amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: on the newshour tonight, israel excepts responsibility for strike that killed seven world kitchen workers. amna: and pete buttigieg on

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station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. there have been few incidents in 6 months of war in gaza that have created the level of outrage that leaders across three continents expressed today. amna: overnight israel killed 7 members of the charity, the world central kitchen: o palestinian and six foreigners, including one dual american-canadian, as well as an australian, and europeans. the president of the u.s. called the group's founder, the chef jose andres, to express his "heartbreak." israel called the killings unintended, and vows to investigate. nick schifrin begins our coverage. nick: in the words of the world central kitchen, this, was a targeted attack. a direct hit on the group's armored vehicle, incinerating everything and everyone inside.

all that was left intact -- a metal plate with the group's logo. they came here from all over the world, to feed the hungry. they leave in the white body bags borne by this war's more than 30,000 victims. among them, the group's palestinian driver seif abu taha. this was all a mistake, said israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. >> unfortunately, in the last day, there was a tragic incident of an unintended strike of our forces on innocent people in the gaza strip. this happens in war. we are checking this thoroughly. we are in touch with the governments and we will do everything for this not to happen again. nick: but world central kitchen says it coordinated with the israeli military as a convoy left its warehouse in deir al-balah, by the sea in central gaza. israeli munitions hit an initial vehicle. the israeli newspaper ha'aretz reports that world central kitchen workers then moved to another vehicle that was struck, and then a third vehicle that was struck, as they traveled on or next to the coastal road that israel designates for humanitarian aid.

damian sobol, from poland, recently showed a warehouse full of supplies to feed 20,000 gazans. >> she throat -- showed off the chef and meals he prepared. her friend said when others face their darkest moments, she was a shining light of comfort. last night, both their passports were covered in blood. >> this is just completely unacceptable. australia expects full accountability for the deaths of aid workers. nick: secretary of state antony blinken. >> we shouldn't have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk. nick: multiple victims were

british. prime minister rishi sunak. >> we're asking israel to investigate what happened urgently, because clearly there are questions that need to be answered. nick: the war in gaza has been the deadliest ever for humanitarian workers. the u.n. says at least 196 have been killed since hama' october 7 terrorist attacks. us officials cite poor israeli coordination and deconfliction. today defense minister yoav gallant promised to establish an independent investigation, and brief ngos on the findings. and open a joint idf-international ngo situation room. chief military spokesman rear admiral daniel hagari: >> we will get to the bottom of this and we will share our findings transparently. nick: back in northern gaza, amid the ruins of gaza city, lies the damage done to what was once gaza's biggest hospital, al-shifa. the world health organization said today the heart of gaza's health system had been ripped out. the israeli military says a 2-week operation by its

equivalent of navy seals killed or detained more than 700 terrorists hiding within the buildings. the palestinian health ministry says hundreds were civilians, and the un says 20 patients died. after the world central kitchen incident, aid organizations are suspending their gaza operations, as the un warns gaza is on the brink of famine. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. amna: for more on this we turn to sean carroll. he is the president and ceo of anera, a nonprofit helping refugees in the middle east. for the last 6 months, they've been delivering medicine, water, and food in gaza, including some 150,000 meals a day. i just want to begin with your reaction to this news. what did you think when you heard about the killing of these world central keyed -- kitchen aid workers? >> i thought no, this can't be explained.

world central kitchen is a partner, their colleagues, they are friends. people who were killed are people that our team in gaza worked with. so this is devastating news. amna: last month you lost one of your team members, your logistics court nader in gaza was killed in an israeli airstrike after sheltering with his family after distributing aid. we are so sorry for your loss. we have to ask, do you believe it is possible for aid workers to work safely in gaza right now? >> we have made a decision to pause our work, and that is not a decision we came to lightly. we have palestinian staff who live and work in the communities there, they've never really had safety, but they kept going, and now this level of depravity and inexplicable killing, and i know there are questions and debates about whether it was intentional or unintentional.

i think we need to ask ourselves, is one better than the other? if this was unintentional, how could this happen? it was convoy of three cars with world central kitchen logo and lettering clearly displayed. so how could it be an accident? the evidence we have seen so far and what i've heard from my colleagues at world central kitchen suggest that it wasn't an accident, it was intentional. amna: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said it was an unintentional strike, that he called a tragic accident. you cited some of the evidence white wasn't, but why do you believe israel would target humanitarian aid workers? >> i don't know, that's a question we all have to ask. israeli society and military need to ask themselves as well, his is contributing to making israel and israelis safer? i don't see how it could be. after the first reaction of

shock and despair, the next reaction is, how could this be? i can't make any sense of how this would be serving any objectives that would make sense for anybody, for any side in the conflict. amna: officials have said they hope the investigation will be swift and that the findings will be made public. do you have faith that the israeli government can investigate this on forces in this case? >> the parties to the conflict, the accident or the incident, the subject being investigated are not the best investigators. you should have an independent investigation. we would like to have it for our coworker who was killed just under a month ago. we still don't have an explanation on that killing. this is an absolute minimum requirement, certainly for world central kitchen and for all of us. we are wondering, are we next?

amna: have you had communications directly with u.s. officials about the safety of your team on the ground in gaza? >> we have 2d conflict the areas where we work where our staff are sheltering, are distribution centers, or cars. it all has to be de-conflicted. we share the map accordance of those and we checked in with them to verify or they check in with us, but we had a chicken from that four days before the killing in the airstrike, and that and this world central kitchen killing now makes us feel like it is not working. amna: to be clear, you are saying you are in constant contact, boots on the ground in informing israeli officials about your location and coordinates. there is no way you see is ready officials would not have known these are aid workers.

is that what you are saying? >> it certainly looks like the case with the world central kitchen, very clearly marked cars in a three-car convoy. this is something that has been an issue among many international ngos throughout the course of this war. the conversations and the communications feel like they're genuine, that we are all doing the right thing, but if people are killed when they shouldn't be, then obviously we inept questioning whether this is working, and it doesn't seem to be. amna: what has been the response from israeli officials when you raise those concerns? >> we like response on the death of our colleague and we don't have any response. the interest seemed to lessen when we said he didn't have a u.s. passport, he was a palestinian. i hope we will get a response. i am sure world central kitchen

is very much going to be demanding and nation for the death of those staff. amna: sean carroll, suspending operations for now. thank you for your time. ♪ geoff: in the days other headlines, president biden and chinese president xi jinping spoke by phone, in their first conversation since a summit in california last november. white house officials said the topics ranged from taiwan to fentanyl to artificial intelligence. they described the conversation as, quote, "candid and constructive" as the leaders try to tamp down tensions. we believe that there is no substitute for regular communications at the leader level to effectively manage this complex and often tense bilateral relationship.

both presidents agreed to pick up the phone and speak when needed. geoff: china state broadcaster quoted xi as saying that beijing and washington should make stability and relations a priority. they will meet it at dinner breaking the days fast and the holy month of ramadan. invitations were declined by some of the community leaders over ongoing political tensions over the war in gaza. ukrainian military drones struck a major oil refinery today, and a drone-making factory, in what may be the deepest attack inside russia yet. the targets were near cities in tatar-stan, some 750 miles east of ukraine. initial reports said the attacks did no significant damage. cell phone video caught the moment one of the drones crashed, causing a large blast. an official on the scene said two people were injured. in turkey, a fire at an is to bolt night could -- nightclub is

killed at least 29 people. the blaze broke out today as the club was undergoing renovations while closed for ramadan. flames and smoke engulfed the site and the club was left in charge ruins. the istanbul mayor said the city had never approved the construction work. >> there is no application to the local municipality for a renovation or a construction, and as it was below the ground level, the repair work wasn't visible. geoff: there was no word on the cause of the blaze, but several people were detained for questioning. here at home, hundreds of thousands of people lost power across the nation's mid-section as severe storms rolled through. in southern indiana, some homes had their rooves ripped away. and, kentucky's governor declared a state of emergency, as communities cleared though debris, scattered by high winds. in northeastern oklahoma, the storm front spawned 3 possible tornadoes. at least 1 person was killed. four more states had their say in presidential primaries today,

connecticut, new york, rhode island and the battleground state of wisconsin. president biden and former president trump have already locked down their nominations. still, the contests are being watched for the degree of opposition both men still face within their parties. anti-smoking advocates are suing the biden administration over a stalled ban on menthol cigarettes. the administration had planned to outlaw the flavoring last summer, but the action has been delayed for months. the groups who sued today say in the meantime, tobacco companies are still targeting youth, women and black smokers. and, on wall street: stocks gave ground on worries that the fed may opt for fewer interest rate cuts than expected this year. the dow jones industrial average lost 396 points to close at 39,170. the nasdaq fell 156 points. the s&p 500 slipped 38. still to come on the "newshour". the fall out around rap mogul sean "diddy" combs who is accused of rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. the evolving role of america's

first ladies. and author percival everett on his reworking "the adventures of huckleberry finn" from jim's point of view. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: a massive cleanup operation is underway at the site of the deadly bridge collapse in baltimore last week. crews are undertaking painstaking tasks, removing sharp twisted steel and concrete debris from the port. no one knows yet just how long it will take to clean up the wreckage and open the channel. but the biden administration has pledged to help rebuild the bridge and the president is expected to ask for more federal funding soon to make that happen. transportation secretary pete buttigieg is going to play a key role in all of this and he joins me now. welcome back to the newshour

will take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. do you agree with that assessment, and how difficult will it be to get that funding, given congress's inability to pass much of anything these days? >> that assessment is certainly plausible. we have not yet seen a hard timeline. there are a lot of things yet to be known, both in terms of the condition of the parts of the bridge it did not collapse in terms of the design of what will take his place. for example, one advantage of having a design that is identical or similar to the old bridges that it could be done quickly. on the other hand, there may be advantages to having a different design. those are decisions that the state will work through. we will not dictate that. what we will do is make sure there is funding and whatever requested technical assistance to help them get that job done. the first six immune dollars has

already been made available. there something going to be a need for more funding to do what we can with the dollars we have. if we need to turn to congress for more dollars, i hope and expect that will be a bipartisan priority. if you think back to the minnesota bridge collapse back in 2007, it was a matter of days before congress passed legislation to get more funding to make sure they were able to rebuild that bridge. a little more recently, the bipartisan infrastructure package itself was delivered with a bipartisan vote. i know it is a polarized time, but i'd like to think if there's anything democrats and republicans can come together on, it is supporting a part of our country that is hurting, and getting the infrastructure back to where it needs to be. geoff: will the administration waive certain regulations of clearing the debris and ultimately rebuilding the bridge? >> we will tear down any bureaucratic barrier, to be

clear, this has to be done safely and properly. talking about checks to make sure taxpayer funds are being used the right way or any safety consideration, but within that within the framework of the law, we will provide as much flexibility as we responsibly can. we've got to get that bridge back up. the port reopening will of course come sooner than the bridge replacement, but both of those are important, not just for baltimore, for our supply chains in the u.s. economy, we've got to do everything we can. geoff: you announced a new rule today requiring two person crews on railroads in a move to improve safety after that toxic availment in east palestine last year. the railroads say the size of train crews should be determined by union contract talks and not by federal regulators, since her enough data to support this notion that two person crews are actually safer. what is your reaction to that? >> i would start with common

sense. the idea that you can run a two mile long train or even longer train than that, some are closer to three miles, and have only one human being on board that train. i guess is most americans would be surprised to learn that until this morning, that wasn't always -- already prevented. we are talking about the absolute common sense minimum hear of having two people on board a freight train. these trains are two miles long or longer. this is something that was developed back in the obama administration, the trump administration halted that work. we picked that work backup even before what happened in east palestine, but our attention to rail safety measures is supercharged by the national focus on railroad safety that east palestine brought. that is she is one of many areas we have been working on. i want to reiterate my call on congress to do more. they have a bipartisan railway safety act just sitting there,

waiting its turn. it has been more than year since at ohio crash. congress needs to act. anything that doesn't require an act of congress we will seek to do on her own. geoff: it strikes me that freight trains are getting longer in the u.s., as you said in some cases three miles long. cargo ships are now dangerously big, like the one that caused the bridge collapse in baltimore. in your view, are the modes of transport getting too big, or do we need to improve our capacity and our infrastructure to accommodate them? >> it really depends on the mode of transportation. it's not automatically intrinsically safe to have a larger ship or train or for that matter, a larger vehicle or after craft -- aircraft. but it is important that every step we take in that to make sure that as they grow or have any other feature different than before that it is safer than ever. that's where regulation comes

in. it is vitally important to maintain the pattern we've had in this country of macon are modes of transportation more safe. we still have a long way to go on highway safety. geoff: lastly, question about boeing. they are facing a significant safety crisis after door blew off an alaska airlines flight a few months ago. what concerns remain, is this leadership overall sufficient? >> is going to take a lot more than what individual has what title at that company. that is something i have communicated to the senior leadership at boeing. it is something our faa administrator made clear after his visit to their any factoring facility and has put them on a 90 day clock to put together a comprehensive plan. the faa will not let them

increase the rate of production until they can demonstrate they can do it safely. we are talking about observations caught on the shop floor but we are also talking about culture. that lines up at the helm of boeing as well as their board and everybody up and down the entire organization, they'll have to prepare to put safety first. the aviation safety record of the united states of america is extraordinary, but there is nothing about that that guarantees it will be safe in the future. that's why every incident like this gets an extra near amount of attention. is why boeing is under the microscope and will stay that way as it worked to demonstrate that they can safely increase their production. geoff: do you feel safe buying that's flying on a boeing made jet? >> every time i step on an airliner, i know that i'm safe. if i'm with my family, i know that my family is safe because of all the work that goes into

overseeing that, the work of all of the professionals in the aviation sector, including those flight crews on board who do such good work. every time i get on that airplane i know i'm participating in the safest mode of transportation in america, which is an astonishing thing if you consider what air travel is. you cannot take it for granted, safety is not a destination. it is something we have to continually work toward. geoff: that is transportation secretary pete buttigieg. thanks again for your time and insights. ♪ amna: just last week, federal agents raided two homes of rapper and music mogul sean p diddy combs in los angeles and miami. combs is the subject of a federal investigation. he is already facing a series of civil lawsuits from several

women, and at least one man alleging he either assaulted, abused or trafficked them. some of the accusations date back at least 30 years, and combs has denied all allegations. for the latest, i'm joined by sidney madden, music reporter for npr and co-host of its podcast louder than a riot. let's begin with those raids by federal investigators. what do we know about why they went in and what they found? >> it's not exactly clear what the charges were that prompted these raids. although we do know that in the civil suits that were recently filed against him, dating back last year that date back decades, there have been many allegations of sex trafficking in the midst of those civil suits and that homeland security and federal agents to investigate those charges criminally. amna: remind us as well, there was a late 2023 lawsuit by mr.

combs girlfriend that open the door for these other lawsuits to follow. what prompted this scan -- cascade of lawsuits we have seen since? >> the original lawsuit did open the floodgates because it detailed almost two decades of hidden coercion, abuse, assault, even rape, and itht was darksiy public relationship and their working relationship in the music industry that dates back to the 2000's. amna: are the allegations consistent across all of those cases? >> as of this date there have been five civil suits filed against diddy. the last one filed by rodney jones, a music producer who worked for him between 2022-22 e3.

jones is alleging a lot of the same behaviors and indiscretions that cassie and other people have claims that the music mogul was doing all this time. things like using people on his staff for drug mules. things like pushing drugs on to multiple people on his team, pushing people onto his team. little rod accuses diddy of groping him, of having people on his staff proposition and sexually assault him. and he is accusing him of propositioning sex workers all throughout the united states. amna: sean combs denies all of the allegations. have we seen any kind of public response from him online or in any other form? >> it's been a lot of

sidestepping, he broke his silence on social media recently, by focusing on a lot of his children. his legal team says the homeland security rate specifically were a gross misuse of military level force. amna: i think it is fair to say it doesn't get bigger than diddy in the music world. have any of these allegations had an impact on those relationships, business or personal? >> definitely. the fallout has been a blow to diddy's business and his public reputation. he has stepped down as chairman of revolt entertainment, he has sold off all of his shares from that. he has parted ways with the liquor company that used to

distribute things, and there have been a lot of people in the hip-hop states who have kind of just use this as a moment to say that all of these indiscretions he is being accused of our open secrets that have been proliferated in the music industry over the years, but what that fails to interrogate is how they have been able to operate as an open secret without anybody calling him out for fear of losing their proximity, their business. they're just access to his celebrity. amna: when we spoke at the end of 2023, we talked about whether this was some larger moment of reckoning in the industry. back then, he said it was too early to tell. what do you make of that now? >> i think as more time has passed and more suits have been carried out, there are many more people in positions of power

that are publicly distancing themselves. in the hip hop space, it's about money, power, and respect. i would say the fallout is happening. >> sidney, thank you. geoff: now to a major development in the fight over abortion acess. the florida supreme court late monday paved the way for the state's six-week abortion ban to take effect. but the justices in a separate ruling said florida voters will be able to decide on a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access in november. lynda bell is president of florida right to life, one of the state's largest anti-abortion groups, and joins us now. thank you for being with us. >> it is my pleasure.

geoff: what is your assessment of the situation, giving sort of voters the final say in november? >> it seems a little bit contradictory, but in light of the fact that we thought it would be stricken. basically the 15 week was challenge based on the fact that it says privacy includes abortion. the supreme court said it does not do that. so it pulled back. once it was upheld, that allow the six weeks bill that was passed last year and signed by the governor. the other decision went 4-3. even the majority opinion, the

article i was reading rolled out that while the list was vague, it should not be struck, which struck me very much. they are saying that you expect us to not use the fact that -- let me just say this. this language is very -- it has loopholes and elegant could go through. geoff: florida governor ron desantis has now signed two major abortion bands. one starting at 15 weeks and more recently, one starting at six weeks, before most women even know they are pregnant. donald trump has described a six-week man as a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. i can't republicans and

antiabortion advocates find consensus on an acceptable path forward when overturning roe had been a decades long pursuit among conservatives and antiabortion activists? >> we pro-lifers comedy and tight live community want an abortion, they don't care. this language right here does not stop that. the health care provider, it will be german by the health care divider. the six-week bill provided for rape, incest, a life of the mother, medical emergency, there were many exceptions and

therefore women who need to have an abortion procedure in these very dangerous situations for them. we in the pro-life community love them both. we love the babies and their moms. geoff: the dead is clear that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. how are those outcomes consistent with your organization stated goal of protecting the sanctity of life? >> i would love to challenge that data as well. geoff: it's from an independent research organization focused on health policies. geoff: i would love to take a look at that. this amendment right here, -- is

not pro-woman or pro-girl. geoff: how life-threatening must a pregnancy be to end it legally when this takes effect? >> rape, incest, life of the mother. spiegel anomaly. any kind of dangerous situation. every single base was covered when it comes to protecting women's lives. geoff: thanks for your time this evening. >> thank you. ♪ amna: the first lady of the united states is often studied with a mixture of fascination

and scrutiny. geoff: laura barron-lopez has more on a new book that looks at the modern history of the role. laura: part policy messenger, part campaign whisperer, part style icon. expectations of america's first lady shapeshift with each administration. in her new book, american woman the transformation of the modern first lady from hillary clinton to jill biden, new york times correspondent katie rogers explores how each wife has brought something unique to this ever changing role. katie, thank you so much for joining us. i want to start with your inspiration for this book. you mentioned that you've been fascinated with the role of the first lady for years now. why write this? where did it come from? katie: i went to school in chicago, and the birth of my interest in first ladies grew from covering up an exhibit at the field museum about jacqueline kennedy and how she used style to further american american diplomacy abroad. she spoke french, and she convinced the french to send over the mona lisa across the atlantic so americans could see

it. and i thought that was a really incredible thing for anybody to do in an administration, let alone the first lady. so, i began covering the trump white house, during the trump, inauguration. essentially, i got moved down from the new york newsroom. and i gravitated toward melania trump pretty immediately because there was so much about her, i think that the public really didn't know, and there was so much about her that she wasn't willing to to let the public know. so she was a really interesting figure to cover as a white house beat reporter. flash forward to the beginning of the biden administration. i was approached with an idea to do a jill biden book, as i had been approached before to do melania trump books, and i thought i would like to actually place them in a line of sort of a line up of women who've had this role since the turn of the century. laura: as you go across these first ladies in modern history, you write that the first lady's behavior is expected to, quote, fit every prism of our kaleidoscope of expectations of american womanhood. how do you find that the role of the first lady, particularly in

the last 30 years, has changed? katie: they have all sort of struggled with this idea of whether they should work. hillary clinton told me even she said, you know, i considered it briefly, and then i quickly set it aside. she had a legal career. michelle obama briefly considered trying to work, but put that aside in service of adjusting her two daughters to washington and making sure her husband had the best chance he could at winning. and jill biden is really the first one to successfully say, like, i really want to keep this part of my identity. so i think that is a key way the role has changed where this is becoming now a normal conversation, rather than expecting them to sort of give away this just chunk of their identity. laura: when you write about jill biden, you say that her story is modern. why do you say that? and also, how does she compare to the others that came before her? katie: i saw her story as modern because if you know anything about the bidens. you know how joe biden came to be in public life.

he was elected to the senate and lost his wife shortly after, in a car accident. and his infant daughter. so really, one of the key questions i had about jill biden is who would come in and try to knit this family back together that is modern, to have a nontraditional family. and that's something that a lot of americans can relate to. and it's not always something we see with first families, living in a family where the north star is joe biden, and there's always a new campaign and there's always a new ambition to hold on to that as a ballast was really interesting and modern. i think anybody in a relationship struggles to kind of figure out, the dynamic, the power dynamic there. even melania trump. i think there were questions about, would she do enough with her policy platform? was she supportive of her husband enough? did she not move to washington early enough? all of these women have to sort of make these trade offs and be a political spouse. at the end of the day, they're not housewives. they're partners and advisers to the most powerful person on the planet. laura: and you explore this idea of the different powers that

first ladies can have, whether it's a campaigner like jill biden, but also diplomacy, like you mentioned with jacqueline kennedy. but when you're looking at these modern, first ladies, how does the role, how has the role been used to the president's advantage. katie: first of all, these women can go places the president can't easily. before president biden was able to get to ukraine, jill biden secretly went into the ukraine to meet with elena zelenska, the first lady of ukraine, to offer, america support and a promise that we were going to stand by them, and even during the pandemic,she was the one who was going to southern states, to deep red states, going to colleges and medical centers and holding people's hands while they got the vaccine. it is a powerful messaging role that can work and function on behalf of the west wing. and it's, you know, as valuable as any other principle, if it's used correctly or used effectively, i should say. laura: when you conducted all of the interviews that you did for this book, which first lady surprised you the most out of the five that you write about?

katie: well, what's interesting is i didn't get to interview her, but laura bush doesn't do do many interviews. so i tried, but i would have loved to interview her because, the bushes were in office when i was a teenager, and 911 happened when i was in high school. and emotions were very high about the wars we were engaged in. and it was all about him. so as a journalist, returning to her early and and exploring her tenure and her presence as first lady was super fascinating. their advisers told me she's really the one who was there to remind him where he came from. she was never somebody who wanted to be a policy heavy hitter. she was there to sort of help her husband in any way she could. but she also became a wartime first lady overnight. and she took over the president's radio address. and she took over an initiative to support afghan women and girls. she launched the national book festival, which is still around. so she was really a productive first lady, even though i think at the time people thought of her as more of a helpmate or a or a just a housewife kind of

presence. she was super fascinating. laura: katie rogers, this is a fascinating book. thank you so much. katie: thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: it's one of the cornerstones of american literature: the adventures of huckleberry finn, by mark twain. now a new novel takes another look, and brings a little heard voice to the forefront. jeffrey browns speaks to author percival everett for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: a trip down the mississippi river in 19th century america, taken by a young white boy, huck finn, and an enslaved black man named jim, running for his life. huck told the story in mark twain's 1884 novel. but what if jim had his say? >> it's only fair smile.

jeffrey it's only fair? : everett: yes, jim, this character who has become iconic in our literary landscape has, he's never had a chance to speak. jeffrey: in percival everett's novel, jim, or, james, does, in a voice that is knowing, funny, pained and deeply humane. expanding the world everett first found in the adventures of huckleberry finn. >> i read an abridged version of it when i was very young. but when i was a teenager and i read it again, it had a lot more resonance, even though it was also problematic because of the depiction of jim. jeffrey: we joined everett at new york's renowned strand bookstore'.where he was signing an enormous stack of his widely acclaimed new book. >> i've seen this novel described in different ways: a retelling', a reworking', a response' to the adventures of huckleberry finn. what do you call it? everett: well i understand all those designations but to me it's, and maybe i flatter myself in saying that i consider myself in conversation with twain. jeffrey: conversation?

everett: yes pause pull up. i'm perhaps writing the novel that he was not equipped to write. and nor would he even imagine it because his character is huck finn. it's huck's novel. but he could not occupy the psychic and cultural space that was occupied by jim. jeffrey: author of more than 30 books, everett is a famously eclectic and inventive writer, taking on a wide range of genres and subjects including, sometimes, race, as in his 2011 novel erasure. >> why are these books here? >> i'm not sure. i would imagine that this author, ellison, is black. jeffrey: it was the source for the recent film, american fiction, starring jeffrey wright, that skewered the mostly white publishing industry for pushing black authors to write just one stereotypical black' story. jeffrey: was that character in erasure at least partly you? everett: well, i have to admit that he's alarmingly similar to

me. i wrote a novel about the greek god dionysus called frenzy, and it was turned down by a couple of houses. and an editor came to me and said, well, we turned your novel down.' i said, yeah, that's cool, i don't mind.' and then this editor said, can you tell me, what, what does dionysus have to do with black people?' jeffrey: the assumption being that you have to be writing about black people. everett: well, yes, and i said, well, would you have asked that of, of, of john updike if he had written this novel? but that's the impediment to making art that so many writers of color run into, the expectations of what, what you can make. and also, this notion of authenticity. missing the fact that black people are as diverse as, as white americans. >> i love about this one, he put mark twain in parentheses. jeffrey so clemens first. : everett: clemens first and then, which i always, i always wondered. jeffrey of twain's novel, ernest : hemingway said, all modern american literature comes from

one book by mark twain called huckleberry finn. everett acknowledges its importance. everett: instead of being a book about slavery, the way uncle tom's cabin is a book about slavery, this is a book about an american youth, about america itself being an adolescent, wandering through its own landscape, trying to come to terms with the contradictions of slavery. that's, that's a pretty remarkable novel. and it's, it's pretty remarkable for its time when you, when you view it in that way. in that way, hemingway is right. jeffrey: in twain's book, jim speaks what the author called the missouri negro dialect. in everett's book, james learns to read, but only in secret. he has imaginary debates over the meaning of equality' with the french philosopher voltaire. and the slave dialect he and all blacks use is a kind of second language', a correct incorrect grammar, in james' bitterly humorous phrase, taught to black children to use in order to hide their real knowledge, their true selves, a survival mechanism in a brutal world of white dominance and violence.

>> any oppressed, enslaved or imprisoned people will find a way to communicate with each other in front of their oppressors, where the oppressors have no entry into their language. that's what we do as humans. it's often, it's, it takes the form of, of humor. fulfilling expectations is what will allow them to survive in this world. and so the way they speak satisfies the expectations of their oppressors. jeffrey: with a pencil gained at horrific cost to a fellow slave, james tells us: i wrote myself into being. >> it's the avenue to freedom. it's the avenue to self-actualization. what you can say to yourself about yourself will define you. jb, 8:28 there are passages here that are hysterically funny, laugh out loud funny. and then within another short passage, the horror of slavery

comes out. >> my humor ironically as a child was shaped much by twain. i can cite the sources of my sense of humor: my father, mark twain, groucho marx and bullwinkle laugh my sources. jeffrey because you read twain : in childhood. everett: yeah, life on the mississippi and roughing it, i thought were hilarious. and hilarious because the humor resides in his observations, not in jokes. jeffrey but tell me more about : this mix of humor and horror. >> if you get someone laughing, then you've removed some defenses. you remove some walls and then you can show them the bad things. if you can ask, have someone ask themselves why they're laughing, then you've done something even better. i don't go to work with a message, or a mission. but i do hope to, to generate thought. jeffrey is that how you feel, as : a writer? everett: yeah. i don't have any stake in what people think. but i certainly want to live in

a world where people think. jeffrey: given where we started, the conversation' that you wanted to have with mark twain, what is that you hope readers will take from james? everett: that that landscape was not wandered alone by huck, that there was another agent there, someone with agency, experiencing his role in a very different way. that wide-eyed, innocent america wandering through that landscape is certainly attractive and youthful and promising, but he's wandering through there with a victim who has built it for him. jeffrey: the book is james. percival everett, thank you very much. everett: my pleasure, thank you. amna: joan wicks is a sixth grade humanities teacher in los angeles who helped her students rebound from covid learning loss through her devotion and advocacy. the school was recently recognized with the california

distinguished schools award. tonight she shares her brief but spectacular take on "inspiring a love of learning." >> i'm talking about something we've taken for granted, like hanging on to our democracy. so kids have to be an educated and active citizenry to safeguard our country for the future. i'm not entirely sure that i chose to become a classroom teacher. i think it chose me. i specifically remember learning to read in the first grade and i was so excited about that. it was like magic had opened up to me. i found school to be relatively easy because i was such a great reader, and they got me all the way through college. i work in a small charter school in los angeles. we have about 35% english language learners.

despite these statistics, there's a lot of hope in this community. the six grade students i'm teaching right now when home in the middle of the second grade during the pandemic. that was a critical time because it is before most kids have become fluent readers. one of the things we do it our school to help young readers is we provide intervention classes and reading and math for all of our students. so many people were worried about the kids, but they are rebounding and coming back with a vengeance. my approach to teaching alliance with that approach to parenting because i set very high expectations for my children. if you set the bar high, they will try to meet that bar. i have three children, my son spencer is employed at a major u.s. bank, and amanda was the inaugural youth poet laureate of the united states and has also

published four books. so she is living a very successful life as a poet. the advice i would give to parents about sparking a love of reading and learning and her children is you have to be that person. children are sponges. they look to their parents for everything, even your little quirks, they will pick those up too. it's really important that kids experience what a library has to often because aesthetically, libraries are beautiful. when kids see the beauty of books and that the library is a comfortable space, that makes them want to learn and read and come back. a library is a great place for karen's -- parents to take their kids. i keep coming back to the classroom year after year because i get as much from the students as they get from me. this is my brief but spectacular take on inspiring a love of learning. amna: you can watch more but --

brief but spectacular takes online. geoff: while you're there, check out the boom of tourists leading to oklahoman to view monday's solar eclipse. amna: and following asylum-seekers around the world moving through mexico to the u.s. border. that is the newshour for tonight. geoff: thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> travelers experience the maritime heritage and culture of the maine coast and you england islands. our fleet of small cruise ships, explore american landscapes, see -- seaside villages and historic harbors, were you can experience vocal customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshour.

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station from viewers like you. thank you. >> i'm terribly excited to be the anchor in. you have become known for independent, fact-based reporting, we're challenging the beers to understand the world a little better. we present all sides of the story, take the time to come -- put them in context. i hope beers come awainformed with perhaps a different perspective than they had thought of before. >> good evening, i'm john yang. tonight on pbs news weekend. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. an air strike destroys the iranian consulate in damascus. iran blames israel. we'll have the latest with investigative journalest roe then bergman. >> then -- >> i've seen the tragedy as