Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240714

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Woodruff the storm dubbed dorian is a fullfledged hurricane tonight, and heading it struck the u. S. Virgin islands today and brushed past puerto rico with sustained winds at 75 miles an hour. The storm could pack winds of 115 miles an hour, and strike anywhere from south florida to South Carolina, by sunday or monday. Well get a report on what dorian did in the caribbean, after the news summary. The white house today defended plans to shift money from ane response to immigration enforcement. The move takes 155 million from fema, the feral Emergency Management agency. Re vicedent pences chief of staff, marc short, spoke outside the white house. I dont think theres a perception that that hurricane lief funding prevents hurricanes. I think theres clarity in ourni adration with the different pots of resources. I will tell you that other administraogons have remmed dollars before and i think the president and the administration are proud of our record in responding to hurrices. Woodruff short also denied reports thatresident trump promised to pardon officials if they break the law to build a border wall fast. The administration did serve notice today that chilf u. S. Military and Government Employees ll no longer gain automatic citizenship if they are born overseas. The change means that children born while their parents are seing abroad, will have to gain u. S. Residency and then, apply for citizenship. The changes take ethect october new york senator Kirsten Gillibrand is dropping out of the democratic president ial race. She confird her plans late today. Gillibrand championed womens rights and family sues, but she failed to do well in polls and did not qualify for the next round of debates. Well talk about those debates, later in the program. In britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made his boldest move yet to deliver brexit, even if there is no deal with the european union. He won the queens permission today to suspend parliament before the october 31st deadline for quitting the e. U. The change gives opponents less time to block brexit from taking place without a formal agreemenlo well take ar look, later in the program. Onunion members rallied in kong today over the firing of airle employees linked to pr democracy protests. Cathay pacic airways has dismissed 20 pilots and cabin crew in the pastwo weeks. Hundreds of protesters against the firings filled a square in the chineseruled city. They carried signs and demanded an end tpolitical retaliation. Wheres the freedom of speech . Or of democracy . Or even is it, just like we said, is hong kong really dying or is already dead . Its very pathetic. Woodruff caty pacific insisted it has to comply with mainland chinas ban on any flights with crew membersed invon the hong kong protests. Back in this country, republican senator Johnny Isakson of georgia announced hes resigning at the end of the year. Isakson is 74 and is midway through his third term. He cited growing health problems, including parkinsons disease. Georgia republicans will now have two senate seats to defend in 2020. Facebook plans to enforceer striules on political advertising ahead of the020 election roe company said today that advertisers must they represent a legitimate organization and are based in the u. S. The changes tighten procedures initlly announced in 2017. All of this follows revelations that russians paid for thousand of fake politis in the 2016 election. Apple apologized today for letting outside contractors listen to users talking with digitaassistant, siri. The iphone maker said from now on, only itswn employees will listen to recorded snippets of the conversations, for quality control. Facebook, google and others have acknowledged that they, too, have reviewed audio of users talking to their digital assistants. On wall street today, financial and Energy Stocks led the Broader Market higher. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 258 points to close at 26,036. The nasdaq rose nearly 30 points, and the s p 500 added 18. And, more than 20,000 people drenched themselves in red today at the annual tomatotossing brawl in bunol, spain. Revelers hurled 145 tons of overripe tomatoes at each other, covering streth a sea of red pulp. The tomatina festival began with battle among childre in 1945. Ill to come on the newshour Hurricane Dorian swirls closer. The trade r comes home farmers and retailers feel the fallout of the president s policies. Crisis in the United Kingdom why the british Prime Minister is suspending parliament over brexit. The Democratic Party under fire for its handling of how candidates make it to the debate and much more. Woodruff hurricane dian may be sparing puerto ricos main island from its very worst. But the Virgin Islands are taking a direct hit today. And in puerto rico, many are watching to see how well the islands electrical grid holds up after an overhaul. All of those islands suffered massive damage during the hurricanes of 2017. Danica coto has reported on the preparations and aftermaths of prior hurricanes. T she cove caribbean for the associated press. And she joins us again this wey larm hit, how it afted the Virgin Islands. Well, the brunt of the storm hit mostly st. Ic thoma experienced very heavy rains. Were still trying to get ahold of officials there. I spoke with people on the bbi, about northeast of st. Thomasp and they rted flooding but no major damage. And in puerto rico there was a lot of joy or reserved joy at least on the main island gif enthat given that dorian changed its path overnight from affecting southwest part of puertoico to just glangs the northeast part. Tonight there is still trpical force storm winds expected for the northeast part of the island but the strm is making its way out of the caribbean. Woodruff but i know whtan i ed to you last night puerto rico was bracing for this storm and it had to be an enormous relief. It is a huge relief for manyi on the island. Many people went to bed worried about whether ere was going to have power in the morning. Whether they would have enough supplies, food,er. But when they woke up and saw that most of the storm was going to cover the northeast part and then throughout the day it kept moving furerer and fur east, the concern right now is for the tiny puerto rican islands that lie just east of the main island of puerto rico and a very popular tourist destination. I spoke to one of the mayorssa there and h that partly hes relieved because there are no rivers on these islands, so they dont expect too much flooding and there is int really moun so will is no risk of landslides. But even then Power Outages dok. Remain a r woodruff and as we were mentioning, of course, and as you know so well, both, all of these islands took a masve hit in 2017 from the big storms, both maria and these islands, it has taken them a long time to recover. How has that affected their ability to prepare for this years storm. Well, if you speak with government officials in puerto rico, theyay that they are prepared, ta they learned their lesson. But there is still about 30,000 blue tarps that serve as roofs throughout the island. In addition the electrical grid remains there are Power Outages, everawith the minor we experienced today there are Power Outages ranging from a hundreto a couple thousands, being without power, albeit briefly. But many of these islands are still struggling to recover,sm especially theller ones. Bbi, usbi, usbi was affected by maria, hit in december 2017. N and rig what we are told, danica is that this storm is headed tost the east cof florida. The main land u. S. How much do we know from the forecasts at this point about that . It is a bit too early to say. E forecast at theational Hurricane Center say people should be prepared, should ex act a large stong the southeast coastment and they do say that they would have a belter idea once the storm ges stronger, you know, once it has more clearly de fined center. Forecasters say that the forecast would not change that much as opposed to dorian, when it was still a tropical storm,l when it is ly organized. You know, it is very hard to say where exaly it ll go. And as we saw, the path has changed several so once it gets stronger forecasters believe that it will be easier to predict where exactly it will land and the future path it will take in the coming days. A. At woodruff aory one at this point and some, i guess some of the forecasters saying it could grow opinionlyo a category three. Danica coto, tha you very much. We appreciate your talking to us for the second night in row. We appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me. Woodruff President Trump has spent much of his term ramping up a trade war with china, andot confrontinr countries on their trade practices. Ke this w, President Trump only added to the tumult of his ongoing trade war with china, alternating between insults hid praise fors president. He also threatenedano order amerompanies to move their operatioto out of china. O so, he would use a 1977 law in a way that has never been used by a u. S. Resident before. Lliam brangham takes two looks at major sectors of the American Economy who are caught in the crossfire. Brangham we first look at the trade wars impact on u. S. Farmers with denny friest. Hes a fourth generation farmer near radcliffe, iowa. He grows soybeans and corn and rais pigs. He also represents his district at the iowa corn growers a associatio hes just coming from the groups annual meeting in des moines this week. Nah thank you very much for being here. T before we get e larger sense of how the Farming Community in iowa is doing, jusi curious how ngs are specifically on your farm. Because all three of those croio i med are rit at the middle of this whole trade malestrom, how are you personally doing. It has been a challenge for all of us farmer thses yea had a wet spring, we had delays on our planting. But we are probably better off than a lot of our people, half of our soybeanses that we produce in this country getpo ed. So it has been a huge impact in our demand for soybeanses. We as farmers have invested millions of dollars to all of our comdi group over the years years to definitely new markets especially overseas to create demand for our products. And to see these tariffs to knock them down where they lose thes markets has been a real disappointment and has really angered a lot of farmers, that we are being preyed on by pot being able to connue to acess these markets with a free trade agreement. As i mentioned, you just came from the Growers Association meeting. Was this shall yoknow there is a lot of concerns about the administrations policies with regard to ethanol as well as this trise fight thaoing on. What were you hearing from other farmers. The biggest concernthe rnlers were sharing was the fact that we were not given the promises thu president mp gave on the rural renewable fuel standards promised from him. We have hadxemptions, 31 exemptions for small refiner exemptions this past year to the tune of 1. 43 billion gals of ethanol, equivalent of 510 million bushels of corn. This is tremendously effected our mand and has dropped our price down. And we were promised in the ection that he would sport ethanol, we just need President Trump to follow up on promises he made to us. So those renewab standards on top of the trade war seem like a bit of a onetwo punch what about the argument that some people make which is that china has to be challenged on some of its practices. And we are, that might mean som shortterm pair farmers, the president has put forward two ges. Pac but that short term pain will yield a lon what do you make of that argument farmers in general support of that. But by dragging this on a longer period of toiime, this is to cost us, it is not going to be effective at all for us as farmers, this is going too far. At first we su ipport. We needed to work and get china back toa plng more evenly but just carrying it on and on andin easing the tariff, it is really, really hurting our financial position heras farm are farmers. I know you were a supporter of the president as were many farmers in mark and they thought he was really going to champion your cause. Has this past year, past year and a half made you change your position on that . Im definitely not as strong a supporter i was of him. We have farmers from all over the states reprenting their producers from all over. And most farmers are very muchha concerned hes had in the followed through. Supporting President Trump next eltion cycle will be a challenge for me if he doesnt make some improvement for us. Danie friest of the iowa corn Growers Association, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Now lets get he viewof some larger Retail Businesses about the impact of this trade david french is the Senior Vice President for Government Relations at the National Retail federation. Welcome to the newshour. Great, great to be with you. Help me understand. Which just heard a farmers perspective on how thde war looks to them. A lot of Different Things roiling in this economy, the president is footing with the federal reserve, we see tde fights, tariffs as well. From a retail perspective, h tw is trade war, this trade fight look to your industry . Well, letstart, the economy is in a good shape, in a good place. Consumers are very confident, consumers are buying things and thats good for retailers. Tax reform has helped, relatory reform has helped but the trade war has cast a pala over all of t and threatens to undo all of the good work President Trump has done by raising a lot of uncertainty and causing a lot of disruption, foa ers for customers, for s,rmers, for a lot of people, small manufacturou name it. On the retail secretarier in particular, help me derstand how that, withouts. Lets say im kroeger or costco or walgreens or whatever. How does a trade war impact Retail Businesses . Wa me through that process. You named kroeger an costco, those are two interesting businesses, both of them have made substanal investments in doing business in china not just to Improper Goods but also to tsport and Development Mar with the chinese consumer. Remember, china has a middle class that is larger than the entire populdion of the uni states. So its really important for retailers to consider trade with china to be a twoway street. So the issue being that if we have tariffs being waged become and forth between china and the u. S. And them against us, that your supply chain gets disrupted, you sumply cant t dget, you cant plan for the nextier, is that w is . That is part of it. It is also a Growth Market for llerican brans and american retailers as we American Products are very popular in china. Whether it is amecan pork or american blue jeans or american luxury gods, tyre very popular and in high demand. Eo i think retailers ar concerned thatth bo the supply chain impact is real but also the ability to grow and development that Chinese Market is also real. Let me aso add on the supply chain, nobody builds a supply chain and starts the prep signoicants by were going source our products from as far away as possible. It is a very complicated procesd sign a supply chain. You have to find a place tt can manufacture the goods at the high enough quality, at low enou price, you have to d testing and assure that the consumer is going to be safe if they use that product. You have to have Logistic Support u can transport that product into the u. S. Mark and all of these things, china happens to be one of the places that does all of these things very well. There arent other places around the world. And certainly not the United States. So the same argument that i would have that i asked dan denny friest about. I ask you, we had to challenge cheuna on its behavior. An yes it does cause pain for certain sectors of the economy, but if it pays longterms benefits torth it. What with your industry say about that. We certainly agree that we should be confronting china over the way that ty handle trade practices. Their abuse ofchnology, their it theft, all of those are valid goals. Our concern is relly with the tack tuck. The tactic of tariffs. In order for tariffs tk, first a lot of pain has to be felt by u. S. Consumers. E supply chains wont shift yefer night unless u. S. Consumers, u. S. Businesses are feeling it. That is just a fact that is just a ft. Otherwise nobody is changing behavior. So the pain has to be first fet here. But then the threat of retaliatory tariffs. So what we heard from denny was the riskhat china will cut u off from markets weve developed for decades. Many farmers have been able to expand their operations because of the growth of the Chinese Market. Now they are facing losses,ey e not planting. All of these things are real. Other businesses, manufacturers that sengll thlike airplanes, perhaps, could also lose access to the chise maket. So tariffs are a blunt tool, they dont really work very well. Theyre not surgical. Theyre not solving this soblem. They havent work far. An were concerned that it makes it harder for us to get the solution we need on the strategic imperative which is fixing the way china does business. David french of the National Retail federation, thank you. T nks. Woodruff the debate over brexit in the United Kingdom intensified today as Prime Minister Boris Johnson moves to suspend parliament. Lisa desjardins has the story, but first we have this report by paul brand of indendent television news. Reporter tonight, the power is shifting from parliament to Prime Minister. No need to defeat m. P. S, when he can just dismiss them. Suspending their work, c allegedly, so get on with his own, and announce a plan for government. There will be ample time on both sides of thr crucial octoe 17th summit, ample time in parliament for m. P. S to debate the e. U. , debate brexit and all the other issues. Ample me. Reporter three members of the government flying up to deliver her majestys directions, refuting the claims of coup. Id say they wouldnt know what they were talking abol. Its a nornctioning of our constitution. What the Prime Minister is doing is a sort of smashdend grab on oucracy in order to force through a no deal exit from the european union. Reporter the speaker, john bercow, added, hover it is ation now would be to st shutting down parliament would be an offense against the democratic process. Suggesting hell help m. P. S act h ickly. The protests thont come from all quarters. Others are happy to vacate their benches insisting its nothing unusual. People will say you campaigned ou bring democracy back to parliament and nowe in favor of Closing Parliament down . That is absolutely, yet butyo could say that but its absolutely wrong. Parliament is not being closed down. The period is exactly how you would do it under any parliamentary period. Reporter protesters managing to break through the barriers outside parliament arguing its the Prime Minister whossi cr the line. Desjardins so what does this all mean for the United Kingdome brexit anduropean union . We turn to robin niblett, director of chatham h use, the britink tank. Thank you for joining us frm london. First, this would be the longest suspensionf Parliament Since 19 what. Its obviously dramatic and it could also be risky. Why do you think prime ministe johnson is doing this sth. Well hes basically trying to spike the guns of tos oppion that want to try to take away the control of the negotiation and not give them the tim despite what he said in the lead inn of ample time, he is riing to cut down and constrain the amount of time theyight have had in parliament to try to force through legislation that would revenlt prevent him from a you lag the u to leave the, u by october 31. He has a very particular plan. You say it is the longest suspension, he has been cleverer than that. Ahe has combined what normal sort of ten days, roughly, of prorogatuon a you laked by the quen so the new government he is leading can set out its program. Hes linked tht on to what is a traditional threeweek recess for the Party Conferences at the end of seostember. So tfive weeks have been created by linking those twoun of time together and really leaving particle am only with about three days at the beginning of next week to try to blocthat loss of time. So when parliament returns after the prorogation and suspension, all of that is completed, there will just be by ple ofculation a cou weeks, that is what mr. Johnson refers to as ample time, before brexit set it take full effect. Does this mean that a Nodeal Brexit or a crash into brexit is likely or certn at this point . Well, what he would say, and there is obviously some truth to is, is that the only way he can get a deal or get the eu27 to compromise on thexisting Withdrawal Agreement that they established with theresa may is atr them to believe he u. K. Would definitely leave october 3 1s. So his point of view ied the negotiating credibility, not with Parliament Holding separate gun to my head, but the eu27 has to believe it. So i can get soe compromise on the famous irish back stop, then i can only do it if people really do believe were going to leave. So from his point of view this is to strengthen his hand in the negotiation. Personally i think im sceptical that even if eu27 did givpee soe f concession on the irish back stop, he would sti be having committed because 30 billion pounds worth of brsh money to be able to secure a twoyear peiod of limbo within which the u. K. Would carry on being in the single market, in the tostoms union and tryin negotiate a future deal. So i have to say, im a little bit scepticat even if he were able to get a concession on the back stop, whether he would be able to take it or get into particle am. And that of course is referring to the issue betrnween nortreland and the republic of ireland over all of this, and that border, how that border with, without. But let me understand you. Do you believe then a Nodeal Brexit is now luckily . I think a no deal brexit hast got to beeast a 50 chance. I mean most people would have had it down to 10, 20 , even three or four months ago. A so it ery real chance. So remember, a no deal brexiit if you knos coming and if the eu27 know its coming and the brsh govnment know its coming, there will be mitigating steps they can take to make sure it really isnt the cli edge that is being described. But it would have a Significant Impact on the british econoch. I think thce as i said are above 50 . Let me understand what that could mean then als is there any concern for increasing unrest or perhaps more calls for separation of other countries within the uk like scotland because of this . Well, its verty inesting. Ruth davidson who is the very car is matk and popular leader coof the nservatives in scotland, and has often been a contradiction in erm its, she has done a great job of buit ldg suppr conservatives in scotland. There is talk she may actually hand in her resignation tomorrow, there is all sorlts of stuch on the news. She is a big proponent an took bore is johnson on during the referendumampaign directly. So yes, this is the kind of thing that will really mobilize voter nses scotland tor say hee we are, an english Prime Minister doing what is best for the enlish conservative party against scottish interests. Bet also of course there wil a question if there is a hard brexit on what happens in aorthern ireland where majority also voted to remain during the referendum in 2016. So no, i think you can see thess n built up outside downey street, this has come as a shock. It is partly i think a sign of weakness on bore is johnsons t pat he has had to take the step as trump as he has and we will see, the blood is up and the newspaper headlines are going to be pretty severe tomorrow. We will be watching this closely. Robin niblett, thank you for joining us. Woodruff stay with us, coming up on the newshour intdoor prescription why doctors are begito urge patients to spend time at the park. And the woman warrior, thefo latest picour now read this book club. On it be official until midnight, but democrats appeared to be heor a onenight president ial debate with tenpt candidates in ber. Today is the deadline to meet the criteria laid ouicby the democrational committee. The polling and fundraising requirements are stricter than they were for the first two debates. And that has some of the candidates who did not make the cut crying foul. Here is u. S. Senator Michael Bennet of colorado, sp to delegates at last weeks d. N. C. Summer meeting. If we wted to be the party that excluded people, wed be republicans. These rules have created exactly the wrong outcomes and they will not help us defeat donalgotrump. Im nog to be on the debate stage next month, but i am gonna be out in iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina and nevada, building constituency for change that this country needs. Woodruff we are joined by omeone with experience bo the debate stage, as a 2004 presidtial contender and the former governor of vermont, and behind the scenes, as chair of the Democratic National committee from 2005 to 2009. Howard dean, welcome. So as you know, the earlier debate the were 20 candidates spread or two nights, this time there are going to be only ten, even though there are 20 candidates still in the race. That the right approach, do you think, for the Democratic Party . Well, you have to have some or order to this. Aeand i will say, mibennet first of all is one of my favorite candidates. But the uth is you cannot have what the republicans do, which say chaotic series of debates which then went on to dominatede somebody who eup as president , but is probably the worst president in the united statav history. Weto have a reasonably orderly process now michael has manother shot as do sof the other people who didnt get to the criteria this time. The same citeria applies to next months debate. But at some point if you cant get the grass roots tgether, and raise the money and be in 20 states and raise your profile, then you can be on the debate stage. There are 600 people, rou that run for president all the time. And most of them never get on the debate stageth e has to be some order to this. Woodruff you are saying oi some there has to be some order, but as the camign of senator bennet is pointing out, we are still five mo from the first voters voting and they are asking why is the dnc in a rush to squwieeze, tonow this field . Well, they dont necessarily look, the winnowers of the field are people that arent raising ee money and dont have t grass roots effort. Now they have another month to t it and i think thats fair. Even if they doet it done in the next month they can still go into iowa and there will be other forums and so forth and so on. But you cannot have the rpectacle that went on in 2016 in the republican. And thats what these rules are aimed at trying to not have. But again, i guess governor, the question theyre raising is that why shouldnt this be up to the voters, who are going to be voting in early 2020 rather than up to thera demc party officials. And frankly, some of the candidates are saying the process has not been transparent. It is transparent. And it is up to the vote ares. If the voters choose one of these voaks folks, and some of these folks didnt get on the stage in the next week, end up in the top three inowa, New Hampshire, or nev never or south car luna, thethey will be in the primary. Were not excluding anybody from the process. We are trying to maintain a reasonable set of criteria so people can listen to what is going on in the debates. If i had my way i still would have had two nights, i ju would have had five people on each night. But look, it is always aat difficult sin. We always run into this. We had to handle the same thing, we had three fringee candidates that wanted to be on all the tit. At some pou cant be on all the time because it distracts from the message of the people who are inheace. And thats the top ten people. And i dont, you know, i dont have a big quarrel with is. I was reading some of the criticisms or at least queedstis ray governor Steve Bullock who is not going to be oe debate sta. Congress woman gabberric. Not on the debate stake and the Campaign Advisor put out a statement, maybe he was quotingo sebennet himself. He said the d m. C. s process is stifling debate at a time when we need it the most. He said were rewarding celebrity candidates with millions of twitter followers, billirnaire was buy theay on to the debate stage and candidates who have been running for president for years. They went on to say it forces campaigns to fork over millions of dollars to facebook. Pete buttigieg is an exampleo ofebody who did fine under this current system. Julian castro did fine under this system, amy klobuchar,na United States r did fine under this system. Look, you are going to haveom peopleain. I think the world of michael and i like Steve Bullock a lot too. I ope they make it into the next round. But you are going to have totr demoe significant support and significant support both in polls and in gss rts support in order to get on that stage. And i think thats fair. You can argue that this is ash trair, maybe it is arbitrary, maybe it is too early, there has be some support and this what perez is trying to do and i think he is doing the best he can. You said if you designed these de bathes you might have done it differently, ght have done it over two nights with you tooer people, you might not havehtiged. Yeah, sure, but im not the chairman of the party, tom slt chairman of thearty, believe me, look, the party was in worse the party was in pretty bad shape when i took it over. Was in worse shape when tom took it over. So of course were there is always going to be drees of opinion. But i will stand up for tom perez as long as i think he is doing the best he can and i think hes doing the best he can. I should point out we d seek today to talk with chairman perez who was not available tonight and will continue, continue to try to talk to him. But finally, howard dean, how showed voters look, between now, here we are at the end of august, the first votes are not going to be cast, what, in ioa until early february. Should voters look on this as a process where you know, its good that a lot of candidains are stilhe race until the en. Or that it does get a lo, at there are many viewer, as soon as posible. No, i dont think we should have as many fewer as soon as possiblement i think we should nowing proceal win which is exactly what is going on. I have enjoyed these de ate debates. I thought the last one was a little rugged in terms of the thway thapanel asked the questions and the candidates went after each other. The first three for m were just terrible. You know, there is a lot ofe people i hver seen in action that are on these debates. Including who were both i think in the last debate. So i think this is a great system. I am looking forward to more. Om i hopeof these candidates do make the criteria which are not goneg to change for thet months debate. I encourage them to do that and work hard and bild their grass roots base. And i think thats good for everybody. And i think most democrats really enjoy these debates especially when we get to seepe le that we dont really know that well. Howard dean, the former chair of the Democratic Party, former candidate for president himself. Thank you very much. Thanks, judy. Woodruff as rates of chronic diseases among children have skyrocketed in t past few decades, pediatricians have increasingly looked for Solutions Beyond the clinic. Sometimes at literally means prescribing time outside. Special correspondent cat wise has our story from oakland, california. Its part of our regular series on the leading edge of science and health. Reporter with her sixyear old, alex, cooped up inside, playing video games, sevenyear old lisa glued to the television, and tina herself, frantic with chores. But even when she manages to drag the whole crew out into downtown oakland for some fresh air, its not what youd call rest andelaxation. Alex watch where youre going watch where youre going. Stop looking at thatin turn that thoff. Reporter the stress can be too much. Every day being a mother yop, have to wakeet the kids ready, get them food, you know, take them to school, you have to go to work, get back home, get dinner for the its really challenging, for real. What can we do . Reporter thats why primary care doctor Nooshin Razani has written this entire family an unconventional prescription for the great outdoors. I think our goal was to walk around lake merritt a few times a week. How did it go . Reporter at this clinic runf by u. C. S. F. Bechildrens hospital in oakland, razani and her colleagues check on time spent outside nearly as much as their patients pulse, weight and Blood Pressure. We do you thinould bump that up to getting outside every day . Maybe, yes. T reporter their goal write outdoor prescriptions as often as they prescribe pills. Ad to keep the dosage high. Depression, anxiet obesity rates in america have spiked in recent years, with the centers for Disease Control and prevention now estimating that nearly one in five children is obese. We see so many tools that we dont have tools for. And family stress, right now, is something that is causing all those chronic illnesses happening in pediatrics. I mean, i didnt go into pediatrics to deal with high Blood Pressure or anxiety or depression. And so, i think that nature and this idea park prescriptions is empowering to me. Reporter on this d. Razani was taking about a dozen of the lowincome families she sees, all with serious inner city briers to getting outside directly to one of the east bay regional parks, which is actually partnering with the program. You have a beautiful world reporter the families meet on the first saturday of the month for whats known as the Shine Program. They pile into a big Yellow School bus. Wheels on the bus. Reporter . And head out along the windy roads outside oakland to lake chabot regionala. Hello, everyone we are so excited to have you here atr reporar from the soundsan of downtown oa. Theyre encouraged to run wild without worry, to think about when all else fails, just ru. Ar reporter to think about things both bigger than themselves and smaller. Look at all these little pathways from the wood beetles, you think . Reporter it seems pretty commonsense that getting outdoors would be good for people. But does nature actually help to heal . Theres growing Scientific Evidence that it does. Studies have shown that exposure to nature can lower rates of of conditions like anxiety and depression, and even preterm labor, asthma and nearsightedness. But why nature is beneficial is not entirely clear. Some suspect that natural stimuli the swaying trees, Rushing Water and singing birds might reset our fight or flight response, which is too often switched into overdrive by the stresses of urban modern life. That rest, in turn, gives the bodys psychological, digestive and immune systems the break they need to function normally. If you take an urban adult into a forest, within 15 minutes you see improvements in cortisol, Blood Pressure and heart rate. But more convincing to me is tht factt people who live inve green areas li longer. Reporter through the shinehe program, secently completed one of the first randomized trials on the benefits of park prescriptions for lowincome familiesvi every part resulted in improved stress for parents. And every park visit resulted in ilproved resilience for a but it didnt matter if they came with us or they went on their own, as families. Te rep the Shine Program is part of a network of more than 80 outdoor prescription programs in 34 states being tracked by the park prescription census, most of which have sproutedn the last decade. From the people that brought you getting outside, comes prescriptionstrength nature. Reporter the movement has inspired spoof drug ads from the cloradobased group naturerx. Nature can reduicism, meaninglessness, anal tentiveness and murderou rage. So youre feeling sad, depressed, anxious . Reporter the nature of the prescriptions vary by program, from geral encouragement to oldfashioned paper scripts like the ones written at the Marin City Health and wellneter near san francisco. Why is it important to write this all down on a piece of paper, a prescription pad, versus just telling sowhy dont you get out into nature more . I feel like if im writing this prescription, its a form of agreement beten me and the patient. Its more for the patient themselves to take more accountability for their health eporter the idea is gaining traction in some unlikely quarters. San franciscos v. A. Medical centerrescribes nature through its w. A. R. I. O. R program for veterans who struggle with p. T. S. D. And anxiety. Air force vet Vercinia Vinzant saw the world as a threat before this program. After 22 years of service and some heavy trauma, she could barely leave her home. I dont know if p realize how important it is for tople like me to be able to learn how to live world again. Because trees are forgiving. The grass doesnt dge you. The grass doesnt care how sad you seem to be that day, itt doesre. When i first started this i was oike, come on, seriously . Going outside is to help what, really . But amazingly so, it does help. Reporter greg moore of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy helped create a new National Park Prescription Network to promote knowledge sharing among all these groups. But the idea of using public lands as Health Care Facilities isnt a new one, he says, just one in need of a comeback. I think that not many people are aware that actually the genesis of the park was a Public Health genesis. D central park weloped because people in new york thought that there were unhealthy living conrktions in new so, were just returning to a something weve known fong time, and giving it a contemrary lens and motivation. Reporter seval of the nations largest insurers have begun supporting this work and reimbursing visits to health care providers, as well. How would you address critics who might say, you know,adhis is just a i think, actually, what were doing is common sense. The problem is that society has shifted so far away from common sense. Im hoping that rather than a fad, that kind of becomes an accepted standard of living, and a human right. Not only for kids actually, for everyone. Reporter a human right to fresh air and a taste of whats possible. Is it delicious . R for the pbs newshour in oakland, im cat wise. Em woodruff ar of stories of ancestors in china and the lives ofimsianamerican grants. Jeffrey brown has our augule book club seion, part of canvas, our ongoing series on art and culture. We tried Something Different for august, we askedne of days leading writers to choose a book she loves to return to when time slows down in the summer leste ng is author of the best selling novel little fireves ywhere which is now being a dapped as a new streaming video series. Her choice for our book club was the woman warrior, which thew rk times recently named as one of the best memoirs of the last 50 years. And to our deg liht, its thousand max even hong kingston is here as well. A special pleasure to have boft you. You for doing this. Thank you so much for having us. Tell me why you picked this book. This just a book that has been so important to me and influential to me personally that as soon as you asked, it is what came to mind. It spoke to me when i was younger as a chinese ame girl, speaking about some of the experiences of chinese american womenment and every time i have come back to it, it sort of gives m something ne now that i am a parent i am looking from the parent side and thinking a lot about what parents dont tell their children. So max even, maxine, written in the mid 70s, right. What were you, how you can encapsulate, what were you trying to do . Well, the first sentence in the woman warrior, it says dont tell anyone my mother said, what i am about to tell you. Uhhuh, we have secrets right away. Yes, andbo ta, the adventures, the lives of pe who had to keep their livesin secret, born a writer, i had to tell, i had to blab the stories out. And you did it in a very creative way that jolted people then and to this day because this is a mix of fact,ac mythology,and fiction n a sense, in a memoir. Yeah, i had to do it this way. Because where one reson is that we were illeg aliens and always felt the threat that we were going to be de ported. But i had to tell the story. Pe ally the stories of crossing bdeor against the law. And, and i made up a new way of storytelling, so that you cant tell whether im writing fiction or nofiction. And celeste, you were starting to say how this feltec cod to your own life in some ways. Yeah, im an americanborn chinese but there are so many things about mys parents li in hong kong where they came from and in china where my dad was born that were st so opaque to me when i was growing up. Would get sort of maybe the end moral of the story but i didnt get a of the details along the way. And that was one of the things that the woman warrior made clear to me thathese stories filter down to us and along the way we lose track of what reay happened versus sort of what the message that the story is supposed to be telling you. It was a reading experience unlike any i had ever had. So wen you dont know the story or they dont tell you what else happened, that is wher the fictioters in you write. When i was, the woman warrior starting with dont tell anybody what i am abouto tell you, is ch like the title of your first book which is everything i never toldou. So you had that impetus too. I am just going to tell everything. An i think the writers impulse too, that whewill is a secret, there is a power there. There is something there that is dangerous. And one of the ways to sort of deal with that danger is to shine a light on it. And tell it. And imagine your way in and fill in all those details that have been sort of left out bns one of the things i love about having you both here is you can talk about ter of fluence. Yes. Where it comes from, what you read, what sticks with you. Uhhuh. And the power of the imagination to,. When i you know, i had not been to china where all of these stories came from. Or where my family came from. D so i, i would imagine it just from the bits of information, and i would imagine dhat that village was like an what that well was like where my aunt killed self and the baby. So i would imagine it and then decades later, i went to those places and so i could test the power of the imagition against reality. And you know, it was there, what i imagined was actually there. And then i, i think wow, its the power of the writer to actually make something appear. What about, you know, celeste, i know yoe worked hard to mentor, to bring up new voices as well. Were seeing sort of connections here, right, especially voices in america, Asian American voices. Where are we today . I think were makg progress am i think there has been more and more stories getting told, not just chinese american stories, but stories from lotsfe of dnt kinds of Asian American styles, asian, east asian. Ng and were seor books too by writers with Asian Heritage that arent quoote unquote abut being asian. I think it is a wonderful thing that there is space now, i f thin those writers to talk about, things other than just their pticular ethnicity. Yeah. Also notaae in reding your book is the themes that have stayed with us. Right, very much here with us. I feel that we havee crated an Asian American Pacific Islander literature. And we did not have this as part of American Literature just 40 years ago. And i have seen it grow from just a few books to now theres so many of us. I think your books with a very big part of thai t. An i read your book first when i was a teenager becase my motherit on the shelf. But when i got to college it was on my syllabus and it was often the only book an Asian American writer of any kind. Uhhuh. E and it was wonderful to hav it there, but im seeing now it is being taught alongside other ink that is part of your influence, you paveed the way for a lot of other writers. A right, this is eat but you no i want to say thank you, maxine hong ngston, for the Wounded Warrior and celeste ng, little fires everywhere. Thank you so much for havinn us. We are going to continue our conversation online includingu Getting Office to recommend some of their favorite books and other passions. You can find that later our website and Book Club Facebook page am but before we go, our pick fopr setember, one of the most talked about debut novels in recent years,rsonions with friends by young irish writer sally ry. Oo she will be with us right here next month. In the mean time please read along and join other readers in discussing the book. All on our facebook pge orw read this, a partnership with the new york times. Love that conversation with those two women writers. And that is the newshour for d thats the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided b babbel. A language app that teacheser reallife convsations in a new language. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the Corporation Fort public broadg. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank yo caioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org hello and welcome to amanpour. Were looking at some of our favorite interviews from the years. Heres whats coming up. 75 years since dday. L a ree History Lesson in a moving conversation between the generations. A 96yearold veteran and a 17yearold high school student. Plus, the real story of what tohappened here in 1944, han and author walks us thh that fateful day. I speak to the Army Secretary mark esper. S the military past and