Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20170819 : comparemela.com

Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20170819



>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: two major stories tonight: the fall of steve bannon, and the fallout in barcelona. we begin with the news that bannon's tenure as white house chief strategist is over. it came three days after president trump praised him, but left his fate in doubt. >> i like mr. bannon. he's a friend of mine. but mr. bannon came on very late. you know that. and i like him, he's a good man. he is not a racist, i can tell you that. he's a good person. he actually gets very unfair press in that regard. but we'll see what happens with mr. bannon. but he's a good person, and i think the press treats him, frankly, very unfairly. >> sreenivasan: joining me now to discuss the ouster of president trump's chief strategist, is robert costa, national political reporter with the "washington post" and host of "washington week." what happened? >> this was a long, simmering problem inside of the white house, at least according to my sources there. bannon was someone who came in, like president trump, answer outsider, and working in the federal government inside the confines of the west wing just was never a fit for this populist, nationalist hard liner who wanted to disrupt the entire system. >> sreenivasan: in the last four weeks, how many different factions of influence have disappeared? >> one of the main reasons bannon is departing the white house tonight is because of general kelly the new chief of staff. he's tried to implement a new system of order, making sure people like bannon at the senior level in the white house are not outside their lanes. >> sreenivasan: seems like there are people who leave the white house but still retain some influence with president trump. what happens after he leaves? >> you asked about the factions within the white house, the jared kushner the more moderate side, the bannon, the hard core nationalist wing. they will continue their fights outside of the white house. bannon's been talking to robert mercer about starting a new media venture and bannon is furious, i'm told by his friends today, because he thinks he represents the trump base, the spirit of what the trump exainl was and he thinks general kelly, even though he respects general kelly, jared kushner and others are bringing the president in the wrong direction. >> sreenivasan: when you see the alt-right and conservatives, they use #war, that this is on now. is president trump now going to be basically seeing enemy fire from the far right and the left? >> so far, many bannon associates are trying to separate their support of president trump from their dislike of the moderates inside the white house. this is a fear in the trump base that, because gary cohen, national economic director, former director of goldman sachs is dam, jared kushner who is a former democrat, and these different voices are around the president who aren't breitbart readers, aren't people from the conservative movement that maybe the president will go in a more centrist direction, that alarms the bannon crowd. >> sreenivasan: did he feel like he wasn't having mus enough influence? a lot of people look at at the vents after shaforts and say that's steve bannon's influence on president trump. >> it wasn't about bannon's influence on president trump. president trump's always governed and led on his own instincts. bannon was an echo of trump's -- instincts. he was with president trump in spirit, that's why he remains so long etch as others fell away. >> sreenivasan: what about the the point of view bannon represents? doesn't mean he's -- just because he's gone doesn't mean the white house is clear of it. >> president trump remains there, a bannon style republican, and steve miller writing the speeches for president trump, so that element remains, but john kelly, a 45-year marine, he's a non-ideological figure. so bannon's grip on the ideology of the trump administration may fade away as he goes away. >> sreenivasan: whose idea was it? we've seen reports the registration was henned handed in about two weeks ago? >> bannon's known he's been on thin ice for a long time. the decision came down to president trump. a lot of people close to president trump said bannon took too many away from president trump when it came to the campaign last year. at least lot of talk that he's frustrated bannon's profile got too high. >> sreenivasan: this and more on "washington week" tonight. what else? >> we'll start with the bannon discussion but i want to dive in to charlottesville and race in america. >> sreenivasan: "washington week" on most pbs stations right after this. thanks, robert. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: now, to the terror in spain. as of tonight, there are 14 dead, including one american, after thursday's attacks on barcelona and a coastal town. both attacks were claimed by the islamic state group. jack parrock is in barcelona, and filed this report. >> reporter: a minute of silence. then, a chant of defiance: "i am not afraid" in catalan. spain's king and prime minister joined thousands of mourners at barcelona's plaza de catalunya. the historic pedestrian boulevard "las ramblas" was strewn with flowers and signs in memory of the victims. yesterday, it was a scene of carnage, after a van plowed through the tourist-packed promenade, leaving 13 dead and more than 100 injured. cell phone video captured crowds running, and the van, abandoned at the end of its rampage. >> i heard this crashing noise, i heard screams and i turned around and looked, and it just looked like avalanche of hundreds of people starting to run. so, instinctively i started to run. >> reporter: early this morning, a second attack, in the resort town of cambrils, some 60 miles outside barcelona. a car drove through a security checkpoint and into a crowd of pedestrians, killing one woman and injuring several others. five men with knives and what appeared to be suicide belts jumped from the car. all were shot dead by police, in a gun battle captured by club-goers at a nearby bar. spanish media reported one of the five was the driver of the van in the first attack. the explosive belts turned out to be fakes-- a ploy used by terrorists in another van attack that killed eight people on london bridge in june. four other suspects have now been arrested in the barcelona attack: three moroccans and a spanish national. none were on the radar of authorities, but one was a man injured in an explosion a day earlier in the nearby town of alcanar. >> ( translated ): we are working under the belief-- belief that this attack or attacks had been prepared for a while at that house in alcanar by a group, the size of which is yet to be determined, and they had been preparing one or several attacks in barcelona. >> reporter: in barcelona, locals and tourists alike are trying to come to grips with a new reality, as the latest european city to be struck by a terrorist behind the wheel of a vehicle. the mood today was mostly calm, but somber. >> every city, big city is attacked now. it's hard for me to be here. it wasreally terrifying. me and my girlfriend are really scared to be here, but i don't think it's going to stop me from being here. >> there's police, obviously, everywhere. it's comforting in a way. you feel safe walking down the street. i think it's amazing how many people there actually are today. i thought everyone would be scared and ramblas would be closed. >> reporter: and, prime minister mariano rajoy agreed terrorism is now the main problem facing europe. >> ( translated ): this is what is concerning people the most in europe today, and this is justified in the wake of the attacks we have witnessed in cities around us like paris, nice, london, berlin, in sweden. >> reporter: it's all calm here on the plaza catalunya now, but when there were demonstrations earlier of far-right protesters flared up against anti-fascist demonstrators, people were running for their lives and there was real terror in their eyes. >> sreenivasan: in the day's other news, violence erupted in finland, when a man stabbed two people to death and wounded six others. it happened in the western city of turku, about 95 miles outside helsinki, the finnish capital. the attacker was shot in the leg and captured. there was no word on his identity, and police said it's too early to know if the attack is linked to international terrorism. in virginia today, another funeral in the wake of the charlottesville violence. state trooper berke bates and a second officer died in a helicopter crash last saturday, after monitoring a white- nationalist rally. bates' funeral was held in richmond, where the governor and other speakers remembered him as a devoted family man and proud officer. separately, the mother of heather heyer insisted she will not speak with president trump. her daughter was killed saturday when a car rammed counter- protesters. >> i saw an actual clip of him at a press conference, equating the protesters like ms. heyer with the k.k.k. and the white supremacists. you can't wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying, "i'm sorry." >> sreenivasan: meanwhile, charlottesville mayor mike signer urged state lawmakers to allow removal of the robert e. lee statue that sparked saturday's rally. and before dawn today, officials in maryland removed the statue of former u.s. supreme court chief justice roger taney from the state house grounds. in 1857, he authored the "dred scott" decision that upheld slavery. the c.e.o. of 21st century fox, james murdoch, today criticized president trump's comments on charlottesville. in an email to friends, he said: "standing up to nazis is essential; there are no good nazis." he also pledged $1 million for the anti-defamation league. murdoch's company is parent to fox news channel. president trump convened his national security team today, to focus on a new strategy in afghanistan. mr. trump flew from bedminster, new jersey to hagerstown, maryland, and traveled to camp david for the afternoon gathering. and, the pentagon announced joint military exercises with south korea will begin monday, amid sharply higher tensions with north korea. in sierra leone, authorities now say the toll from monday's mudslide disaster is approaching 450 dead. flooding that triggered the slide continues, after heavy rain. meanwhile, survivors are burying the victims in hurriedly dug mass graves, and they're struggling with daily life. >> ( translated ): i cannot locate the house where we used to live, more than just pointing in that area. since we came here, even to have water is a problem. to wash my baby, i had to beg a neighbor for water, and they even had to give me clothes to dress him. >> sreenivasan: some residents are evacuating the region, fearing another mudslide. venezuela's political crisis took a dramatic new turn today. the newly installed pro-government assembly voted to give itself full authority to pass laws and override the opposition-led congress. opposition lawmakers charged it moves president nicolas maduro one step closer to dictator status. the u.s. navy is dismissing sailors on a destroyer involved in a fatal collision off japan. seven american sailors died when the u.s.s. "fitzgerald" was struck by a commercial container ship in june. a navy statement blames poor seamanship and flaws in keeping watch. the destroyer's captain and two other top officers will be removed, and more than a dozen others will also be punished. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 76 points to close at 21,674. the nasdaq fell five points, and the s&p 500 slipped four. still to come on the newshour: boston on alert for protests and counter-protests this weekend in the wake of charlottesville. e.j. dionne and ramesh ponnuru analyze political fallout from one of the most fraught weeks of the trump presidency. a refugee giving back in the country he fled to. and, much more. >> sreenivasan: echoes of last >> sreenivasan: and now to the analysis of "washington post" columnist e.j. dionne-- he's also co-author of the upcoming book "one nation after trump"-- and "national review" senior editor ramesh ponnuru. mark shields and david brooks are away. let's start with the big news first. your reactions to the ouster of steve bannon. >> well, it's been rumored to be happening for several weeks now and i think this is just another example of the volatility and turnover in this administration, much of it based on petty jealousy and resentment of people who are getting in president trump's view too much press. >> sreenivasan: e.j.? i think that's all true. i also think it's the case a lot of this talk about trump as populist was always phoney, that bannon was the one guy in there on economic issues represent add kind of populism and is being pushed out. i think means that the trump administration becomes much more of a corporate republican place. he was also obviously radioactive on racial questions because of the alt-right breitbart's, the history of ethnonationallism. so i think the two forms came together to force him out of there. >> sreenivasan: does this change anything about the white house? we've already had reports tonight he's headed back to breitbart, there could be a way where he ends up forcing more change in the white house from the outside than the inside. >> one of the interesting things, although e.j. was talking about the corporate republican party, the corporate side to have white house doesn't have much institutional presence. trump is a fairly recent republican himself, reince priebus the former chief of staff who had been chairman of the r.n.c. was pushed out. one of the really interesting thing here is how many new york democrats are now influential in this administration. where it goes from now, it all depends on trump, all of this, you know, we all obsess in washington too much about the personnel. he's the person who sets the tone. he's the the person who sets the policies. >> ramesh has come up with a brilliant republican strategy, blame the democrats for donald trump. (laughter) i think you will see some change change but not a lot. if you want to change the trump administration, you have to change the guy at the top and that's not happening anytime soon. but again, i do think where you will see some movement is on this economic side where i suspect, for example, this is a victory for china because bannon was the hawk on china trade, and as he said in that interview with bob cutner and, by the way, a trump administration official will never again give an interview to a liberal columnist, is that he was fighting gary cohen, the chief economic advisor, great victory for him, he was fighting the treasury department and i think that's an area you will see change and i think, by the way, it's also a victory for john kelly who wanted time pose order and bannon was clearly a threat to order in the white house. >> sreenivasan: let's talk about the reactions to charlottesville. they have been coming from all over. it sparked another national conversation. when you look at the magazine covers -- the "new yorker," "time," and even "the economist "-- they are covers about president trump's reaction to this, not necessarily the entire conversation. we just put those up on screen. if you were design ago cover today, your thoughts. >> look, i think my cover would be the incredible shrinking presidency, that the white house i smaller than it used to be. for decades people right, left, center complained the presidency is too powerful. this administration is shrinking the presidency. this president has less and less influence over congress. this president is not fulfilling the usual role of president and being the moral leader and spokesman for the country. he's just not being looked to for leadership. >> speaking of leadership, we have a rare occasion where the military leadership in unison on their private social accounts say, you know, we stand for tolerance and not for racism. you've got entire swaths of c.e.o.s on his different economic and business counsel abandoning him completely. how isolated is the president? >> i think on sort of this moral equivalence about the k.k.k. and neo-nazis and those opposed to him he really is isolated but i think you're seeing different behavior at different sectors. the u.s. military has probably done a better job at any other american institution at integrating itself, racially at guaranteeing equal opportunity. the american military was not going to let the president's statement get in the way of that, they needed to send a message. c.e.o.s appeal to a very broad audience. the companies sell their products to all americans. they were not going to alienate african-americans and asians, people of color of all kinds, as well as people who were white who really hated what president trump said. the republicans on the other hand have a very different audience they're thinking about. they're thinking about their primary electorate and with some exceptions and a notable one this week with senator corker who really went after donald trump, they are still too worried about losing primaries to take him on. on the one side you had the military and c.e.o.s responding forcefully, on the other hand you had republicans very reluctant to take on president trump. >> one thing i think president trump has been sh rude about is seeings on the issues of the confederate statutes and memorials. all polling suggests robert e. lee is more popular than donald trump is now. >> you and i might be more popular than donald trump. >> he's in a stronger position defending the statutes than defending the neo-nazis and k.k.k. >> it's interesting you raise that. i think the cause of keeping the statutes up suffered a huge blow this week. there is now more support for taking the statutes down. the mayor of baltimore arranged at nighttime to have them take auld ones in baltimore taken down, and i think many more people now realize that those statutes aren't about the civil war past, they were put up for political reasons to support jim crow, and, so -- >> look, i think, in the long run that's right, but i think the short-term politics of this do work for president trump, and they work for the neo-nazis. there is a reason why they chose tissue. they chose an issue that would have a wider appeal than they themselves normally would. >> sreenivasan: let me interrupt here. even if you succeeded in taking every statue and putting it into a museum, right -- i mean, we had a black nationalist and a white secessionist signature next to each other on the program and said we had the flag issue settled years ago. do statutes paper over deeper issues of race and class that are still unaddressed? >> if you're asking does taking down a statue solve deep inequalities in the country, of course that won't happen, and we need much more fundamental action on both the issues of race and class and equality. on the other hand, symbols matter and teach and represent how we think about our past an our future and, so, i agree, i don't want politics to be all about symbols, i want politics to be about action, but i think the debate we're having around these symbols can sometimes propel action in the right direction. >> sreenivasan: speak of action, what are the republicans doing? right now seems like think are good at marking out, here's my tweet, i'm not a racist, it's on trorksd i said it this day. this is also recess. when they come back, is there action they can take to show the country this is what i support? >> i think you're more likely to see the republicans start morgue and more to ignore president trump. i think they've realized -- it's taken a while but a lot have realized there isn't going to be a change, he is who he is, there growing in office and they have to deal with that. i don't think they've come together to figure out how exactly they move forward but i think they are at least beginning to get a grip on the problem. >> i think they could send a powerful signal by passing the civivoting rights act that was gutted in the supreme court. this was talk among leading republicans that they were going to restore the voting rights act. i think they could stop the voting suppression efforts and challenge the commission which was more about voter suppression than voter fraud. i think there is concrete steps to take if they want to put policy behind the claims. i w welcome the fact they're against the k.k.k. and nazis but they ned kneed to do morehouse steve bannon when in the white house said the left in its frenzy to talk about identity politics and race is great, a winning strategy for us because we'll talk about economic nationalism. >> and i think if -- and i think that he is trying to encourage and trump is trying to encourage the left to split on this, that you're either about identity politics or you're about economics. the fact is if you look at the broad, progressive movement since the 1960s, progressives have always been committed to equal rights for people of color. they can't and shouldn't back away from that. at the same time they have been committed to greater economic equality and we've had a long period of growing economic inequality and i think on the progressive side you have to pursue both agendas simultaneously. you can't just cast one against the other, but i think that's very much what trump and the republicans would like to have happen. >> he's not wrong, steve bannon suggesting the democrats could overreach on some of the symbolic questions. the problem is with the other side of the equation. this administration is not going to be able to move toward working class agenda on economics mostly because it's underdeveloped. they don't really have much of a covens what they want to do for working class people. their protectionism is only going to take them so far and something that divides the administration internally. >> and i think underscores what ramesh said is that the republicans did not know what to do about healthcare. their failure on healthcare reflects the fact they weren't willing to take steps to help working class people get healthcare, they cut away health coverage and proved to be unpopular among their own base. >> sreenivasan: does this conversation derail the agenda still on the docket when they come back? >> people talk about the republican agenda, why is it having so much trouble getting through the obstacles and the basic problem is there is no agenda. there is no consensus in the republican party on what the basic outlines of the policies ought to look like. they are in favor of tax reform, as long as you just call it tax reform. when you actually spell out what it's going to involve piece by piece, they are nowhere near where they need to be to pass something. >> sreenivasan: thank you both. >> delight to be with you, thanks. >> thanks. >> sreenivasan: echoes of last weekend's protests in charlottesville, virginia continued to reverberate today. counter-protesters took to the streets in durham, north carolina, even before a rumored white supremacist march got underway there. and in boston, police and city officials are preparing the city for a self-titled "free speech" demonstration slated for tomorrow. john yang takes it from here. >> yang: thanks, hari. to talk about how boston authorities plan to deal with tomorrow's rally, i'm joined from boston by phillip martin, a senior investigative reporter at pbs station wgbh. phillip, thanks for joining us. first of all, help us understand this, is there any connection between the people organizing tomorrow's event in boston and the people who organized last week's event in charlottesville? >> well, the people who are organizing tomorrow's event would like to say there's no connection. they call themselves the free speech coalition, and i can talk about that later. what the southern part of the law center says about the free speech coalition. but some of the same speakers, some who have now been disinvited or dropped out altogether are some of the same people who are connected to the charlottesville rally. we're talking about people like augustus evick us the, a refound white supremacist who feels there should be a second civil war and joe bigs within extreme right circles who has an association of what many call the alt-right, what osars call white supremacists. >> sreenivasan: given that, what are boston police and others doing to make sure there isn't another charlottesville is this. >> they are intent on guaranteeing that there's not another charlottesville. you could start with the deployment. we're talking about 500 police officers tomorrow. none will be sitting around, which is what they believe is one of the lessons from charlottesville. not that they were super critical of what happened in charlottesville, but they're aware of it. they're talking about blocking off streets, the entire perimeter that borders the boston commons. so you won't see cars driving into a crowd. they're aware of what happened in virginia and of what happened in spain in barcelona, the use of cars and weapons. you will also see a huge deployment of state police officers playing a secondary role, and what you won't see are undercover police officers who will be -- dispersed throughout the crowd ready to take away sticks attached to placards, bottles, spray cans, anything that might be used or construed as a weapon will be taken away by police officers. they're also working with the joint terrorism task force. they have been looking at the organization, again, that's sponsoring this, a coalition of actually young people who call themselves libertarian, but whose speaker's roster and some rhetoric reflects some of the extreme right wing events that we've seen around the country including in virginia. >> yang: finis phillip martin fm wgbh in boston, thanks for helping us understand what's going to happen tomorrow. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: from ebola to zika, scientists are taking stock of recent outbreaks and preparing for the next big threat. from our "newshour bookshelf," a film critic teaches us how to watch movies. and, one woman's campaign to give math a better reputation. but first, trying to meet the education needs of refugee children in a resource-poor country overwhelmed by new arrivals. just yesterday, the united nations announced one million south sudanese refugees had arrived in uganda over the past year. many have ended up here at the bidi bidi camp, the largest in the world. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports, part of his series, "agents for change." >> reporter: it's not often you'll find a school in africa that provides meals to its students. >> we give them breakfast and lunch. >> reporter: you didn't get this when you went to school? >> no. >> reporter: it not only helps students focus on learning, but this simple plate of corn, or maize, and beans may also be the reason many show up at all. the school's 30-year-old founder remembers packed classrooms when he started primary school, but they didn't stay that way for long. >> over 150 children, but i remember, by the time i was in primary seven, we had about 15 children left. >> reporter: lots of children drop out? >> they drop out, and the problem is connected to food. >> reporter: joseph munyambanza was born in the democratic republic of congo, but his parents, like tens of thousands of others, fled to uganda when he was six. for decades, uganda has welcomed refugees from its war-torn neighbors, but even with united nations' help, its resources are very limited. rwanda? congo? last year, i visited a school in nakivale, a refugee settlement in southern uganda. no lunch here, and not much learning, in classrooms crammed on average with 120 children. few of the hundreds of thousands of refugee children in uganda make it into high school, for which they must pass a national entrance test. joseph munyambanza was one of those few. he completed high school, and received a scholarship to the prestigious african leadership academy in south africa, founded by a group of stanford alumni. another scholarship from the mastercard foundation got him to westminster college in missouri, where he got a degree in biochemistry. it was a heady journey, far from his humble beginnings, but he says, he never forgot them. >> when i finished my degree, i already had my ticket to come back, and most kids say, "you're crazy. you're not serious." because that standard is, you go there, you finish your degree, and you get a job and start getting money. >> reporter: one big reason he returned was an organization he'd founded while still in high school with a few friends. they volunteered to mentor and tutor younger refugee school children. and, as munyambanza traveled in the west, he was able to network with donors, raising funds for their group, called coburwas, and for a primary school it runs in the refugee settlement of kingwale. the 433 students are urged to think critically, in a country where rote learning is the norm. and they're taught farming, on land adjacent to the school. in uganda, refugees are provided small plots of land, and school parents also contribute produce. >> we raise around five tons of maize, and part of it has to be eaten, but a big part of it has to be sold to bring money to support the projects. >> reporter: so far, coburwas has helped some 1,600 students pass the high school entrance exam, and placed many of them in better-resourced high schools, away from their refugee settlements where they now attend alongside ugandan children. coburwas pays their tuition room and board. we visited this school in the town of hoima, about two hours from the refugee camp, and talked with coburwas scholars about their goals. >> i would like to be a genetic engineer. >> a civil engineer. >> i'd like to become a doctor because i've seen people suffer lots. >> i would like to be a lawyer. >> reporter: a lawyer? one of their biggest problems, they said, is the stigma of being refugees, often taunted that they are freeloaders. >> some of them also don't feel well when they see us studying yet we are not ugandans. >> reporter: so they feel somewhat resentful that you are being paid for, supported, and ugandans are not? >> yeah. >> reporter: joseph munyambanza says he faced the same problem when he went to school. that's why a coburwas counselor is always on hand. >> we have a big vision for you. we do this because we believe you are the leaders of africa tomorrow. >> reporter: several alums have been launched toward leadership roles, attending universities across uganda and as far away as arizona state and munyambanza's alma mater in missouri. 23-year-old favorite regina just received her degree in development studies from the united states international university in nairobi, a stint that took her to france and could have landed a well-paid job in a lot of places. but she returned home to teach at the corburwas primary school. >> we feel like coming back to our communities and helping the other people grow, it's very important so that we come together as a collective community than an individual person. >> those who are given, those who are trusted, much more is expected from them. >> reporter: he says improving the education system is the first step in rebuilding communities defined and created by war, to open the eyes of children who have known little more than life in a refugee settlement. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro, in kingwale, uganda. >> sreenivasan: fred's reporting is a partnership with the "under-told stories" project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. >> sreenivasan: next, a look at some of the lessons health experts take from their experiences fighting the ebola outbreak in west africa that erupted in 2013. judy woodruff recently sat down with liberian-born dr. raj panjabi at "spotlight health" in aspen, colorado to discuss the challenges of preventing the next pandemic. warning: some of the images in this report may be disturbing. >> woodruff: dr. raj panjabi, thank you very much for joining us. what do you think the world learned from the last ebola outbreak of just a couple of years ago, and do you think the world is ready for the next one? >> you know, i think there are many lessons that have been learned from the crisis and still are, but one of the most central, fundamental lessons is this basic notion that illness is universal and access to care isn't, and that places all of us at greater risk. we learned this from the first boy who died in the ebola crisis, emil, a 2-year-old from the rain forest in new guinea. he died after being vomiting, fever and diarrhea in december of 2013. it took a long time for people to realize it was an outbreak. he lived where the forest was dense and health workers are sparse. so the virus spread during that time out of control, led to tens of thousands of people dying. >> woodruff: one of the things you did was employ what you call community health workers to go out and do what you're talking about. what exactly did they do? >> community health workers are people from villages like emil's where middle to high school-educated person would be trained for a matter of months and equipped to provide medical care door-to-door to their neighbors. those workers are critical in addition to nurses and doctors because nurses and doctors are concentrated in cities, they don't reach rural areas. when i first came back, i grew up in liberia, fled during the civil war and came back as a medical student and i found there were just 51 doctors for 4 million people. it would be like the city of san francisco having ten physicians for the entire city. so if you got sick in the city you might stand a chance but in rural areas you didn't. so community health workers have been critical to providing health care where doctors don't reach and linking patients to care. what we did, for instance, when an outbreak happened in a rural part of the country was to train and equip health workers from those communities to go door to door to work with doctors and nurses to find the sick and get them into treatment units. >> woodruff: we have been hearing about community health workers for a long time. what's different about how they work now, the role that they play? >> i think what's new now is a recognition that this is perhaps one of the most undervalued labor assets in the health workforce. long-term, they have been treated as volunteers, so, in other words, they don't get paid to do their work. most are underequipped and many have been barely trained. what's different now is the recognition as in the case of liberia after the ebola crisis taking a former volunteer community health workforce and upgrading it, employing the workers, training them, equipping them with the right gear and medicines to go door to door and provide health care. >> woodruff: a larger question of epidemic pandemics, seems like we pay a lot of attention to them when we're in the middle of the cries and it's on everybody's mind, people are dying,ates very visual thing, but our attention span is shoorntd we move on. how confident are you the world is truly prepared for the next pandemic and the one after that? >> well, we've done more to become prepared after the ebola crisis. we're not yet close to where we need to be to be prepared for the next epidemic. theda the shows. this we know that the cost of inaction is larger than the cost of action. $6 trillion is the estimated potential economic loss of a pandemic, but we're only spending 507 cents per person per year in providing surveillance and preparedness against preventing the next epidemic. >> woodruff: we know that this is one of the things that funding by the united states can make a big difference, as to your point. >> yes. >> woodruff: the legislation that appears to be moving through the congress could make significant cuts in that area. >> yes. >> woodruff: what effect would that have is this. >> make no mistake, the cuts would be devastating. one of the untold stories of u.s. foreign aid is that it's had such a dramatic impact largely because of investments in health care systems like liberia's and poor countries. if there had not been an effort to invest u.s. foreign aid before, during and now after the ebola crisis, you wouldn't have been able to surge front line local health workers who went door to door to find sick and get them care. at that very moment when the c.d.c. told us there could be as many as 1.4 million cases of ebola in liberia and sierra leone, that very week in dallas, texas, america diagnosed its very first case of ebola. so it's not a theory that epidemics that happen to people across the world can impact us at home quite literally. so i think this is the real story about foreign aid. it's actually not aid. it's investment. it's a win-win. it saves lives abroad and keeps us safer at home in america and that's something we should all be proud of, actually, as americans. >> woodruff: dr. raj panjabi with last mile health. thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> sreenivasan: next, jeffrey brown picks the brain of a life-long movie critic, on how to get the most out of the movie-going experience. it's the latest installment of the "newshour bookshelf." >> brown: a movie will teach you how to watch it, and while you can always eat your popcorn and enjoy the show, those lessons can be illuminating, entertaining, rewarding. that's the guiding spirit of a new book called "talking pictures, how to watch movies" author anne is here to talk pictures. hello, anne. >> hello. >> brown: so we can watch for fun. >> absolutely. >> brown: but what is this? what are you trying to offer us? >> well, we live in an age of instant movie reviews with social media and web sites and aggregators, literally everybody is a critic. >> brown: we all are. everyone loves to weigh in, and that's a lot of fun. this book is designed for those people who are casual viewers and who have a lot of fun weighing in but might want to take their game up a notch. so what i've done with the book, i hope, is to guide readers through my process in evaluate ago movie -- >> brown: the way you think about it as a critic. >> exactly. as i explain it in the book, i did not start out as a movie buff. i came sideways as a freelance writer. so i've learned to watch movies on the job and that means through interviews with filmmakers with writers, directors, ac interests and different crafts people and they've taught me a great deal about this medium and how to appreciate it and a lot of their wisdom is included in the book. >> brown: we'll have fun with this. >> yes. >> brown: go through the categories of filmmaking. i asked you to pick a few examples. we start with screen writing, an opening scene from the 2007 film "michael clayton." >> two weeks ago, i came out of the building, okay, running across sixth avenue, a car is weighting, i have 38 minutes to get to the airport and i'm dictating. this panicked associate is scribbling in a note pad and suddenly screams, i realize we're standing in the middle of the street, the light changed, there is serious traffic spinning towards us and i freeze, i can't move and i'm suddenly consumed with the overwhelming sensation i'm covered with a film, it's in my hair, face, and it's like a glaze. >> brown: that's how a film opens, unseen character, monologue, empty building. >> it's one of the great scenes in recent memory. a movie teaches us how to watch it really within those first few moments. that's when we're hooked, we know where we are, oriented, in an environment, in a world, we have no idea how that voice-over narration relates to the scene we're watching but we have such a strong idea of the environment and the atmosphere and we want to know more and that's the great tony gilroy, the great scene writer making his directing with that movie. >> brown: i'll call this section visual storytelling about cinematography and design from 1976 "all the president's men." this is robert redford and reporter bob woodward. it's very subtle. >> one of my favorite scenes. this is bob woodward of "the washington post." >> yes? about that $25,000 check deposited in the bank account of one of the watergate burglars, mr. bernard barker, as you know, sir, the check has your name on it. we were doing a story on this and i was wondering if you would care to comment or explain. >> i turn all my money over to the committee. >> what committee is that, sir, the committee to reelect? >> brown: it's an almost imperceptible push into redford. >> exactly. >> brown: something is happening. >> definitely. that is such a masterful shot for many reasons. one is that the film makers alan and gordon the cinematographer, you know, if you think of a guy making a phone call, what could be more boring, more static, more inert, right? so what they've done is pull back to get a sense of that environment, that highly-charged environment in the news room. >> brown: all the people on the left. >> in perfect focus. we see them and what they're doing and they're reacting to what's on the news, on television. they did that by a way of split, very technical. but they remain a deep focus to take in that environment and sense of tension. then, like you said, they just push in bit by bit in the course of this phone call and it's followed by another one where the tension is ratcheted up as it starts to zoom in on redford's face. so it's just a masterful example of how a very finely detailed production design such as that was with "all the president's men" where they reproduced "the post" news room on a set, where the production managers creates an amazing sense of tension. >> reporter: the category that gets most attention is acting. >> indeed. >.>> brown: i want to watch a scene even from last year and one i did on this program, manchester by the sea, written and directed by kenneth lonergan. casey affleck and michelle williams. let's take a look. >> you couldn't have lunch? i'm sorry. i don't think so. i thank you for saying everything you said. >> you can't just die. i'm not. honey -- i want you to be happy. honey, i see you walking around here and i just want to tell you -- >> i would want to talk to you. please. i -- >> please, you've got to -- i don't know what -- >> you're not torturing me. i just want to tell you that i was wrong. >> no. no, nope. you understand there's nothing there. >> oh, my gosh. >> brown: very few words were even spoken. >> exactly. >> brown: i don't think anybody finishes a sentence. >> "death by design," you interviewed kenny lonergan and i interviewed casey and michelle about him as a writer, what is it about his screen plays that makes them different? he spells all the um and uhs out. it's a deep fraught and emotional iceberg and he's giving the actors something to play that in the hands of a good actor, they can invest all of that subtext in it and that's a great example of screen acting at its finest which is all about honesty and truth in the moment and playing that subtext. >> brown: pulling all of this together is the director. how did you come to see the director's role? >> well, in interviewing the filmmakers i did over the years, the two words that kept coming up were taste and tone. so if we go back to the screenplay as the founding document of a movie, it's the director's job to realize that to its fullest potential. so when you mentioned somebody like a kathryn bigelow, the way that she tells the story of the algiers motel incident in the movie "detroit" is very unique to her. i don't think any other filmmaker would have approached the story quite the way she does in this film and you can say the same about patty jenkins. her vision for wonder woman was a product of her personal taste and predilections. in both cases they work well. "dunkirk" is another great example. we could go on and on. a good summer for directors. >> brown: "talking pictures, and how to watch movies." ann hornaday. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: why is it that people have no qualms about confessing "i'm terrible at math," yet you rarely hear anyone saying "i'm awful at english?" eugenia cheng is the scientist in residence at the school of the art institute of chicago, and author, whose latest book is "beyond infinity." tonight, we hear her humble opinion on why math is in need of a make-over. "hi, i'd like you to meet a friend of mine-- he's really useful." wait-- that doesn't make him sound very interesting, does it? or fun. wouldn't it be better to say, "hi, i'd like you to meet a friend of mine-- she's amazing! she's brilliant!" we'd never introduce a friend by saying they're useful. so why are we doing that to math? why do we keep going on about how important it is for everyone to learn math... because it's useful? has that ever got a young person interested in anything? i think math is fascinating and fun. otherwise, i wouldn't be a mathematician. some math began life without any sign of practicality. like babies. they're not exactly useful. for example: internet cryptography. it means we can do online shopping, online banking, and send emails. this comes from some number theory that existed just for its own sake, 300 years ago. most of engineering, medicine, lab science, weather forecasts and technology depends on calculus. calculus depends on irrational numbers, that the egyptians started wondering about thousands of years ago. the icosahedron is a satisfyingly symmetrical shape that was dreamt up by ancient greek mathematicians. 2,000 years later, it was finally applied to the study of viruses. and the structure of carbon. and designing soccer balls. but imagine if we only did math that was directly applicable, rather than stimulated by sheer curiosity. we'd still be building houses by hand and communicating on paper, delivered on horseback. and dying of the plague. the usefulness of math is a burden, and we're perpetuating this burden in a cycle. we require elementary school teachers to teach everything, but what if math was not their favorite subject at school? math-y people are more likely to be specialist math teachers at higher levels. so if elementary school teachers remember math as important but not fun, they're likely to teach it as important but not fun. and the cycle goes on. we need to break it. some elementary schools have specialist teachers for art, music or languages: let's have specialist elementary math teachers too. let's allow them to teach math in imaginative and creative ways. let's teach children how to think, rather than just how to pass standardized tests. i think math is fun and exhilarating. i enjoy understanding things. i enjoy thinking clearly. that's what math is about. >> sreenivasan: on the newshour online right now: michigan's battle creek sanitarium became a world-renowned destination of healing thanks to its charismatic director, dr. john harvey kellogg, who helped revolutionize modern ideas of wellness and healthy living. medical historian dr. howard markel details kellogg's life in a new book, and he shares some of that story on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and we'll be back, right here, on monday. remember to watch our livestream of the solar eclipse. miles o'brien will have a wrap up on the newshour, followed by a "nova" special, "eclipse over america." that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. see you tomorrow night on pbs newshour weekend. thank you, and have a great weekend. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> 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 >> you're watching pbs. ♪ hello welcome to "kqed newsroom." coming up on our show, california congressman adam schiff will discuss this week's events in charlottesville. plus, a one-on-one with carol chris, the new chancellor of uc berkeley. but first, steve bannon is out. president trump fired him today. this comes in the wake of continuing fallout from charlottesville. san francisco city officials are calling on the national park service to deny a permit for a right wing rally later this month near the golden gate bridge. in washington, republican lawmakers found themselves weighing the cost of remaining loyal to president trump after his controversial comments about white

Related Keywords

United States , Bedminster , Bristol , City Of , United Kingdom , Paris , France General , France , Dunkirk , Nord Pas De Calais , China , Nairobi , Nairobi Area , Kenya , California , Whitehouse , District Of Columbia , Stanford , Western Cape , South Africa , San Francisco , Hagerstown , Maryland , Sudan , Morocco , Guinea , Finland , Spain , Chicago , Illinois , Baltimore , New York , Japan , Missouri , Texas , Washington , Congo , Boston , Massachusetts , Virginia , Liberia , Uganda , Michigan , London , Barcelona , Comunidad Autonoma De Cataluna , Hoima , Colorado , Sweden , North Korea , Dallas , Venezuela , Berlin , Germany , Sierra Leone , Americans , Moroccans , America , Sudanese , Finnish , New Yorker , Spanish , Ugandans , American , Bernard Barker , Kathryn Bigelow , Wgbh Phillip , Tony Gilroy , Plaza Catalunya , Casey Affleck , Robert Redford , Kenny Lonergan , Fred Desam Lazaro , Ann Hornaday , Phillip Martin , Bob Woodward , Judy Woodruff , John Yang , Robert E Lee , Jared Kushner , Eugenia Cheng , Michael Clayton , Berke Bates , Hari Sreenivasan Judy Woodruff , Sam Lazaro , Judy Sreenivasan , Gary Cohen , Steve Bannon , Hari Sreenivasan , John Kelly , James Murdoch ,

© 2024 Vimarsana