Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240714

Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by babbel. A Language Program that teaches reallnversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. Babbels 1015 minute lessons rare available as an app, online. More information on babbel. Com. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds mblt pressing ps skollfoundation. Org. The lemson foundation. Committed to improving lives through invention, in the u. S. And developing countries. T web at lemelson. Org. Th supported bjohn d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewek like you. Thu. Woodruff the storm dubbed dorian is a fullfledg hurricane tonight, and heading it strk 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 sundaor 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 hurricane response to immigration enforcement. The move takes 155 million from fema, the federal emergencyma gement agency. Vice president pences chief of staff, marc short, spoke outsidt the house. I dont think theres aha perceptionthat Hurricane Relief funding prevents hurricanes. I think theres clarity in our administration with the diffent pots of resources. I will tell you that other administrations have reprogrammed dollars before and i think the president and the administ record in responding to hurricanes. Oodruff short also denied reports that President Trump promised to rdon officials if they break the law to build a border wall faster. The administration did serve notice today that children of u. S. Military and Government Employees will no longer gain automatic cizenship if they are born overseas. The change means that children born while their parents are serving abroad, will have to gain u. S. Residency and then, apply for citizenship. The changes take effect october 29th. New york senator Kirsten Gillibrand is dropping out of the democratic president ial race. She confirmed her plans late today. Gillibrand championed womens rights and family issues, but she failed to do well in polls and did not qualify fonext 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 here is no deal with the european union. He won the queens pion today to suspend parliament before the october 31st deadlint for quitti e. U. The change gives opponents less time to block brexit from takin plthout a formal agreement. Well take a closer look, latert program. Union members rallied in hong kong today over the firing of airline employees linked to pro democracy protests. Anthay Pacific Airways has dismissed 20 pilotcabin crew in the past two weeks. Hundreds of protesters against the firings filled a square in the chineseruled city. They carried signs andemanded an end to political 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 Cathay Pacific insisted it has to comply with mainland chinas ban on any flights with crew members involved in the hong kong protests. Back in this country, republican nator 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 parkinsonse e. Georgia republicans will now have two senate seats to defend in 2020. Facebook plans to enforce stricter rules on political advertising ahead of the 2020 elections. E mpany said today that advertisers must prove theyle represent timate organization and are based in the u. S. The changes tighten procedures initially announced in 2017. All of this follows revelations that russians paid for thousands of fake political ads in the 2016 election. Apple apologized today for leing outside contractors listen to users talking wi digital assistant, siri. The iphone maker said from now on, only its own employees will listen to recorded snippets of the conversations, forty 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 dints, and the s p 500 ad 18. And, more than 20,000 people drenched themselves in red today at the annual tomatotossing brawl in bunol, spain. Re lers hurled 145 tons of overripe tomatoes at each other, covering streets with a sea of red pulp. The tomatina festival began with battle among children, in 1945. Ill to come on the newshour Hurricane Dorian swirls closer. The trade war comes home farmers and retailers feel the fallout of the president policies. Crisis in the United Kingdom why the british Prime Minister is suspending parliament over brexit. The Democratic Party cnder 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. She covers the caribbean for the as and she joins us again this ening by skype phone. Welcome back to thllnewshour so s what is the very latest you know on h twhis storm hit,ec how it affd the Virgin Islands. Well, the brunt of the strm hit mostly st. H thomas whic 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 puerirtco 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 puerto rco to just glangs the northeast part. Tonight there is still tropical 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 when i talked to you last night puerto rico w bracing for this storm and it had to be nanormous relief. It is a huge relief for manyg on the bsland. Many people went to bed worried about whether the was going to have power in the morning. Whether they would have enough supplies, food, wer. But when they woke up and saw that most of the storm was going to cover the northeast part and then throughout theay it kept moving further and further east, the concern right w is for the tiny puerto rican islands tha lie just east of the main island of puerto rico and a very popular tourist destination. I spoke to one of the mayorsid there and he hat partly hes relieved because there are no rivers on these islands, so they dont expect too much flooding and there is not really mountains. So will is no risk of landslides. But even then poer outages do remain a risk. Woodruff and as we were mentioning, of course, and as you know so well, both, all of these islands took asi mas 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, they say 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 areower outages, even with the minor rain 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. T and right now what we are told, danica ishat this storm is headed to the east coast of 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 gets stronger, you know, once it s 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 easieto predict whre exactly it will land and the future path it will take in the comingays. A. Woodruff a category 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 a row. We appreciate it. Thank you vermuch 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. This weekend, President Trump only added to the tuf his ongoing trade war with china, alternating between insults and praise for chinas 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 caughte crossfire. Brangham we first lo 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 Association, and 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 en a challenge for all of us farmer thses year, we 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 taris 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 tohanol as well as this trade fight that is going on. Whh were you hearing from er farmers. The biggest concern the farnlers 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. Thiss tremendously effected our demand 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 tome people make which is tha 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 time, this is going tt cost us, s 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 inark and they thought he was really going to champion yourause. 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 allver the states representing their producers from all over. Rs and most farre very much concerned that 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 the trade war looks of them. A loifferent 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, Regulatory Reform has helped but the trade war has cast a pal over all of that 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 walr. Greens or whate how does a trade war impact Retail Businesses . Walk 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 thatns larger tha the entire population of the United States. So its really importa 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 mart for american brans and american retailers as well. American products are very popular hina. Whether it is american 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 process to design a supply chain you have to find a place that 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 wesh ld be confronting china over the way that they handle trade their abuse of technology, 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. Businesse. Are feeling that is just a fact that is just a fact. Otherwise nobody is changing. Behavi so the pain has to be first felt 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 now they are facing losses, theyre not planting. All of these things are real. Her businesses, manufacturers that sell things like 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 isxi fing the way china does business. David french of the National Retail federation, thank you. Thanks. 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, allegedly, so he can 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. Stime in parliament for mo debate the e. U. , debate brexit and all the other issues. Ample me. Reporter three members of the govement flying up to deliver her majestys directions, refuting the claims of a 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 smash and grab on our democracy in order to force through a no deal exit from the european unio reporter the speaker, john bercow, added, however 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 doickly. The protests thougt come from all quarters. Others are happy to vacate their benches insisting its nothing unusual. People will say you campaigned to bring democracy back to parliament and now youre in favor of Closing Parliament down . That is absolutely, yet but you could say that but its absolutely wrong. Edrliament is not being cl down. The period is exactly how you would do it under any parliamentary period. Reporter protesters managing to break through the barriers outside the Prime Minister whos crossing 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 Minister johnson is doing thist sh. 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 riiow to cutand constrain the amount of time they might 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 ou its program. Hes linked that on to what is a traditional threeweek recess for the party cferences at the end of september. So those five 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 wiljust be by my calculation a couple of weeks, that is what mr. Johnson fers to as ample time, before brexit is 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 the existing 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 i if people really do believe were going to leave. So from his point of view this t 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 sigle market, in the Customs Union and trying to negotiate a future deal. A so i have toy, im a little bit sceptical that 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 has got to be at least a 50 chance. I mean mospeople 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 tkee to ure it really isnt the cliff edge that is being described. But it would have Significant Impact on the british economy. I think the chance 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 ukuntries within th like scotland because of this . Well, its very interesting. 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 nws. She is a big proponent and took bore is johnson on during the Referendum Campaign 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 the passion 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 osely. Robin niblett, thank you for joining us. Woodruff stay with us, coming up on the newshour outdoor prescription why doctors are beginning to urge patients to spend time at the park. And the woman warrior, ther latest pick r now read this book club. t it we official until midnight, but democrats appear f to be head a onenight president ial debate with ten candidates in september. Today is the deadline to meet the criteria laid out by the Democratic National committee. E lling 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, speaking to delegates at last weeks d. N. C. Summer meeting. If we wanted 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 donald trump. Im not going 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. Ward dean, welcome. So as you know, the earlier debate the were 20 candidates spread over 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. And i will say, Michael Bennet first of all isone of my favorite candidates. But the truth is you cannot have whichhe republicans do, say chaotic series of debates d ich then went on to dominate somebody who enup as president , but is probably the worst president in the United Statese history. We h have a reasonably orderly process now michael has e other shot as do so the other people who didnt get to the criteria this time. The same criteria applies to next months debate. But at some point if yt get the grass roots together, 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, roughly, that run for president all the time. And most of them never get on the debate stage. There has to be some order to this. Woodruff you are saying at some point there has to be some order, but ashe campaign of senator bennet isou pointint, we are still five months away from the first voters voting and they are asking why is the dnc in a rush to squeeze, to winnow this field . Well, they dont necessarily, eldk, the winnowers of the f are people that arent raising the money and dont have the grass roots effort. Now they have anther month to do it and i think thats fair. Even if they dont get it done in the next moh they can still go into iowa and there will be other forums and so forth and so on. T you cannot have the spectacle that went on in 2016 in the republican party. And thats what these rules aren aimed at t to not have. But again, i guess governo the question theyre raising is that why shouldnt this be up to the voters, who are going to be voting in early 200 rather than up to the Democratic Party officials. And frankly, some of th 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 ehese folks didnt get on the stage in the next end up in the top three in iowa, new hampshir or nev never or south car luna, then they will be in the primary. Were not excluding anybody from the process. We are trying toa maintai reasonable set of criteria so pele can listen to at is going on in th deb. Adyay i sould hatwghts, i ju eaiht. Lois always pe alwa riation. Hthing, wed thringee cndidates that wanteto be on all the time. At some point you cant be on all the time because ithe distracts from message of the people who are in the race. And thats the top ten people. And i dont, you know, i dont have a big quarrel with this. I was reading some of te criticisms or at least questions raised by governor steve bulock who is not going to be on the bate sage. Congress woman gabberric. D not on tate stake and the Campaign Advisor put out a statement, maybe he was quoting senator bennet himself. He said the d m. C. s process is stifling debate at a timwhen need it the most. He said were rewarding ce millions of twitter followers, billionaire was buy their way on to the debate stage and candidates who have been running for president for years. They went on to say itces campaigns to fork over millions of dollars to facebook. T pete tigieg is an example of somebody who did fine under this current system. Julian castro did fine under this system, amy klobuchar, United States senator did fine under this system. Look, you are going to have people complain. I think the world of michael and i like Steve Bullock a lot too. I hope they make it into the next round but you are going to have to demonstrate significant support and significant support both in polls and in grass roots support in order to get on that stain. And i tthats fair. You can argue that this is ash trair, maybe it is arbitrary, maybe it is too early, there has to be some support and that is 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, you might have done it over two nights with you too people, you might not have tightened. Yeah, sure, but im not the chairman of the party, tom slt chairman of the party, believe me, look, the prty was in worse the party was in pretty bad shape when i took it over. It was in worse shape when tom took it over. So of course were there is always going to be differences 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 hesoing the best he can. I should point out we did seek today to talk th chairman perez who was not available tonight and will continue,to continue to trtalk to him. But finally, howard dean, how showed voters look, between now, here we are at the end of augustthe first votes are no going to be cast, what, in iowa until early february. Vo shoulders look on this as a tprocess where you know,s good that a lot of candidates are still in the race until the ene or that it s get a lot, that there are many viewer, as soon as possible. No, i dont think we should have as many fewer as soo possiblement i think we should have a gradual winnowing process which is exactly what is going i have enjoyed these de ate debates. I thought the last one was a little rugged in terms of the way that the panel asked the questions and the candidates went after each other. The first three for me were just terrible. You know, there is a lot of people i have never seen in action that are on these debates. Including who were both i think in the last debate. So i think this a great system. I am looking forward to more. I hope some of these candidates do make the criteria which are not going to change for the next months debi ate. Courage them to do that and work hard and build their grass roots bas and i think thats good for everybody. Dd i think most democrats really enjoy thesates especially when we get to see people 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 the past few decades, pediatricians have increasingly looked for Solutions Beyond the clinic. Sometimes that literally means special correspondent cat wise has our story from oakland, california. Its part of our regular series on the leading edge of science and health. Ep ter with her sixyear old, alex, cooped upvinside, playino games, sevenyearo hd lisa gluede television, and tiself, antic with chores. But even when she maheges to drag t whole crew out into downtown oakland for some frt h air, its at youd call rest and relaxation. 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 you have to wake up, get the kids ready, get them food, you know, take them to school, ye 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 p unconventionscription for the great outdoors. I think our goal was to walk around lake merritt a fe 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 they check their patients pulse, weight and blood cessure. Do you think ld bump that up to getting outside every day . Maybe, yes. O reporter their goal is write outdoor prescriptions as often as they prescribe pills. E and to keep thsage high. Depression, anxiety, and obesity rates in america have spiked in recent years, with the centers for Disease Control and prevention now estimating thatne nearlyn five children is obese. We see so many tools that we dont have tools for. D 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 xiety or depression. And so, i think that nature an this idea of park prescriptions is empowering to me. Reporter on this day, dr. Razani was taking about a dozen of the lowincome families she sees, all with serious inner city barers to getting outside directly to one of the east bay regional parks, which is actually partnering wi the program. You have a beautiful world reporter the families meet on the first saturday of themo nth 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 at reporter far from the soundn of downtown oa. Theyre encouraged to run wild without worry, tthink about hen all else fails, just run. Around reporter to think abh t things botgger 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 andpr ession, 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 singg 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 yosee improvements in cortisol, Blood Pressure and heart rate. But more convincing to me is tht factt people who live in green areas live longer. Reporter through the shinehe program, secently completed one of the first randomized trials on the benefits of park prescriptions for low families. Every park visit resulted inm oved stress for parents. And every park visit resulted in imd. Oved resilience for a ch 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 beg tracked by the park prescription census, most of which have sprouted in 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 retentiveness and murderous rage. So youre feeling sad, depressed, anxious . Reporter the nature of the prescriptions vary by program, from general encouragement to oldfashioned paper scripts like the ones written at the Marin City Health and Wellness Center 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 tuntake more acbility for their health. Reporter the idea is gaining traction in some unlikely quarters. San franciscos v. A. Medical center prescribes nature througr its w. A. R. I. O. Ram for veterans who struggle with p. T. S. D. And anxiety. Hrr force vet Vercinia Vinzant saw the world as at before this program. After 22 years of service and some heavy trauma, she could barely leave her home. I dont know if people realize how important it is for ople like me to be able learn how to live in the 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 central park was developed beca thought that there were unhealthy Living Conditions in new york. So, were just returning to a something weve known fong time, and giving it a contemrary lens and motivation. Reporter several 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 . Reporter 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 august book club selection, part of canvas, our ongoing series on art and culture. We tried Something Different for august, we asked one of todays leading writers to choose a book she ves to return to when time slows down in the summer. Ce ste ng is author of the best selling novel Little Fires Everywhere which is now being a dapped as a new streaming video series. Her choice for our book club was the woman warrior, which the New York Times recently named as one of the best me the last 50 years. And to our de light, its thousand max even hong kingston is here as well. A special please e to havboft you. Thank 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 yu ased, it is what came to mind. It spoke to me when i was younger as a chinese american girl, speaking about some of thc experiences nese american womenment and every time i have come back to it, it sort of gives me something new. Now that i am a parent i am looking from the parent side and thinking a lot about what parents dont tell their. Childr so max even, maxine, written in the mid 70sht, rig 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, and taboos, the, adventure lives of people who had to keep their lives secret, being born a writer, i had to tell, i had to blab the stories out. R and you did it in a y creative way that jolted people then and to this day because this is a mix of fact, mythology, fact and fiction n a sense, in a memoir. Yeah, i had to do it this way. Because where one reason is that he were illegal aliens and always felt theeat that we were going to be de ported. Ha but to tell the story. Especially the stories of crossing borders against the law. And, and so i made up 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 a so many things about my parents lives in hong kong where they cme from and iina where my dad was born that were just 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 supposedo be telling you. It was a reading experiencli any i had ever had. So when 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 arting with dont tell anybody what i am about to telyou, is much 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 influence. Yes. Where it comes from, what you read, what sticks with you. Uhhuh. And the power of the imagination too. 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 herself 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 you have worked hard to mentor, to bring up new voices as well. Were seeing sort of connections here, right, especially voices a rica, Asian American voices. Where are we today . I think weinre makprogress am i think there has been more and more stories getting tol not just chinese american stories, but stories from lotsre of dif kinds of Asian American styles, asian, east asian. And were seeing por books too by writers withe asianritage that arent quote unquote about being asian. I think it isa wonderful thing that there is space now, ior think,those writers to talk about, things other than just their parcular ethnicity. Yeah. Also notablin reding your book is the themes that have stayed with us. Right, very much here with us. I feel that we have created an asian aerican Pacific Islander literature. And we di 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 there i so many of us. I think your books with a very big part of that. I mean i read your book fir when i was a teenager because my mother had it on the shelf. But when i got to co it was on my syllabus and it was often the only book bynsian 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 k that is part of your influence, you paveed the way for a lot of other writers. All right, this is great but you no i want to say thank you, maxine hong kingston, for the wounded wrior and celeste ng, Little Fires Everywhere. Thank you so much for having us o. We are going to continue our conversation online includingr Getting Office to recommend some of their favorite books and other passions. You can find that later on our website and Book Club Facebook page am but before we go, our pick for sember, one of the most talked about debut novels in recent years, conversations with friends by young irish writer sally rooney. She will be with us right here 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 pbsne hour, thank you and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by babbel. A language app that teaches reallife conversations 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 buon giorno. Im lidia bastianich, andte aching you about italian food has always been my passion. The kitchen is a beautiful place to be creating, so its endless. You should give it all the love youve got. So, join me and learn how to celebrate italian style. On its get better and better. Tutti a tavola a mangiare venite tutti a tavola a mangiare venite at cento fine foods, were dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of authentic italn foods by offering over 100 specialty italian products for the american kitchen. Cento trust your family with our family. Calabria. Crystalblue seas, rocky coasts, and sandy beachesi National Parks, anents ruins, and historical sites. Traditions still survive in