April 30, 2024 - PBS NewsHour full episode
04/30/2024 | 57m 46s | Video has closed captioning.
April 30, 2024 - PBS NewsHour full episode
Aired: 04/30/24
Expires: 05/30/24
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
04/30/2024 | 57m 46s | Video has closed captioning.
April 30, 2024 - PBS NewsHour full episode
Aired: 04/30/24
Expires: 05/30/24
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.
I'm Geoff Bennett.
AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Students occupy a Columbia University building, as protests against the war in Gaza spread to more college campuses.
GEOFF BENNETT: A federal appeals court rules that state health care plans in North Carolina and West Virginia must pay for transgender-related care.
AMNA NAWAZ: And a look at a university in Rwanda working to end inequalities by educating the next generation of health care providers.
DR. ABEBE BEKELE, Dean, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Global Health Equity: Young people with the heart, the brain and the hands to practice medicine, in that order, should be given the opportunity to do so.
(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."
Protests took a dramatic turn at Columbia University overnight, when some pro-Palestinian students occupied a building on campus.
GEOFF BENNETT: Occupations have taken place at other campuses too.
In California today, police arrested 25 protesters at California State Polytechnic University who had taken over a building for about a week and shut down the campus.
A similar occupation was in its fourth day at Portland State University.
And protesters at the University of North Carolina took down a U.S. flag and replaced it with a Palestinian one.
For its part, Columbia said it will expel those occupying its facilities.
Early this morning, protesters at Columbia University linked arms and barricaded the entrance of Hamilton Hall.
From the inside, activists piled furniture, chained up doors and smashed windows.
The same building has been occupied by demonstrators in decades past, including over the Vietnam War and later against apartheid in South Africa.
This time, though, protesters unfurled a banner and dedicated the building to Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old who died in Israel's war against Hamas.
(CHANTING) GEOFF BENNETT: Columbia today locked down the campus to outsiders, limiting access to students living in campus residences and essential employees.
The university said today that students occupying the building would be expelled.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters: "The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach.
That is not an example of peaceful protests."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who met with Columbia University President Minouche Shafik last week, says she should step down.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We met with a college president, Shafik, and we told her that it is time for her to resign if she can't control that campus.
The first responsibility of an administrator on the university campus is the safety and security of their students.
GEOFF BENNETT: Hundreds have been arrested in protests across the country this past week, many of whom were not students.
This morning, at the University of North Carolina, armed police entered the campus to break up an encampment.
But the protests continued in other locations throughout the day.
Jacob Ginn is a Jewish graduate student at UNC who is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine.
JACOB GINN, University of North Carolina Student: We are not fazed.
We will continue to push and to fight and we will not back down.
GEOFF BENNETT: And, in the nation's capital, an encampment at George Washington University has expanded.
MOATAZ SALIM, George Washington University Student: The original encampment when we were barricaded was mostly just G.W., but now we are -- we're joined by students from all the major universities in the city.
I will speak for myself.
The only way to get me out of here is to drag me out of here.
GEOFF BENNETT: Things were quieter today at the University of Texas at Austin after nearly 80 people were arrested yesterday by police in riot gear.
Campus protests internationally as well.
Students at American University of Beirut in Lebanon said they were inspired to join in the action.
LENORA DSOUZA, Exchange Student, American University of Beirut: There have been encampments all across the U.S. universities on campuses such as Columbia, where a lot of friends of mine have been at the forefront of the protests.
They have been arrested.
Their chances of taking exams have been taken away.
I definitely think this was inspired by what was happening in the U.S. and a bigger call to action.
GEOFF BENNETT: And, this afternoon, Brown University announced it would hold a vote this October on whether to divest from Israeli companies.
That's been a key issue for campus demonstrators around the country, including at Brown.
We will have more on the campus unrest later in the program.
AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other news: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed again to invade Rafah in Southern Gaza whether there's a cease-fire deal or not.
He spoke as efforts to reach a deal with Hamas appeared to intensify after a new Israeli proposal.
That came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in neighboring Jordan.
He did not respond directly to Netanyahu's warning.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: Our focus right now is on getting a cease-fire and the hostages home.
That is the most urgent thing.
And it's also, I think, what is achievable.
No more delays.
No more excuses.
The time to act is now.
AMNA NAWAZ: Secretary Blinken later arrived in Israel.
Meantime, Egyptian reports said a Hamas delegation left cease-fire talks in Cairo today and that the group will return with a written response.
The U.N.'s top court refused today to order a halt on German arms exports to Israel.
Nicaragua made an emergency request, arguing that Germany is enabling genocide.
The world court judges ruled the necessary legal conditions were not met, but they allowed the case to go forward and said they will hear arguments on the merits.
In New York, former President Trump was found in contempt of court today for violating a gag order in his hush money trial.
He was fined $9,000 and was warned he could wind up in jail.
The ruling came soon after Mr. Trump entered the court, nine violations for making statements about witnesses, jurors and others in the case.
Judge Juan Merchan wrote that -- quote -- "If necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, the court will impose an incarceratory punishment if the violations continue."
In Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson's job appears to be safe after Democrats announced today they will oppose efforts to remove him.
Johnson had come under fire from far right members in his own Republican Conference after pushing through aid for Ukraine.
Today, he said moves to declare his post vacant are misguided.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): What the country needs right now is a function in Congress.
They need a Congress that works well, works together, and does not hamper its own ability to solve these problems.
And so we saw what happened with the motion to vacate the last time.
Congress was closed for three weeks.
No one can afford for that to happen.
AMNA NAWAZ: Democrats said they will back Johnson because it's time to move past what they called Republican obstruction.
Investigators in Charlotte, North Carolina, spent this day asking how four officers were surprised and killed on Monday while trying to catch a fugitive.
It was the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since 2016.
Laura Barron-Lopez has our report.
JOHNNY JENNINGS, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Police Chief: The past nearly 24 hours have been heavy, heavy on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, the Marshals Service, but heavy on our community and heavy on our country.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Charlotte, North Carolina, is grieving one day after a search warrant raid turned into a deadly shoot-out.
KIASHIA WILLIAMS, Charlotte Resident: It was like, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, and then by the time I could turn in, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.
I heard the gunfire and just ambulance, police, everything just everywhere, just started rushing down.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On Monday afternoon, a U.S.
Marshals task force carried out a search warrant for Terry Clark Hughes, a felon wanted for illegally possessing a firearm.
As they approached the house, Hughes opened fire from the second floor.
When he stepped out, officers shot him and pronounced him dead on the scene.
Four officers were shot and killed in the exchange, Deputy U.S.
Marshal Thomas Weeks and veteran Officers Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott.
The fourth officer, Joshua Eyer, died hours later after being rushed to the hospital.
Four other officers were injured.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.
GOV.
ROY COOPER (D-NC): Dangerous assignments are part of the job, but they step up and do it anyway to protect our communities and protect our families.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It's been more than five years since a U.S.
Marshal was killed in the line of duty.
And Monday's incident was the deadliest for Charlotte's police force in decades.
According to the Fraternal Order of Police, 136 officers died on the job in 2023, a decrease of nearly 40 percent from the year before; 47 of those deaths were by gunshot, but 378 officers were shot, the highest number on record.
In a statement, President Biden called the Charlotte officers heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice.
He also called on Congress to ban assault weapons and pass more police funding.
Police seized an AR-15 rifle from the residence.
Additional evidence is still being collected in an ongoing investigation.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.
AMNA NAWAZ: An official said today they're still investigating whether a second gunman might have been involved.
In London, meanwhile, a man is in custody tonight after slashing passersby and police with a sword and killing a 14-year-old boy.
Four other people were wounded in the incident in an East London suburb.
Officials said the incident wasn't being treated as a targeted attack.
There's word that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is ready to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
Reports today said the shift would move marijuana out of the Schedule I category, which includes heroin and LSD.
It would also cite medical uses of cannabis.
The proposal is subject to review and then public comment.
An influential scientific panel, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, has formalized a new recommendation breast cancer screening.
The group said today that women with average risk should begin regular mammograms at the age of 40.
That reverses the panel's controversial guidance in 2009 that screening could wait until the age of 50.
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a ban today on a chemical used in consumer-grade paint strippers that's believed to cause cancer.
Methylene chloride emits a toxic vapor.
It's blamed for at least 88 deaths since 1980.
The chemical will continue in some commercial uses with worker protections.
And on Wall Street, inflation worries weighed down stocks after news that workers' pay and benefits jumped in the first quarter.
Major indices were down 1.5 to 2 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 570 points to close below 37816.
The Nasdaq fell 325 points, and the S&P 500 was down 80.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": student journalists discuss the protests against the war in Gaza on their college campuses; members of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus bring their hope for peace, justice and equity in Israel to the U.S.; plus much more.
A federal appeals court issued a groundbreaking ruling last night ensuring that gender-affirming surgery is covered by state-run health insurance programs.
Stephanie Sy has that report.
STEPHANIE SY: Amna, this decision centered around two lawsuits, with trans people in West Virginia and North Carolina suing to secure insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, such as hormone therapy and surgery.
The federal appellate court in Richmond, split 8-6, ordered that the state health care plans - - quote -- "reinstate coverage for medically necessary services for the treatment of gender dysphoria."
The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote briefs in support of the trans plaintiffs.
It is a win for the trans community, but it may not be the final word on the issue.
For more on all of this, I'm joined by NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin, who covers health policy for NPR.
Selena, it's good to see you on the "NewsHour."
So, as you know, there are numerous court cases around the country about transgender rights and access to gender-affirming care.
How significant was this ruling, and what are the big takeaways to you?
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, NPR: I think this is a really significant ruling.
The Fourth Circuit's majority opinion was really strong and called discrimination against trans patients on these plans to be - - quote -- "obviously discriminatory."
I think that the big takeaway is that insurers are not going to be able to say that they're going to cover this care for some patients with some diagnoses and not for others.
If they're going to be covering things like sex hormones and mastectomies for some patients, they're going to have to cover it for trans patients as well.
And I do think that it's really seen in the trans community as a major win, and it cuts against some of the trends of more litigation and more restrictions that we have seen in statehouses across the country.
STEPHANIE SY: Selena, how far-reaching is this ruling?
Does this mean trans people with state medical plans are now covered for gender-affirming care where they couldn't or where they weren't before?
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Well, actually, in both of these cases, the state plan in North Carolina and Medicaid's - - Medicaid in West Virginia, they already had to start covering this care after the district court ruled in the plaintiff's favor in 2022.
So people have been able to bill for this and get coverage for this in the last two years, but what the appellate ruling does is really solidify that coverage.
And as I said, it also signals to other plans in other states around the country that this is care that needs to be covered and that trans people are protected under the law.
STEPHANIE SY: We have seen in the last few years some two dozen states pass restrictive laws on gender-affirming care specifically for minors.
Does this decision, Selena, apply to minors covered by state medical plans, even in states where legislatures have banned care?
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN: I should say that there were plaintiffs in these cases that were minors.
So, for example, in North Carolina, there were some members of the plan who joined the case on behalf of their dependent minor child who was transgender.
And so they were seeking coverage for the care of that child.
But I think it is important to differentiate this from some of the other cases around gender-affirming care for minors, because this is really about insurance coverage and whether insurers can make the distinction that they're going to cover hormones and mastectomies with certain conditions, but not for people with gender dysphoria.
In this case, they said that's not going to fly and that needs to stop.
But one thing I also wanted to mention is that, in the realm of bans across the country in different states for gender-affirming care for youth, just today, in Kansas, the Statehouse was unable to override the veto of the governor who had vetoed the ban on gender-affirming care for youth in that state.
So I think advocates are really hoping that this does -- even beyond the realm of its actual reach, it does send a signal to different places, to governors, to statehouses to say, this isn't a winning issue and the courts are starting to fall in their favor, although it has been a mixed bag in the courts.
STEPHANIE SY: Yes, absolutely.
In this particular case -- and you quoted it - - the majority wrote that,when it comes to the state's exclusion of gender-affirming care for medical plans -- quote -- "We hold that the coverage exclusions facially discriminate on the basis of sex and gender identity."
It said the exclusions, in essence, violate the 14th Amendment and provisions in the Affordable Care Act.
There are so many transgender rights issues mired in the courts right now.
Selena, do you see the Supreme Court taking all this up any time soon?
I know, in this case, West Virginia's attorney general has already said he is appealing.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yes, I mean, court watchers and policy watchers that I have talked to really think that a case is going to reach the Supreme Court at some point, and probably soon.
But the Supreme Court has been sending some mixed messages on this.
So there was a gender-affirming caravan in Idaho that the Supreme Court allowed to take effect.
But then there are other cases, including one from the Fourth Circuit that was related to transgender students participating in sports, that the Supreme Court declined to take.
And that was a win for the transgender plaintiff in that case.
Court watchers suggest that it seems like the Supreme Court is maybe reluctant to jump into the fray, but there has been so much litigation in this area and so many laws being passed that it just seems inevitable that the Supreme Court will have to weigh in and give some clarity.
STEPHANIE SY: Selena Simmons-Duffin, who covers health policy with NPR, thank you so much.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Thank you for having me.
AMNA NAWAZ: Student protests over Israel's war on Gaza and U.S. involvement continue across campuses nationwide.
Hundreds have been arrested so far.
Even as the school year comes to an end, administrators are struggling with how to respond.
Joining us now for a view from their campuses are Spencer Friedland, managing editor of news for The Emory Wheel at Emory University, Aarya Mukherjee, student life reporter for The Daily Californian at U.C.
Berkeley, and Neil Mehta.
He's editor in chief and president of The Brown Daily Herald at Brown University.
Welcome to you three.
Thanks for joining us.
Spencer, you have said it's been extremely tense on campus at Emory.
Tell me why.
What does it look and feel like right now?
SPENCER FRIEDLAND, Managing News Editor, The Emory Wheel: Yes.
So, over the last five days, we have had a series of protests in response to the war in Gaza, and also in response to the police going to campus on Thursday and arresting 28 members of Emory community, including 20 people that are directly either students or faculty at the university.
AMNA NAWAZ: And so you say it's tense.
What does that mean?
What does that look and feel like there?
SPENCER FRIEDLAND: Yes.
So, every day, people are on edge when there are Emory police coming through campus.
A lot of Emory police have been -- were at the protest on Thursday, and a lot of the student protesters in ESJP or Students for Socialism have kind of been I think affected by the way that the protests were handled on Thursday and have been scared of student protests.
And then, additionally, I believe a lot of the Jewish students on campus are uneasy with the content of what has been going on the protests, when speech -- when chants such as "From the river to the sea" have been used.
I have spoken to students have that have called that antisemitic.
AMNA NAWAZ: Aarya, what about U.C.
Berkeley?
I mean, you said the encampment began with around 20 tents or so.
How big is it now.
And have you seen any kind of the tension that Spencer's talking about there?
AARYA MUKHERJEE, The Daily Californian: Yes I mean, this started last Monday.
And now we're about -- we're up to about 150 tents, when I last checked last night.
I mean, so it's been growing considerably.
And, I mean, that comes from just students from all over campus just setting up on Sproul Hall.
And, I mean, as to the police attention, there has actually been very little at U.C.
Berkeley as compared to some of these other schools.But it's been fairly, I guess, reserved.
And the encampment right now is at least pretty peaceful.
AMNA NAWAZ: Have there been any of the allegations like we heard from Spencer about some of the protesters engaging in antisemitic remarks?
AARYA MUKHERJEE: Yes, I mean, like Spencer said, there has been some calls for "From the river to the sea," chants like that, which -- which I have spoke to some Jewish students who feel as though that is antisemitic.
However, I would like to point out that, I mean, some of the protesters at the encampment themselves aren't Jewish .
I mean, Jewish Voices for Peace, I have spoken to many members who are there, and they don't feel as those speech like that is antisemitic.
So, I mean, it depends on who you talk to.
AMNA NAWAZ: Neil, meanwhile, at Brown, we know many of the protesters across campuses are looking for divestment from their universities, from any financial ties to Israel.
And there's news today from Brown.
Your highest governing body, the corporation, is going to vote on divestment after university leaders met with some of the protesters.
How did that come about and is that kind of divestment likely in a vote?
NEIL MEHTA, Editor in Chief and President, The Brown Daily Herald: Absolutely.
So, to answer the first part of your question, while on the surface, it does seem that Brown's encampment popped up alongside these encampments across the country, divestment has been a question at Brown for quite some time.
Back in 2020, an advisory committee at the university recommended divestment, but the president said no, citing the fact that it was what she characterized as a contentious geopolitical issue.
As a result of that decision, there was quite a bit of activism back in 2020 which has really continued into now.
So what we're seeing right now at Brown was a success for the protesters in a way that they haven't seen before.
It's hard to say what's going to happen in October, when the Brown Corporation votes on divestment.
But, so far, the administration that runs the day-to-day of Brown has expressed quite a bit of skepticism about divestments.
But demonstrators are really optimistic about divestment.
And they say that it would be important symbolically, and it could spark a broader divestment movement across the country.
AMNA NAWAZ: Neil, we should point out there were some students who were arrested during a previous sit-in.
After these meetings with university officials, what happens to the charges that were brought against them?
NEIL MEHTA: Definitely.
So, those 41 students that were arrested in December in a pro=divestment sit-in did not have their charges dropped.
That was a demand that these encampment protesters that have been going on for roughly one week had.
But in the final agreement with the university, there was no mention of these charges being dropped.
AMNA NAWAZ: Aarya and Spencer, I want to come to you on this divestment issue, because this does seem to be central to many of the protesters' demand.
Just briefly, what do you know about the possibility of your university or college actually engaging in that, being able to see that through?
Aarya, I will begin with you.
AARYA MUKHERJEE: Yes, I mean, obviously divestment is one of the key aspects of these encampments.
I mean, the coalition that is supporting encampment is called the U.C.
Berkeley Divestment Coalition.
And, I mean, their primary goal is the complete divestment from the U.C.
system as a whole and U.C.
Berkeley specifically from any organization, company, corporation that supports Israel's war in Gaza, as they say.
And, I mean, we have talked to some campus administrators, and they have no plans for divestment at this time.
However, the protesters themselves, I mean, that's their primary goal.
We have talked to them.
They said they're willing to be suspended, expelled or arrested until this goal of divestment is met.
So, they're really at a stalemate here between the administrators and the protesters.
AMNA NAWAZ: Spencer, what about over at Emory?
SPENCER FRIEDLAND: Yes.
So, President Fenves has not responded to my e-mails for comment on the situation.
But, yesterday, a university administration member accepted a letter of demands from student activists that calls for divestment from both Israel and also divestment from Atlanta's -- quote, unquote -- "Cop City," which is a police training facility that's being built on Muskogee land that a lot of protesters are very concerned with.
And Emory's issue is kind of different from a lot of other issues, as the protests have really been twofold, in that it's both ESJP and a free Palestine movement, but also a stop Cop City movement as well.
AMNA NAWAZ: And, Aarya, I want to point out you recently, as part of your reporting, spent 24 hours inside the encampment there.
There's been a lot of focus on divestment.
But I'm just curious what you heard from the students you talked to about what brought them out there in the first place.
Like, what was it that motivated them?
What's keeping them there now?
AARYA MUKHERJEE: Yes.
So, I mean, we didn't spend necessarily 24 hours inside the encampment.
It was more observing.
So we were sitting right outside.
But, of course, we were -- we went into the encampment on many occasions.
I mean, we spent a lot of time with people inside the encampment.
We interviewed many people.
And, I mean, there's this kind of feeling of community within the encampment, where people feel as though they're moving -- they're trying to gain something great.
They feel as if this is a national movement where people from around the country are coming together in support.
And, I mean, it's honestly very happy and lively within the encampment, and people playing music.
I mean, they have all sorts of activities planned throughout the day.
They have teach-ins about divestment.
They have teach-ins about what's happening in Gaza.
I mean, it's pretty lively attitude.
And they have community members from outside the university from people in Berkeley or in the community at large that have been supplying the materials, resources, food and support.
I mean, it's gone to the point where the encampment has said they want to stop accepting food donations because they have been getting so many.
AMNA NAWAZ: Obviously, the rest of the country and some parts of the world are paying attention to what's happening on each of your campuses, but you are there.
So I want to ask you -- and, Neil, I will begin with you -- what do you make of the way that the national news media has been covering and talking about what you're living through and covering there on your campus?
NEIL MEHTA: One thing I want to really commend the national news media on doing is centering the voices of student journalists.
These journalists know the administration and their campuses and other students just in and out, especially their demands and the histories of these activism movements because they have been covering them for years.
So I'm really glad that student journalists' voices are being platformed as national media takes a look at what's going on with these encampments.
AMNA NAWAZ: Spencer, what about you?
SPENCER FRIEDLAND: Yes, I feel like the national media has done a great job at portraying the initial events that happened on Emory's campus.
Obviously, on Thursday, the police arresting people, Tasing people, and using irritant gas was very significant, as opposed to how other police forces have handled other encampments.
But one thing I would say is that after that initial media coverage, we haven't really received as much national attention for the peaceful protests that have been going on in the recent days as other schools have their encampments, and the news media coverage has kind of moved on from Emory.
So I think it's kind of been a little, I would say, quick to judgment almost about like -- or not even quick judgment, but very over the top on the days where there is violence and there is brutality by police possibly, but not so much when there is just peaceful protests that have been happening in the days since.
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, I want to thank each of you for taking the time to join us and for continuing to cover this story as journalists on your own campuses.
That's Spencer Friedland from Emory University, Aarya Mukherjee from U.C.
Berkeley, and Neil Mehta from Brown University.
Thank you to you all.
AARYA MUKHERJEE: Thank you.
SPENCER FRIEDLAND: Thank you.
NEIL MEHTA: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: As we just heard, Brown University announced today it will vote on divestment this fall.
But how difficult would it be for other schools to divest from Israel?
Last night, we heard a perspective arguing that it can be done more readily.
Tonight, we hear a different take.
We're joined now by Chris Marsicano, who studies higher education and public policy.
He's an assistant professor of education studies at Davidson College.
Thanks so much for being with us.
So, we know that Brown University, their corporate board, will vote in October on this proposal to divest from Israeli interests.
Meantime, Columbia University, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said, in her words, that Columbia will not divest from Israel.
What's your assessment of these two approaches based on what you know about both institutions?
CHRISTOPHER MARSICANO, Assistant Professor of Education Studies, Davidson College: Well, first, Geoff, thanks for having me on tonight.
I should mention that both of these institutions' approaches are extraordinarily different.
What Brown has agreed to do is that the Brown Corporation vote on effectively a proposal that's based on a 2020 proposal that called for the divestment from just 11 companies.
Those 11 companies would be divested from part of the direct investments of Brown University, which accounts for less than 10 percent of Brown's entire endowment.
Columbia is saying, we're not going to engage in that right now.
We need to see what the situation is over the next weeks and months before we even have this conversation, and, candidly, we need to have a graduation.
So it's two different approaches.
Part of the reason why Brown may be interested in having this conversation is because of how narrow the approach is.
When we look at these encampments across the country, what we're seeing is, students are asking for divesting from three different areas, weapons manufacturers, businesses in Israel, and businesses that do business with Israel.
Brown's just looking at 11 institutions, 11 businesses.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, big picture, how feasible is this?
Because the perspective we heard last night is that, technically, it's very doable.
It's just a matter of these institutions moving their endowments into socially and ethically responsible funds.
How do you see it?
CHRIS MARSICANO: So this is a very different situation than ESG investing with fossil fuels or even South Africa 30 years ago.
It's very complicated in terms of how universities invest.
The vast majority of university endowment funds are not invested in direct stocks, like stock pickers.
We're not running E-Trade accounts as endowment managers.
What they're doing is investing in hedge funds or private equity.
And oftentimes, with the vast majority of institutions, they're looking at index funds.
Now, that's a lot of different businesses packaged in these funds.
And it's difficult to know at any given time what those businesses are doing.
The way I'd like to talk -- to think about it is, you may invest in, say, Pepsi, but not know that Pepsi is about to buy SodaStream, an Israeli company, as they did in 2017.
If an endowment manager wanted to completely divest from Israel, that would mean, once that deal is closed, divesting from Pepsi altogether.
And there just aren't index funds that have that ability to move quickly and that complete knowledge of how deeply tied companies are to the Israeli case.
So, while it is theoretically possible and while we have seen divestment from fossil fuels, while we have seen divestment from private prisons, and while we have -- I mean, while we certainly saw divestment from South Africa during apartheid, it's not terribly functionally possible.
GEOFF BENNETT: Does divestment work?
Does it bring about the kinds of changes that these demonstrators are calling for?
What does history, what does the data actually show?
CHRIS MARSICANO: It's a great question.
And the jury's a little bit out.
But what we do know is that divestment works in some cases and not in others in terms of actually affecting the economy of the place you're trying to divest from.
But really what divestment does and protests for divestments do is put political pressure on those that are the target of those divestments.
So we're pretty sure that -- from research, that divestment in South Africa didn't make a big economic impact, which shouldn't be a surprise, as universities weren't heavily invested in South Africa during the apartheid era.
But the political pressure, the slow drip of headline after headline after headline announcing different colleges and universities divesting certainly put political pressure on the apartheid regime.
We're seeing some evidence that political pressure through protest is happening tonight.
When we hear last week that Prime Minister Netanyahu specifically mentions campus protests in the United States, that lets us know that college students have captured the attention of key stakeholders for peace.
We will see if they can keep it as the semester ends and graduations begin.
GEOFF BENNETT: Let me ask you this.
Should a university invest its endowment in a way that aligns with its values, however that is defined, or should chasing returns, increasing the value of that fund be the guiding or in some cases the sole principle?
CHRIS MARSICANO: Well, legally, endowment managers have to act as fiduciaries.
And while, certainly, they have considered ESG funds or other sort of moral or ethical ties in their funds, at the end of the day, they are required to be able to justify their investment decisions based on short-term or long-term potential gains.
Because we don't know to what extent there will be a negative or positive return from divestment from Israel, it's really hard for an endowment manager to even talk about or even think about divesting based on purely moral imperatives and values imperatives from the institution.
Now, we do know from my own research and the research of others that divesting from fossil fuels made, at worst, a negligible effect for institutions like Stanford and Dayton and Syracuse and, in many cases, may have had a positive effect.
But we just don't have those data yet with respect to investments in Israel.
And so it's really hard for endowment managers to even have this choice.
At the end of the day, they are supposed to, by law, make investment decisions based on risks and the potential rewards.
GEOFF BENNETT: Chris Marsicano is assistant professor of education studies at Davidson College.
Thanks so much for your insight and putting some context around all of this.
We appreciate it.
CHRIS MARSICANO: Thank you so much for having me, Geoff.
It's been a pleasure.
GEOFF BENNETT: Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about 25 percent of all disease in the world, yet it has just 3 percent of the health care work force needed to treat it.
There are not enough medical and nursing schools, and many of the continent's graduates are recruited to wealthier countries, where health care systems are also understaffed.
Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro has a report on one effort to educate African providers who will stay and serve their communities.
It's part of his series Agents for Change.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They hiked for nearly an hour.
A small group of medical students headed to a village not accessible by car.
Their professor accompanied them, but the teacher today was a woman with little formal schooling.
When it comes to health issues in this remote community in Northern Rwanda, village health workers like Jeanne Mukarurangwa have the keenest knowledge and training to watch for telltale signs of problems.
JEANNE MUKARURANGWA, Community Health Worker (through translator): Malaria is a big problem here.
I am mainly focused on women and babies.
We register all women who are pregnant, and I will visit them three times during their pregnancy.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: After a quick briefing, they were off to the home of a couple expecting their first child.
DR. AKIIKI BITALABEHO, Professor, University of Global Health Equity: We do not want students to come in and be seated in front of a patient giving them information that is from a textbook.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Professor Akiiki Bitalabeho says textbooks teach how to treat disease.
On the other hand, real-world experience teaches how to treat the patient and why a textbook prescription may not work, for example.
DR. AKIIKI BITALABEHO: They might not be taking their medicines because, when you take them on an empty stomach, it pains.
Do you know that they woke up at 4:00 a.m. to be at your hospital at 8:00 a.m.?
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: On this day, Jeanne Mukarurangwa used her well-worn illustrated binder to make sure her patient, Solange Manakarame (ph), got important information to ensure a safe pregnancy.
She emphasized the importance of taking iron pills and eating a healthy diet, though that is not easy off a small plot of land and daily wage work when available.
JEANNE MUKARURANGWA (through translator): In such extreme poverty, it's not easy for people to afford meat, but I tell them to get eggs or milk, which they can afford.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The students will spend a lot of time in village settings.
Back on campus, they spend their first six months in non-medical coursework, like anthropology and history, before beginning six intense years that lead to degrees in medicine and global health delivery.
The University of Global Health Equity was inaugurated in 2019, brainchild of the late Harvard anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer.
He co-founded the group Partners In Health, which has brought world-class care to some of the world's remotest places.
That same philosophy brought this medical school to Butaro in Northern Rwanda.
DR. ABEBE BEKELE, Dean, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Global Health Equity: All over the world, medical schools are set up in capital cities.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Dr. Abebe Bekele, a thoracic surgeon, is dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Global Health Equity, or UGHE.
DR. ABEBE BEKELE: UGHE is a complete opposite to that.
It's closer to the community, to the vulnerable, to the poor.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It all began in 2011 with a world-class hospital in Butaro.
It has the only oncology center in the entire country outside the capital, Kigali, which is too distant and expensive for most rural patients.
Most cancer patients in this country and many others simply go untreated.
Take just the example of breast cancer, where, in high-income countries, more than 90 percent of patients survive five years after their diagnosis.
The equivalent figure in sub-Saharan Africa is 40 percent.
JENNIFER DICKSON MCKUNDE, Student, University of Global Health Equity: I started out in the oncology ward, where I was just meeting a lot of patients coming in and out, coming in and out.
I think she has breast cancer metastasis.
And it's so sad to see how many of them come at late stages and are just left on palliative care.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That said, third year student Jennifer Dickson McKunde, who's from neighboring Tanzania, says every patient, including a woman whose condition is incurable, gets the best available therapy to ease their pain and suffering, a marked departure from the practice and philosophy in many low-resource settings.
JENNIFER DICKSON MCKUNDE: In Tanzania, she wouldn't be able to get her chemo for free.
And they wouldn't even recognize that that chemo is even useful or, as they would say, worthwhile for her.
McKunde is among 42 students from nine African countries, 70 percent of them female, selected each year from nearly 1,600 applicants.
And because it's much needed in rural settings, their education emphasizes emergency and trauma care.
The mannequins can actually accurately simulate pain points.
The goal is to train doctors who are also advocates for equitable care.
Students sign contracts agreeing to work for five years after graduation in an underserved area.
In exchange, they get a free ride here.
DR. ABEBE BEKELE: Young people with the heart, the brain and the hands to practice medicine, in that order, should be given the opportunity to do so.
DR. NITASHA SHARMA, Trauma Surgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital: OK, so we're starting to see some structures here.
What are we seeing?
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And the university has partnered with some of the world's top institutions that regularly send guest faculty, like Dr. Nitasha Sharma, a trauma surgeon at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital.
DR. NITASHA SHARMA: You want to hold your probe from the top.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: One concern is how such interactions might influence the aspirations of the future doctors.
Some 5,500 physicians from sub-Saharan African nations now work in the United States alone.
DR. NITASHA SHARMA: Every trauma team needs a team leader.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Will these students resist the lure?
Given the economic and financial realities of our world today, they get an offer to go to North Carolina, Harvard, Edinburgh at enormously large salaries?
DR. ABEBE BEKELE: Yes, absolutely.
We can't deny that.
DR. NITASHA SHARMA: Is everybody ready?
MEN AND WOMEN: Yes.
DR. ABEBE BEKELE: Every faculty conveys that message, that God put them in this place for a reason.
There is some sacrifice this generation has to pay for the betterment of the next generation.
We have six-and-a-half years to make sure that's done.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The university does have agreements with governments of the students' countries to ensure its graduates will receive livable wages.
Students we spoke to were determined to stay in their home countries.
David Saizay is from the civil war-ravaged West African nation of Liberia.
DAVID SAIZAY, Student, University of Global Health Equity: I would like to work with my Ministry of Health so that we can be able to put things in place for people that can't afford basic medical aids, basic medical care.
Jocelyn Nzisabila says she's determined to be part of the rebuilding efforts in her native Rwanda.
JOCELYN NZISABILA, Student, University of Global Health Equity: I don't see anything which is more fulfilling than actually serving your community.
If I'm not going to be part of the solutions, who's going to do it?
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Jennifer Dickson McKunde's role model is her mother, a physician who returned to serve in Tanzania.
JENNIFER DICKSON MCKUNDE: Most of her education, she was able to attain it abroad, and she always mentioned that there's nothing better than home and helping your people.
And, for me, myself, I felt -- I feel the same way.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Dean Abebe admits this university faces tough challenges, counting, among other things, on philanthropic funding.
But, he says: DR. ABEBE BEKELE: Three hundred fifty years back, Harvard was just a small building.
Look at it now.
I think they had that vision.
We probably may not see it in our lifetime, but this is a beacon of hope for medical education in the continent.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The University of Global Health Equity will graduate its first cohort of medical and global health practitioners in 2026.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Butaro, Rwanda.
GEOFF BENNETT: And, tomorrow, we will look at an effort to improve and sustain agricultural production in Africa.
And we should say that Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
AMNA NAWAZ: Amid the ongoing trauma in Israel and Gaza, singing a different song.
The Jerusalem Youth Chorus is trying to do what few others seem able to do these days, see each other as people and to enjoy each other through a love of music.
Jeffrey Brown spent a day around the nation's capital with them recently for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
(SINGING) JEFFREY BROWN: The Jerusalem Youth Chorus, Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews, residents of the same city experiencing life and the ongoing war in vastly different ways, disagreeing about fundamental issues and policies, but singing with and speaking to one another across a great divide; 17-year-old Dahlia Jaouni is a Palestinian Muslim from East Jerusalem.
DAHLIA JAOUNI, Jerusalem Youth Chorus: I joined for the music.
I stayed because it was so much more.
JEFFREY BROWN: How is it more?
DAHLIA JAOUNI: We have dialogue.
We talk.
I think, if it weren't for the choir, I wouldn't have interacted with Israelis, like, ever.
So it offered me that, and it offered me also a space to share my voice.
I feel like, as a Palestinian, you don't have many of those places where I live.
JEFFREY BROWN: Fifteen-year-old Hadas Sabbah is from a Jewish family living in West Jerusalem.
HADAS SABBAH, Jerusalem Youth Chorus: I thought it was only singing.
And then we just kind of like got separated into groups and we started talking and sharing.
And it was -- at first, it was kind of shocking, but it was so interesting.
JEFFREY BROWN: You said it was shocking at first?
HADAS SABBAH: A little bit, yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: Because?
HADAS SABBAH: It's just things I never thought I'd hear and people I never thought I'd get the chance to talk to.
JEFFREY BROWN: It's hard to conceive at this moment of enormous trauma that there they were amid a recent four-city North American tour titled A Different Song, a mix of high schoolers and older alumni speaking and rehearsing in three languages when we joined them on a day across the Washington, D.C., area.
The chorus was founded in 2012 by Micah Hendler, a Jewish American, as a project focus on building community through music, traditional choral training paired with professional facilitator-led discussions that run from the personal to political.
The group gathers once a week, even through the months of the war, its members coming from different parts of the city.
But, from the beginning, Hendler wondered if anyone would join.
MICAH HENDLER, Founder, Jerusalem Youth Chorus: I knew from some of the research that I had done that I shouldn't go to schools and try to recruit singers by telling them that this is going to be some, like, peacemaker program because everyone would laugh me out of the room, but looking at sort of why young people from East and West Jerusalem might actually want to join a program like this.
JEFFREY BROWN: You can't go and overtly say this is about peacemaking?
MICAH HENDLER: No, because people will just be like, get out of here.
Like, do you understand that that's insane?
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
MICAH HENDLER: but you can say, hey, we have got this youth program.
It's an opportunity to learn to sing, to make new friends, to travel the world, to grow your own sense of yourself, to be able to listen to others.
JEFFREY BROWN: One person who took up the call, Amer Abu Arqub, who joined as a teen, later studied and practiced law and is now the executive director of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, or JYC, a firm believer in its ideals, but also someone who lives the realities of the region.
AMER ABU ARQUB, Executive Director, Jerusalem Youth Chorus: For me, growing up, I have never shared with my friends that I'm doing this amazing project.
And, until today, I work at the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, and I'm not very loud about what I do because... JEFFREY BROWN: You don't tell people, friends?
AMER ABU ARQUB: I choose where to tell, because I need to choose my battles, because many people would view what the Jerusalem Youth Chorus is doing, especially in the Palestinian community, as normalization work, as, like, look how Israel is a beautiful country, look how nice we are, Israelis and Palestinians singing together, and life is flowers.
But the Jerusalem Youth Chorus isn't that.
One of the things that I always say, that being the executive director of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus is the most Palestinian thing that I can ever be doing.
JEFFREY BROWN: Because?
AMER ABU ARQUB: Because I use the platform that JYC creates to, one, help the youth in Jerusalem develop their own agencies as Palestinians and understanding of the situation, because JYC gives me a platform to humanize Palestinians, where many Palestinians are being dehumanized now in Jerusalem and all over the world, and because that I believe that the circle of violence will never end.
And we just need to find those who we can be partners with.
JEFFREY BROWN: The group traveled across the city talking and singing along the way.
Their visit coincided with the solar eclipse, which they watched on the National Mall.
And then, like tourists, they enjoyed ice cream from a truck and visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Then, as always, they talked of what they'd seen and felt, making connections, here to the treatment of African Americans, particularly after the Civil War during the Jim Crow era.
MAN (through translator): This reminded me of what happened with the ethnic cleansing of the Orthodox Jews in the Holocaust, as well as the ethnic cleansing currently happening for those Palestinians who don't have an I.D.
card.
WOMAN (through translator): Some of the Black people that live here now, they have centuries of ancestors living here.
It's their heritage.
For us, living in Israel, it's like a sanctuary.
And, here, they do not have it.
JEFFREY BROWN: That evening, they shared their traditional Ramadan iftar meal, hosted by the Rumi Forum at the American Turkish Friendship Association in Northern Virginia and watched and cheered a performance by ADAMS Beat, a Muslim American youth choir.
The next night, the JYC performed at the Adas Israel Congregation, all this while Israeli hostages continue to be held by Hamas and the deaths and horrific living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza mount.
This tour was originally scheduled for the fall, but had to be put off following the escalation of violence.
Micah Hendler and Amer Abu Arqub were determined to pull it off now.
MICAH HENDLER: Ultimately, what we're seeing right now is Israelis and Palestinians are both losing.
The extremists are winning, and normal people are losing.
And that is not a zero-sum game.
That is a different type of reality that most people don't want to acknowledge.
But, ultimately, what we're trying to show, and I think what we are showing, is that there's an alternative, because we are the alternative.
We're like, look, we're doing it.
It is actually possible, and it is so much better than what is currently happening.
JEFFREY BROWN: Hadas Sabbah told us that family friends were killed on October 7 and others held as hostages.
Her earrings say, "Bring them home."
HADAS SABBAH: It feels right to wear the earrings.
And, also, I believe that the hostages are important to the entire country, because they're all our brothers and sisters.
It's not something that I hide.
People know that this is something that's important to me, and I'm not ashamed of it.
JEFFREY BROWN: Dahlia Jaouni spoke of family in the West Bank who were unable to leave beyond closed checkpoints and the personal trauma of watching what's happening in Gaza.
Of the chorus, her friends, she says this: DAHLIA JAOUNI: We do not share the same opinions, and it is not easy to come to this choir and kind of talk about this.
It takes a lot of strength and it takes a lot of courage, but I think we all agree on the fact that the world right now is very, very ugly.
And this shouldn't -- this does not have to be the reality that we live in.
We're not going to change how wrong the system is, but we're going to - - like, we're building peace between individuals.
JEFFREY BROWN: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Washington, D.C. GEOFF BENNETT: And there is more online, including a look at a new museum exhibit in St. Louis that aims to tell a more complete picture of what happened at the city's 1904 World's Fair.
That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.
AMNA NAWAZ: And join us back here again tomorrow night for a rare conversation with the top U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific region on efforts to counter China.
And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
For all of us here at the "PBS NewsHour."
Thanks for joining us and have a good evening.