped establish this art form that we all know and love, and that really took over the world. its helm really was this young musician from st. louis. he really helped to establish the template for how rock and roll should sound. he's a phenomenal guitar player, phenomenal showman. >> brown: strait acquired objects from berry for the museum's "musical crossroads" collection, including this prized guitar. >> it's a gibson es-350t, and it's one of his early touring and recording guitars that he used, and it's nicknamed maybellene after his first hit. >> brown: yeah, quite a first hit. >> brown: and that red 1973 cadillac eldorado? berry drove it on stage in 1986 for his 60th birthday and the filming of the documentary "hail hail rock n roll". that was at the fox theater in st. louis, which had denied him entry as a child because he was black. >> and my forefathers a few blocks away were sold on the civil courthouse steps, sold, and that's a big change. >> it was difficult, absolutely, but as opposed to, "man, these white people are just, they're playing me. my god, i can't," nope. my dad took it as, "oh, so you're telling me i can't go in the front of this venue to play in front of this crowd. okay, i'm going to keep writing my music. they're going to change. i'm going to make it. i'm going to make a scenario where the people that are listening to my music are having such a blast that skin color becomes irrelevant. >> brown: how do you see what your grandfather, what he went through and what he achieved? >> that you could go from selling out a packed house to then being told you can't stay in this hotel room. that would have probably left me pretty bitter throughout the rest of my life. i don't know because what he's done with his music and everything, it's just that much more amazing because he was able to do it during that time. >> brown: a pioneering life that had dramatic ups and downs, for sure. now "chuck" the album adds new music to what was already an enormous legacy. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in washington. >> woodruff: now to another in our brief but spectacular series, where we ask people to tonight, we hear from georgina kleege. she's a lecturer in the english department at the university of california, berkeley. her forthcoming book is "more than meets the eye: what blindness brings to art." >> it's a common experience for people with disabilities to feel that they are being stared at or to notice they are being stared at. and in fact blind people can feel that, too, a kind of collective intake of breath even if nobody says anything, you can tell when you attract attention. i am legally blind, i became legally blind, i was diagnosed when i was 11. i probably lost my vision gradually over a few years, i remember feeling that i wasn't supposed to feel anything about it, because there wasn't anything anybody could do. my complicated relationship with helen keller came from childhood. she was held up as this role model that she was deaf and blind, but she was always cheerful and she did well in school and you never heard her complain. i took this very personally, i took this as a reproach towards me. so i hated helen keller and i loved helen keller jokes and i told them with relish in the schoolyard. i started to wonder if i had been unfair to helen keller when i was a child. i ended up writing a book about her, which is a series of letters by me, to her, she doesn't write back because she's dead. it's basically me asking questions about different moments in her life and calling her out and asking her to explain herself, so it was a way for me to enter her life imaginatively. i tell my students all the time that they should tell their friends not to text while walking because i am always bumping into people who are texting while walking. they are making themselves a hazard to blind people, because i am counting on all the other pedestrians to pay attention, to see me coming and to get out of my way, i think there is still discrimination in all sorts of arenas. there's problems with access to websites and electronic media and so on and so forth, captioning, audio description, the technology exists, people know how to do this, but it's not as if everything is made accessible, even if it could be the problem is that people's understanding of blindness is very limited, that they may get there's the sort of joke scenario of a blind person coming to an intersection and somebody grabbing their arm and leading them across the street when in fact they wanted to go in a different direction. that's never happened to me and that's because i think i tend to look like i know where i'm going. >> i would agree with that. >> my name is georgina kleege and this is my brief but spectacular take on blindness. >> woodruff: you can watch additional brief but spectacular episodes on our website, pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with david brooks and ruth marcus. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this season of "martha stewart's cooking school" explores treasured recipes from an extraordinary part of the world -- the arabian gulf. join me in my kitchen as i celebrate its regional ingredients. we'll make rustic breads, mouthwatering desserts, and hearty stews with spices made famous by historic trade routes, learn new culinary techniques and creative tips for serving arabian gulf classics, from preparing small bites to showstopping dishes fit for any festive occasion. with its bold flavors and strong traditions, i've been inspired to get into the kitchen and add what i like to call a good thing to an already delicious cuisine. enjoy. "martha stewart's cooking school" is made possible by... ♪ announcer: al jazeera.

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