GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonigh funded and avoid a shutdown.

The Department of Justice issues a scathing revi Uvalde, Texas, school massacre, calling it a failure.

And a doctor who worked in Gaza details the increasingly dire humanitarian situation faced by civilians caught in the Israel-Hamas war.

DR. SEEMA JILANI, International Rescue Committee: We can to be a sustained cease-fire in order for us to be able to provide basic human and dignity to the people of Gaza.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Congress has avoided a par The temporary funding bill passed with strong bipartisan support.

But a long-term fix and tougher debates remain, including over Ukraine funding and border security.

Lisa Desjardins is h So, Lisa, sign of the times.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

GEOFF BENNET funded.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNET LISA DESJARD GEOFF BENNET LISA DESJARD in the House in a matter of hours.

Why?

Because a sn want to get out of town.

But it is a sign of su bipartisan bills that were important, despite opposition from conservatives in his party.

So, government will not shut down, at least not this month.

This moves deadlines back to March, when we are very likely to be speaking ag ain.

But, meanwhi Ukraine funding and also over border security.

Now, I can report that the border security team But those two issues are now linked.

They're trying to put text together, not of money for Ukraine.

Senator Chris Murp SEN. CHRIS MURPHY One is the conversation we're having about changes in our border policy.

The other is the dollar amounts for the supplemental.

And it's possible that that could be ready for next week, but there's still work to do.

LISA DESJARDINS: Still work to do.

We're going to be watc We will see if we get te GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, House Republic proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Where does that all stand?

LISA DESJARDIN Homeland Security Committee.

It's significant, because it is to articles of impeachment.

They asked Secretary Mayorkas to appea He said he had scheduling conflicts because a They say he tried to reschedule, but that the House Republicans didn't respond.

Now, in that hearing, the House members laid out Republicans, laid out their case that they think Secretary Mayorkas should in fact be impeached.

Here's the chairman of the committee, Mark Green.

REP. MARK GREEN ( The truth is, Secretary Mayorkas has disregarded court orders, laws passed by the United Sta Congress and has lied to the American people.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, of course, Mayorkas and Democrats decry that.

They say that that is misinformation, in their words.

The lie that he -- that Republicans are talkin the border is under operational control, they say that's a lie.

The secretary says you have to have a reasonable standard.

He also says he needs more resources.

They're doing more than they have e people that we have ever seen, more fentanyl seizures than we have ever seen.

But Republicans brought a series of witnesses today that were emotional, one mother, for example, whose daughter was killed by an undocumented immigrant, MS-13 member, another mother whose daughter died from a fentanyl overdose.

Now, Democrats responded with sympathy, of course.

These were very strong, tragic and powerful stories, but they really has to do with the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas.

Here's one of the members of Congress.

REP. SHEILA JACKS not be the solutions that they seek, under the false pretense that impeaching Secretary Mayorkas would be -- in any way prevent what happened to their children from happening to someone else's.

LISA DESJARDINS: The t I'm told by sources, to move on articles of impeachment, likely the last week of this month.

GEOFF BENNET Do House Rep to impeach him?

LISA DESJARD Let's look at what's going on in the House right now.

OK, so we have 220 Republicans, because we 213 Democrats.

However, there are two Republican Now, that is close.

But next week, another Republican w So, next week, Geoff, 217, 213, that's a one-vote margin.

Why is it a one-vote margin?

Because if you move two votes fr Ties fail.

Essentially, the n only Republicans.

Now, it does seem that the and there may even be some Democratic support.

So just by the narrowest of margins, it looks GE OFF BENNETT: And House Republicans apparently have their hands full wi and impeachments because they're also now trying to further their investig Biden.

But there wa Where does that stand?

LISA DESJARD Hunter Biden That was the contempt issue.

We expect that testimony So , for the moment, contempt is off the table.

Hunter Biden will be speaking to investigato GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins on top of all of it, as always, thanks so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed any talk of Palestinian statehood after the Gaza war ends.

That laid bare a deep division with U.S. policy, but the prime minister said he's made his stance clear to Washington.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Mi Israel needs security control over all territory West of the Jordan.

I tell this truth to our American friends.

The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends, and saying yes when possible.

GEOFF BENNETT: In response, the St must include a state for Palestinians.

MATTHEW MILLER, State Department Spokesman: Th to provide lasting security and there is no way to solve the short-term challenges of rebuilding Gaza and establishing governance in Gaza and providing security for Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

GEOFF BENNETT: Netanyahu also insisted again th ere is a decisive victory over Hamas.

In Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry reported the Palestinian deat And Palestinian medics said an Israeli missile destroyed a home in Rafah today, killing 16 people.

Half of them On the Israeli side, the family hi s first birthday.

They have had no The U.S. military has hit Houthi rebels in Yemen for the fifth time, knocking out two anti-ship missiles.

That comes after the rebels, back vessel.

President Biden will continue.

Pakistan struck back at Iran today with It came two days after Iranian strikes inside Pakistan.

Cell phone video today showed a large crater after a Pakistani strike on an Iranian vill The Pakistanis said they targeted separatists hiding along the border.

MUMTAZ ZAHRA BALOCH, Pakistani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson: This morning's in light of credible intelligence of impending by these terrorists.

Acts like the one which took place a co GEOFF BENNETT: Iran says its airstrikes earlier this week also targeted separatists on the Pakistani side of the border.

Back in this country, this week's winter storms The latest victims were in Portland, Oregon.

Three people were apparently electrocuted Wedn their SUV.

A baby inside was rescued.

Yet another round of freezing rain is expected In Georgia, a judge will hear allegations against the district attorney who accused former President Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 election results.

A defense lawyer alleges that Fani Willis had an affair with her special prosecutor and profited financially from the case.

The motion seeks to toss the indictment Willis has not directly addressed the allegations, but has The hearing will be next month.

Severe drought in Panama is forcing authorities to cut shi Canal by 36 percent.

Low water levels, going back to last fall, have It's one of the world's most vital routes for international trade.

Canal administrators say they hope conditions will improve when the rainy season in may.

And on Wall Street The Dow Jones industrial average gained 202 points to close at 37468.

The Nasdaq also added 200 points, more than 1 percent.

The S&P 500 rose 41.

And Spelman College in Atlanta has received the largest si Black college.

A billionaire couple $100 million to the women's school.

Most of the money will endow scholarships.

And still to come on the "NewsHour": a bipartisan pr ovide relief to struggling families; the Biden administration considers whether to ban menthol cigarettes; the demand for women-focused tourism rises as more women take solo trips abroad; and author Michele Norris discusses her new book on how Americans see their race and identity.

The Justice Department released a withering report today on how law enforcement failed in its response to the 2022 shooting attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

It's the most comprehensive assessment of what happened during the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.

The nearly 600-page report lays out a series of -- decision-making, tactics, policy, and training."

Attorney General Merrick Garland said law enforcement officers demonstr as they waited out the shooter.

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. Attorney Gene as an active shooter situation to treating the shooter as a barricaded subject.

This was the most significant failure.

That failure meant that law enforcement officials prioritized the protracted evacuati and teachers in other classrooms, instead of immediately rescuing the victims trapped with the active shooter.

It meant that officials spent time tryin entering the room and confronting him.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tony Plohetski is an invest and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of Uvalde.

Tony, thank you for being with us.

So the DOJ is saying it wasn't leadership, it was failed leadership.

And this report finds real po lice chief.

Tell us more about that and then walk us t TONY PLOHETSKI, The Austin-American Statesman: Well, Geoff, it is the most an d broadest investigation that has been released into the shooting.

And in many ways, it continues to substantiate and confirm much of what the public has known.

But this report is also striking in terms of its breadth in discussing the consequences of that and the aftermath of the shooting.

So, for example, it describes that because there was a fa incident commander, the time that should have been spent putting together, for example, a way to triage the children and the patients who were coming out of Robb Elementary School, that was not done.

And in a very jarring and on a sidewalk outside of the school, not getting proper care, and later died.

So the report itself, again, really walked us through the failed response in those precious 77 minutes, but also the consequences thereafter.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk more about the failed emergency response, because the report, you mentioned, finds that medical teams were hampered from doing their job.

Law enforcement was moving injured kids in ways that were probably more helpful.

That's a direct line from the report.

Several students with bullet wounds, graz to a civic center without having been brought to the attention of medics.

How did the EMS response add to what the DOJ calls this cascade of failures?

TONY PLOHETSKI: Well, one of the things, as you mentioned, there was blood supplies, for example, that were brought to the scene, but were not used on the patients.

And I think also, as part of this conversation as well, it was also striking that there was no way for ambulances to in an emergency fashion enter the campus, because law enforcement officers who descended blocked the entrances to the school.

So a question was asked to the attorney general point blank today, would more people could have -- could they have survived, would they have survived had they been able to receive very urgent medical care?

And his answer was a resoundin GEOFF BENNETT: Tony, how are the families re TONY PLOHETSKI: Well, you know, Geoff, the families of the 19 children and two teachers really don't speak with a collective voice, as you can imagine.

They're all processing this in very different ways.

But, to be clear, the information that they receive today is very difficul I think, in many ways it absolutely confirms their worst suspicion and their worst nightmare.

But now the conversation also continues to focus, as it has since May of 2022, by the way, on accountability and whether or not those families will ever see any sort of satisfying accountability in the aftermath.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, wha Does the release of this report change that in any significant way?

TONY PLOHETSKI: Federal officials took great pains today to say that the scope of this investigation was not about identifying potential criminal liability, that that was outside the scope of what they were doing, and, as a matter of fact, did not find any federal crimes that could potentially be federally prosecuted.

That means that accountability has to be done with regard to criminal charges at t level.

And we know that the district attorney has said she is actively investigating.

But, as you can imagine, on the ground among those families, there's a push for something more timely and a more timely result of her investigation.

Geoff, also, I do want to point out, there continue to be administrative investigations inside some of the law enforcement agencies whose officers responded that day.

But the report actually points out the fact that these types of administrative investigations regarding whether or not law enforcement officers violated their own department policies, those similarly, according to this report, must be done at a much faster pace in order to provide the public and, in particular, the families of those victims much more timely information.

GEOFF BENNET Tony, thank you so much for joining us this evening.

TONY PLOHETSKI: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: The federal child tax credit may soon be expanded as part of an effort by some lawmakers to ensure that more American families can access the benefit.

If the proposal becomes law, it would gradually increase the credit from $1,600 to $2,000 per child in 2025 and allow lower-income families to receive a refundable tax credit for each child.

Right now, man It would also adjust the credits for inflation and increase what's available to t pay little to no income tax.

Sharon Parrott is the president of the Center on Bud That's a progressive think tank that studied this deal.

Thanks so much for coming in.

SHARON PARRO GEOFF BENNET monthly payments that some Americans received under President Biden' but you still support this proposal.

Why?

SHARON PARRO So the Rescu It made the entire credit available to low-income families, regardless of their earnings.

It increased the amount of the credit for all families, and it provided the credit on a monthly basis.

And that is a And this is smaller than that, there's no question.

But it still is helping 16 million children who no because their family's incomes are too low.

And it's going to lift about 500,000, half-a-million, chil fully in effect.

So it is an important, An d, yes, we should continue to work toward a more robust child tax credit that can do even more to lift kids out of poverty.

GEOFF BENNETT: I want The Wall Street Journal op-ed board says the package would un to work to receive the credit since they wouldn't have to earn as much income to qualify.

Do you see it that way?

SHARON PARROTT: So It says to a mom with a couple of kids who's working as a home health aide or a food server that they are going to be able to get a little bit more in their child tax credit.

They are going to be able to get maybe $1,000 more than they get under current law.

That is money that she can use to pay a utility bill, to fix her car so she can keep going to work, to buy diapers, to buy food at the grocery store.

This is providing real, meaningful help to working families that right now are sh of the full child tax credit because their earnings are too low.

We have an upside-down policy right now where we give the least help to the families who need it the most.

Now, let's be clea Under this package, families still credit.

And the cred So families with some of the lowest incomes will either not qualify for the credit at all or still qualify for a small credit.

But it is providing meaningful help to 16 mill GEOFF BENNETT: The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in a this proposal for finding offsets to help pay for it, but it also said it could still set the stage for substantially more debt over time.

That's a direct quote.

And there's the th and cost billions of dollars and add billions of dollars to the federal deficit over time.

SHARON PARROTT: Yes, let's be clear about what this proposal does.

There's a series of corporate tax breaks and it's paired with this modest, but importan expansion of the child tax credit.

These provisions in this package are If Congress comes back to make them permanent, of course, they would cost more.

And, at that point, Congress should pay for them.

They should find offsets.

And that's absolutely possible.

If we ask high-income people and prof we can invest in low-income kids in ways that pay off for them, their families and the country as a whole.

GEOFF BENNET thanks so much for your insights.

We appreciate it.

SHARON PARROTT: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Activists and health advocates are ramping up efforts to get the Biden administration to ban menthol cigarettes ahead of an FDA deadline this weekend.

This afternoon, community leaders and public health advocates marched toward the White House and staged a homegoing mock funeral for the 45,000 Black lives lost to tobacco-related illnesses every year.

But there's been a battle over whether Stephanie Sy has the latest.

STEPHANIE SY: The decision to go through last summer.

White House officials are reportedly at od But public health officials and the FDA say a ban would save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Menthol ciga Black smokers use menthols, compared to 34 percent of white smokers.

And there's a reason for that, says Keith Wailoo, author of the book "Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette."

Professor Wailoo, thank you for joining the "NewsHour."

Start by giving us a sense of how great a toll menthol cigarettes have ha communities.

KEITH WAILOO the Menthol That is to say, sm cardiovascular disease, and a wide range of other ailments across America.

The menthol cigarette and the way in which the industry has pitched the menthol cigarette over the course of decades to the Black community has also resulted in generations of smokers initiated into smoking who otherwise would not have been.

So, the menthol cigarette is a key tool in the recruitment of smokers over th of generations.

This is really a moment that has been long STEPHANIE SY: The idea of a ban, though, Profess Why does it keep getting delayed?

KEITH WAILOO: Well, this moment has been And the story really starts in 2009, when the Food and Drug Administration was given authority for the first time in the nation's history for regulating tobacco products.

Imagine that.

Only 15 year In that legislation signed by President Obama, flavored cigarettes were banned as illegitimate enticements, particularly because they were seen as important to youth initiation.

But menthols were exempted.

And the question was kicked over to the Food and Dr And, in some ways, what we're dealing with is the aftermath of that Th e FDA has tried twice before to move.

So, in some ways, we're really at the cusp of a story very slowly.

STEPHANIE SY may be cause for delay?

KEITH WAILOO: Well, that's true.

I think part of the to to a contemporary hot-button political issue in order to rally the public against what most public health advocates and most citizens, frankly, see as commonsense tobacco regulation.

STEPHANIE SY: There is an argument on the other side of the ban, including from prominent Black leaders, who say that a menthol cigarette ban could lead to more criminalization of Black people.

How do you r KEITH WAILOO of Black people, and they try to wrap menthol cigarettes around it.

I really regard this argument as insincere, right, and deceitful for a couple of reasons.

One, we have examples of entire states like California and Massachusetts that have banned menthol cigarettes, have banned flavored cigarettes, and nothing like this has resulted.

So this is part of the big tobacco playbook to take a legitimate issue around which there is fear, mistrust and concern and try to connect it somehow to what the industry sees as a lucrative, but deadly product.

STEPHANIE SY: There's also, though, a poll making t menthols could hurt President Biden's reelection campaign during a contentious election year.

And, ultimately, the decision will be up to Biden, the ban.

Cornell Belcher is a Democratic pollster who worked for President Obama.

CORNELL BELCHER, Former Obama Campaign Pollster: There is some issue where African Am voters, particularly African American voters in that space, look at a ban and not on broader tobacco products, but particularly on menthols, which they use disproportionately, and go, why are we being singled out and targeted in this way?

There's a segment of the African American community who thinks this could cause harm, prohibition could cause more harm than benefit.

STEPHANIE SY: Professor, we should note that the poll which is a world tobacco giant, as you know.

But can you see political considerations influencing President Biden's decision on KE ITH WAILOO: One would hope that, ultimately, science and public health considerations will play a -- the majority of a role in the administration's decision.

That said, I'm skeptical about whether the political considerations that come by way of a Altria-funded poll that suggests that there may be a split in the Black community and there may be political consequences, I'm skeptical of those findings, partly because this is how the industry has worked historically with regard specifically to social science experts, psychologists, pollsters, who helped the industry figure out the best way to pitch an issue, to politicize it in order to protect a threatened and lucrative market.

STEPHANIE SY: Do you have a prediction, Professor, for how you see things going from here?

Do you think a ban will be enacted under the Biden administration?

KEITH WAILOO: Well, I think that all of the scientific and political argument is in favor of the Biden administration following through.

I think the focus on how smokers will respond is only one part of the story.

It's really about moves that you make, like banning television ads or banning billboards or banning Joe Camel cartoon ads.

This is another chapter in a longstanding story to try to safegu of the American public.

STEPHANIE SY: Keith Wailoo, Thank you so much for joining the "NewsHour" with your insights, Professor.

KEITH WAILOO: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: More than 60,000 Palestinians have been wounded during the Israeli air and ground campaigns.

In a moment, Nick But, first, he looks at the state of medical care there.

And a warning: Some of the following images and descriptions are disturbing.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Gaza's hospitals today, suffering too terrible to name.

A mother hoping to find her son has just found him in a white body bag.

They pray for him at the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis three days after he left his home looking for food, never to return.

Ibtisam Mohammed Gabr Al-Qurra was told her son Abdullah was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

He was buried so quickly, his gravestone is a cinder block.

IBTISAM MOHAMMED GABR AL-QURRA, Mother of Deceased (through translator): I'm hurting like a burning blaze.

I told my husband, let He will come back.

But it was my May his soul rest in peace.

NICK SCHIFRIN: At Gaza's largest hospit And there are scenes of desperation.

This man, wounded, was brought into a hospital where triage is on the floor an is often without anesthetic.

None of Gaza's 36 hospitals is fully functi Now it's the area outside Nasser Hospital back in the south where fighting today and over the last week forced the displaced who sheltered at the hospital grounds to flee.

The U.N. says Nasser Hospital is operating at double capacity.

But Israel says Hamas used the hospital grounds this week to fire mortars at Israel COL. ELAD TSURI, NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel accuses Is raeli commanders have shown journalists miles of tunnels underneath hospitals.

Last week, an Israeli animation of Indonesian Hospital showed what Israel called a network of Hamas tunnels underneath, and, just next to Indonesian Hospital, cars taken by Hamas militants from Israel on October the 7th.

COL. ELAD TSURI: they attack or do something, they can go through the tunnel in the city.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Gazan patients inside the hospitals are often powerless.

Last week, Al-Aqsa Hospital's generators ran out of fuel and the incubators ran only on battery.

There are on of nearby fighting.

One of those evacuated was Dr. DR .

SEEMA JILANI There is no morphine left.

I have always told myself ther And it's no longer true anymore.

So we cannot even offer an There is no death with dignity when you're lying on the ground of an emergency room in Gaza.

NICK SCHIFRI Dr. Jilani, thank you so much.

We just heard you say no death Wh at have you seen that made you say that?

DR. SEEMA JILANI boy with a bloody diaper, and his right arm and right leg had been blown off.

There was no leg below the diaper.

He was bleeding into his chest.

I treated him on the ground because th And when the orthopedic surgeon came to wrap his stumps up to stop the bleeding, I would have imagined in the U.S. this would have been a straightforward case that went immediately to the operating room because of the severity, as a stat case.

And, instead, the impossible choices inflicted on the doctors of Gaza have made it such that he wasn't the emergency of the day.

There was a waiting list, and the operating room was already ful cases.

And so I asked myself, wha who's bleeding into his chest and choking on his blood?

And that will tell you a little bit about the scale of devastation that the people of Gaza are suffering.

NICK SCHIFRIN: What does it say that DR. SEEMA JILANI And I shouldn't be useful in a war zone, because I would expect that the survivor -- the injured and war wounded would be young men.

Instead, I'm disturbed to tell you that I was extremely usef At one point, we were resuscitating five patients from the brink of death in the code room, and four of them were children under the age of 15.

That shouldn't be the case in the war.

I shouldn't be useful as a pe NICK SCHIFRIN: What moment, DR. SEEMA JILANI that her face was charred and black.

Her arms were flexed and immobile, and we did not have any for parents, whether they were alive or dead.

The emergency room was permeated with the smell of burnt flesh.

And I just kept thinking that this is one of so many of a generation of orphans that are going to be born into Gaza burnt and amputated and with no life to speak of, no access to services, no family members.

And it will stay with me for all my days.

NICK SCHIFRIN: While you were there, another of your audio recordin you were making a difference.

Looking back, do you think that your time in DR. SEEMA JILANI I do think - The doctors were showing up having been forcibly evacuated already, not once, no somewhere four to five times.

So they're scavenging for fo the next day in scrubs and with a stethoscope in hand and valiantly, bravely seeing patients.

And, one day, there was a gentleman quietly sobbing in the doctor's area, and we asked what had happened.

He pronounced a And he -- I said: "Should we And he said: "No, please stay and just see the patients today.

I can't face them."

And so I do think that us being st aff.

And they nee services to be able to be provided to people.

We also saw many, many patients to try and empty the emergency room.

The emergency rooms and hospitals have become de facto shelters, so try to continue to incr patient flow.

And, at the It's holding hands with a dying patient.

It's holding the mother whose legs give out when you tell her that her to bury her child.

That's what we're there for, to serve people that are sufferi NICK SCHIFRIN: You're back in the U.S. You're in New York.

What do you want w DR. SEEMA JILANI suffering that is happening on the ground.

We cannot look away anymore.

And there needs to be a sustained human services and dignity to the people of Gaza.

And they have a voice and they have power to make that happen.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel says Hamas uses hospitals as cover for tunnels.

Did you see any evidence of any kind of militant activity in or around the hospital?

DR. SEEMA JILANI And the IRC would never work in a condones any violation of international humanitarian law.

NICK SCHIFRIN: What do you say to the Gazan doctors you worked with who you mentioned before who, of course, are not able to leave Gaza?

DR. SEEMA JILANI And I am doing everything I can to support your d have seemed to lost somewhere along the way.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Seema Jilani of the you so much.

DR. SEEMA JILANI: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: A majority of people traveling abroad alone these days are women, and demand for women-led tour groups is rising.

Stephanie Sy is back with a closer look at the reasons why and how the hospitality industry is taking notice.

JULIA ROBERTS, Actress: I want to go someplace where I can marv STEPHANIE SY: Middle-aged woman liberated by divorce jets out to explore the world and find herself through travel.

JULIA ROBERTS: And I'm going to end STEPHANIE SY: Between 2010's "Eat, Pray, Love" an "Wild"... REESE WITHER STEPHANIE SY: ... the solo female traveler has become a Hol But it's not just in books and films.

More and more women prefer to explore the world solo.

A few years ago, then-23-year-old Molly Furey explored New Zealand alone.

MOLLY FUREY, Traveler: I got to go on an incredible boat ride through Milford Sound.

I went whale watching in Kaikoura, once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity, went snowboarding in Queenstown.

So there wer Ireland.

STEPHANIE SY MOLLY FUREY: I came back, and I felt like people were expecting me to interesting to say about it.

I was kind of struck b or self-discovery to share.

The things that actually in a film.

STEPHANIE SY noting that what she learned on the trip was more mundane, how to shop, get gas, and navigate a foreign country on her own.

BARBARA WINARD, Traveler: I started out.

STEPHANIE SY female travel was as commonplace.

Her first solo trip was to Europe in 1970.

BARBARA WINARD: People would always ask me where my hus Wasn't I afraid of traveling alone?

How did my husband allow me to travel?

And I didn't have a husband at the ti STEPHANIE SY: Now 75 and married, she still takes solo trips, but doing the same, she's rarely alone.

BARBARA WINARD: I may go places by myself, but love to travel.

So, I have a When I first started traveling, no one wan to go, so I felt I had no choice.

STEPHANIE SY: One of the people Winard As a young Black Pan Am flight attendant in 1970, she was already a pioneer.

World travel pushed the frontier even further.

PATRICIA PATTON, Traveler: Travel has been really helpful to live into the fullness of who I am, to push into those margins and my boundaries.

STEPHANIE SY: She says its become more and more socially acceptable for older women, married, divorced or otherwise, to travel solo.

PATRICIA PATTON: Because so many of our mates have made us on something that maybe we want to do, I think that women feel that they can relax, they can create the kind of memories that they want, traveling solo, and that not disrupt the relationship, because that's an antiquated idea anyway.

STEPHANIE SY: And technology has only made solo travel easier, says University of Florida tourism Professor Heather Gibson, who began researching solo women travel in 1998.

HEATHER GIBSON, University of Florida: When we first started our solo women research back in the late 1990s, there wasn't a mobile phone.

And so one of the things that many of the women spoke to us about was for example, or needing to find a way to share their experiences back home.

STEPHANIE SY: Smart mobile phones mean not only communications, but maps, GPS, booking accommodations are all at ones fingertips, and social media, of course.

The solo female travel influencer has also become travel agent and tour guide, as in the case of Nabila Ismail.

She's been to 63 countries, many of them alone.

In 2022, she set off with the Dose of Travel Club, planning group trips for mostly of color travelers.

Their last major trip wa NABILA ISMAIL, Dose of Travel he ard about in a negative limelight in the media or while growing up, and just countries that people kind of don't even have on their radar.

STEPHANIE SY: The 29-year-old content creator also uses social media to exchan advice with her over 100,000 followers.

NABILA ISMAIL: It's helped me make my friends while travel that much more enjoyable.

It also kind of fuels There's always something new being added to my bucket list, based on STEPHANIE SY: There's a growing market catering to solo female travelers like Ismail and her followers, companies like Air India introducing rows reserved for solo women travelers, Trafalgar introducing a women-only set of tours, or luxury hotel chains offering solo packages, in addition to honeymoons or rather, "oney-moons."

And post-pandemic, some travel companies reported that 85 percent of their solo travelers are women.

PATRICIA PAT and not recognized yourself, but, often, travel will give you that experience as well.

STEPHANIE SY: For Patricia Patton, years of solo travel have helped form her identity.

PATRICIA PATTON: When I initially started to travel, I realized that not everybody lived the same and that I could decide, I personally could decide how I wanted to live.

STEPHANIE SY: But whether for adventure, well-being, or "Eat, Pray, Love"-style epiphanies, it's clear women are more empowered than ever to travel solo.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

GEOFF BENNETT: In 2010, award-winning journalist Michele Norris started The Race Card Project, where she asked people around the world to send her a postcard, and, in just six words, share their thoughts, questions, experiences, and aspirations about identity and race.

The result was astonishing.

The responses were vulnerable, An d she compiled many of the postcards into a new book called "Our Hidden Wh at Americans Really Think About Race and Identity."

And Michele Norris joins us now.

Welcome back to the "NewsHour."

MICHELE NORR Identity": I GEOFF BENNET How have the submissions tracked this country's racial journey over that same period of MICHELE NORRIS: Well, when we started this in 2010, we were two years into the administration of our nation's first Black president.

And we were having a discussion as a country at that time about So there was sort of a whoosh of hope in the air.

And a lot of the submissions at the beginning reflected that.

Only one race, the human race.

Can't we just all get along?

But, over time, the cards go that the viewers saw in the introduction.

The reason I ended a sweet relationship.

I'm only Asian because it's convenient or when it' I'm white, not allowed to be proud.

And what we realized pretty quickly a couple years into this is that of a divining rod.

Like, you could They would show up in the inbox.

So, Trayvon Martin, for instance, the killing of Trayvon Martin, news for weeks after he was killed in Florida.

We were starting to see stories about people talking about an America that no longer felt comfortable to them or familiar to them in ways that we hear now, for instance, at far right political rallies.

That language that has been almost normalize inbox.

So, as a jou understand what was going on in America outside of the headlines, what was going on in really personal spaces in people's lives.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Conversations about race in but this book breaks free of that.

It reflects a real panorama of race, class, What stories stand out to you?

And did you pick up any thro MICHELE NORRIS: There were certain through lines.

The patterns themselves tell It's actually the name of a chapter in the GEOFF BENNETT: Right.

MICHELE NORR saying the same thing.

We have hundreds of cards from bl ank, you're pretty for a dark-skinned girl, you're pretty for an Indian girl, or something like that, written in six words.

And so you see that sometimes sa me things.

But the othe patterns.

They reveal the way Am it.

GEOFF BENNET MICHELE NORR Like, someone writes in about mugged by Black teens, trust destroyed.

You get cards that people are talking about their fear of people of color.

And then you get cards on the other side that fall into some version of, lady, I don't want your purse.

You know, an You are intimidated.

And so it's almost like a conversation that people some sort of chasm.

And, sometim (LAUGHTER) MICHELE NORR but they're talking to me.

In the book, There's a really interesti She's white.

He's Iranian They send in Radio.

They don't k But I recognize she's talking (L AUGHTER) MICHELE NORR in a card too?

GEOFF BENNETT: this country is so often seen as the default, or, as you say in the book, the normative identity.

There are a There's one card that says: "Being white i It's OK to be white."

There's another What do those submissions reveal?

MICHELE NORRIS: Or another card that says: Th ose submissions were surprising to me, not the individual submissions, the volume of them.

When I put t their stories about race, most of our conversations pe ople of color, and they fall along that Black-white binary that you discussed.

But even when that happens, white Americans often have a bit of a bystander Th e conversation is usually led by or targeted at people of color.

When I put that basket on the table, I never expected to engage in a 14-year odyssey of listening to white Americans talk about race.

That was completely surprising.

And in most of the 14 years have come from white people in America.

GEOFF BENNETT: Really?

MICHELE NORR The majority, though, from America.

And that was surprising and revealing and rewarding, as a jour me understand America in a different way.

These are conversations that I normally don't have access to.

And, as you noted, in some of these cards, there's a certain defensiveness sometimes.

There's a certain sense that this conversation doesn't include me, and when it does, I'm always made out to be the bad guy.

GEOFF BENNETT: May I ask what your MICHELE NORRIS: When I first started doing this Not done yet."

GEOFF BENNET MICHELE NORR I'm from Minnesota.

I had a spee A life as a communicator was not I came from and how I presented in the world.

And I didn't see a track for that.

Didn't see.

There was no - Over time, my six words have changed.

And it's in part as America has changed.

We're in a hurry to get over this.

We want to be post-racial.

We want to see the finish line.

And I think some form of debate will always be with us, country.

And so my si GEOFF BENNETT: Michele Norris.

The book and the intention behind it are ex It's called "Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really T And we also have to credit Kadir Nelson for this extraordinary cover art.

MICHELE NORRIS: Yes.

Yes.

It's really And the -- I It's a very vibrant book about a difficult su GEOFF BENNETT: Real privilege to speak with you.

Thank you.

And, as always, there's more coverage online, including an in- is still playing a major role in vaccine hesitancy.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spend