SUMMARY: In April, the world watched in horror as flames engulfed Notre Dame Cathedral, the beloved Gothic symbol of Paris dating to the Middle Ages. Now, seven months later, a debate swirls over how to repair the structure, which lost its famous spire and roof in the fire. As Jeffrey Brown reports from Paris, questions about environmental hazards, stability and aesthetics are all sources of heated debate.
SUMMARY: The blockbuster exhibit of the year celebrates Leonardo da Vinci, 500 years after his death. People are flocking to the Louvre Museum in Paris to see the work of the master, who was born in Italy, died in France and personified the expression Renaissance man. Jeffrey Brown went to see firsthand why da Vinci's art is drawing massive crowds.
Stakes will be high against determined English side today
Christen Press has a theory as to why the U.S. women’s national team has been so successful.
“The team rises to the occasion,” she said Monday. “Throughout the history — watching the team, being on the team, playing for the team — we’ve done a great job at flipping pressure and making it inspiration, making it motivation.
“When the stakes are the highest, when the games and the tournaments are the biggest, you have to find another level in yourself to win. And if you don’t find it, you don’t win.”
In that case Press and her teammates might have to push all the way through the penthouse today when they meet England in a Women’s World Cup semifinal, where the stakes will definitely be high and the opponent the most determined they’ve faced in this tournament.
“It’s win or go home at this point,” goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher said.
First the U.S. must regroup. After cruising through a three-game group stage in which they set a World Cup record with an 18-0 goal differential, the Americans gutted out a pair of 2-1 victories in their first two games of the elimination rounds.
Coach Jill Ellis called the last one, an emotional win against the host French in Paris, “the most intense match I’ve ever been a part of.”
The U.S. players have said there’s no chance of a letdown today though they admitted last week’s quarterfinal against France, one they had mentally prepared for all year, felt like a final.
England appears headed in the other direction. Unimpressive in their first two games of group play, the Lionesses have taken off since then, shutting out Japan — a finalist in the last two Women’s World Cups — then eliminating Cameroon and Norway by identical 3-0 scores in the knockout stage, going 371 minutes without conceding a goal.
Statistically it’s a dead heat: The U.S. is ranked No. 1 in the world, England is No. 3. The two teams are unbeaten in this tournament, are 1-2 in goals scored and 1-2 in fewest goals allowed. The U.S. has scored in the opening 12 minutes of each of its five games; England has scored in the first 14 minutes four times.
England has also matched the Americans in confidence and cockiness in the tournament, all the while observing proper English manners.
“They’re the best team in the world without a shadow of a doubt,” coach Phil Neville said of the U.S. “Their record is phenomenal. But I never worry about the opposition. We concentrate on what we can do.
“That’s what we’ve been saying to the players. Don’t get to the semifinals and have any regrets. Don’t get to the semifinals and think afterward I should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. Get to the semifinal and get out there and play your best. I want to see smiles and I want to see freedom and I want to see us play like we can.”
The U.S. and England also have arguably the two best players in the tournament in versatile English right back Lucy Bronze and U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe, who figure to be matched against one another for much of today’s game.
Rapinoe has all four U.S. goals in the knockout rounds and five for the tournament, tying her with teammate Alex Morgan and England’s Ellen White for the World Cup lead. White has scored in each of England’s last three games.
Where the U.S. has a huge edge, however, is in experience. Though the team includes 11 World Cup debutantes, it also has 12 World Cup champions and six players who have played in multiple World Cup finals.
The Americans, three-time world champions, are unbeaten in 15 consecutive Women’s World Cup games, winning the last 10.
England’s women have never won a major international tournament, falling in the semifinals of the 2015 Women’s World Cup and 2017 European Championships.
“Looking back to 2015, we never really expected to get to that semifinal,” said England captain Steph Houghton. “We know we are in a better position now and we can be calm and collected. The key is for us to carry on doing what we are doing well.
“If we do the things we are good at, we have a great chance.”
England has lost just one of three games against the U.S. since 2016, playing the Americans to a draw to win the SheBelieves Cup in March, a result Neville still considers significant.
“That game gave us great confidence and belief, the way we were playing, the style of playing,” the former Manchester United defender said. “But I suppose the real thing that came out of March was that we won that tournament. Because you go to tournaments to win.
“We were the ones that stood on that platform. We were the ones that held up the trophy. And that gives us great confidence. When you win something and you stand on that platform, it gives you the taste of wanting to do it again. And this time the prize is even bigger.”
So while the U.S. is focusing on raising its play a level and winning today, the English have already decided what their World Cup victory — one they’ve been planning for the last year — will mean.
“Twelve months ago we set out our objectives,” Neville said. “All I wanted my players to say was that they wanted to win the World Cup. But they said they wanted more, to create a name people would relate to, badass women.
“They were thinking bigger and that really knocked me out of my stride. I think we’re getting to that legacy moment.”
SUMMARY: In 1944, thousands of Allied soldiers landed on five different beaches in Normandy. The operation set the stage for liberation of German-occupied France during World War II. For those who participated in the critical mission, the challenges they faced and the losses they suffered will never disappear. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant speaks to veterans commemorating D-Day's 75th anniversary.
SUMMARY: Seventy-five years ago [today], tens of thousands of American, European and Canadian soldiers waded ashore France’s foggy northern coast to achieve a pivotal victory against Nazi Germany. In honor of the milestone D-Day anniversary, President Trump and other leaders convened at the American cemetery above the bloodiest landing site: Omaha Beach. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Normandy.
SUMMARY: In Paris and across the globe, stunned spectators watched in horror as the Notre Dame Cathedral burned Monday. The fire started in the evening, shortly after the building was closed to the public, and appears to have caused “catastrophic” damage to one of the world’s most famous cultural and artistic landmarks. Judy Woodruff talks to Kate Moody of the French news channel France 24 for the latest.
SUMMARY: A devastating fire consumed parts of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday. While the biggest question is whether the structure itself will survive, there is no doubt that the artistic and historic landmark sustained losses that won’t be recoverable. Judy Woodruff talks to art historian Elizabeth Lev about the “shock” incurred by observing this “iconic monument” engulfed in flames.
SUMMARY: Notre Dame Cathedral is a seminal touchstone of French history, art and culture, and seeing it sustain devastating damage in a huge fire on Monday sent shockwaves of grief throughout France and the world. Judy Woodruff talks to Gerard Araud, France’s Ambassador to the U.S., about the structure’s role within French national identity and feeling as if a part of himself were burning.
SUMMARY: In Paris, the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral is extinguished, but devastating damage remains. Parisians stood alongside global travelers at the site Tuesday, paying tribute to the landmark of cultural achievement that has stood for nearly a millennium. Amid the ashes, the rescue of several of the most beloved artifacts seemed miraculous. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Paris.
SUMMARY: French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral within five years, in time for Paris to host the 2024 Olympics. To meet the ambitious schedule, Macron said architects from around the world would be invited to submit designs for the famous spire that fell in Monday’s fire. Meanwhile, the investigation continues into what started the blaze. ITN’s Paraic O’Brien reports.
SUMMARY: Political upheaval is building on both sides of the English Channel. British Prime Minister Theresa May postponed a vote on her Brexit plan. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to increase wages to try and appease Paris protesters. What does all this mean for the two leaders and the EU? Nick Schifrin talks to Anand Menon of King’s College London and the Brookings Institution's Célia Belin.
SUMMARY: In August 1944, Paris was liberated from Nazi occupiers, and embedded with the soldiers was a giant of American literature. More than a decade later, Ernest Hemingway captured the mood and the moment in a short story that bears the hallmarks of his classic works. Now "A Room on the Garden Side" has been published for the first time. Jeffrey Brown reports.
SUMMARY: French President Emmanuel Macron is on what some have called "Operation Save the Iran Deal." On a visit to the U.S., Macron will try to convince President Trump that the deal is working and that it's better to confront Iran while its nuclear program is frozen. But Trump is vowing to pull out of the deal unless the U.S. and Europe can fix it to his specifications. Nick Schifrin joins Amna Nawaz.
SUMMARY: In a state visit hosting the leader of America's oldest ally, the personal bond between President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron was evident, and so were their differences over the Iran nuclear deal. At a news conference, Macron said the U.S. should remain part of the deal, but hold talks to improve it, while Trump said he wants an entirely new agreement. Yamiche Alcindor reports.
SUMMARY: French voters head to the polls Sunday in the second-round runoff between centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Macron has been buoyed this week by an endorsement by former President Obama and a solid debate performance. But Le Pen's anti-immigrant party continues to press its case. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
SUMMARY: Two candidates facing off this weekend in the French presidential election runoff offer starkly different visions for the country. Centrist Emmanuel Macron supports immigration and the European Union, while the far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen wants to curb immigration and pull France out of the EU. Special Correspondent Christopher Livesay reports from France.
SUMMARY: One of the most divisive political campaigns in French history that had much of Europe on edge came to an end during Sunday's runoff election. Centrist Emmanuel Macron defeated his controversial opponent, the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Malcolm Brabant joins Hari Sreenivasan from Macron's campaign headquarters in Paris.
SUMMARY: In France, a wife-and-husband team has found their life's work in helping to prosecute war crimes from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Through their organization, Alain and Dafroza Gauthier provide investigative research in hopes of bringing war criminals to justice. Special correspondent Jonathan Silvers reports.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour): The discovery of mass graves or other evidence of war crimes poses several challenges, chief among them, bringing the alleged war criminals to court.
According to former United States Justice Department official Allan Ryan, the recent introduction of what's known as universal jurisdiction has made it easier to prosecute these suspected war criminals.
ALLAN RYAN, Former Attorney, U.S. Justice Department: Universal jurisdiction is not a universal concept yet. It allows trials to be held where otherwise they might not be.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In France, universal jurisdiction has made it possible for a husband and wife to pursue alleged war criminals behind the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Special correspondent Jonathan Silvers has that story.
JONATHAN SILVERS, special correspondent: For the past 15 years, Dafroza Gauthier has risen at first light to probe the Rwandan genocide and track down fugitive perpetrators, notably the slaughter's architects and executioners.
Gauthier was born and raised in Rwanda and, until recently, worked in the chemical industry. But she has become a formidable war crimes investigator, by necessity.
DAFROZA GATHER, Rwandan Genocide Investigator (through translator): We began by collecting information and testimony from our close friends and families. But the more we heard their stories, the more we knew that something had to be done.
JONATHAN SILVERS: Dafroza Gauthier has only one memento of her family, this photo of her mother, who was murdered along with scores of relatives in the spring of 1994. Gauthier was living in Belgium when the genocide began, and she learned about her family members' demise in real time, via a series of phone calls to her native village in Rwanda.
The violence was rooted in longstanding ethnic division between the governing Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. In the space of 100 days, roughly 800,000 men, women, and children were killed, mostly ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutus.
DAFROZA GAUTHIER (through translator): One day, people should ask the question why the world abandoned the Tutsis in Rwanda. There are nation, states, politicians who should ask forgiveness of the Rwandan people.
SUMMARY: In France, right-wing populist party National Front continues to garner support, despite critics who say it punishes detractors and silences the press. The party tailors its ideology to fit different populations; in the French Rust Belt, it has gained favor with the traditionally socialist working class by promising to push back against global elites. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
JOHN YANG (NewsHour): France's center-right party has chosen social conservative Francois Fillon as its presidential candidate in next spring's elections.
Then, he could face Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front. The deeply unpopular current president, Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party, has not yet said whether he'll seek reelection.
Le Pen's National Front hopes to benefit from the so-called Trump effect, as special correspondent Malcolm Brabant discovered when he discovered one of its strongholds in northern France.
MALCOLM BRABANT, special correspondent: Despite being labeled a medieval conservative, Francois Fillon won the Republican nomination in France's first ever U.S.-style primary by more than 2-1.
FRANCOIS FILLON, Republican Presidential Candidate (through translator): Victory is mine. It's a substantial victory built on convictions. France wants the truth, and it wants action.
MALCOLM BRABANT: According to analyst Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, Fillon is a fiscal conservative with a record of consistency.
ALEXANDRA DE HOOP SCHEFFER, German Marshall Fund of the United States: He has strong positions in terms of reducing French public spending. He wants to suppress around 500,000 public sector jobs. He has always stuck to the same positions on many issues. He's pro-Russian. He says it very clearly.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Most French commentators expect the Socialist presidential candidate to be eliminated early in next year's election.
At this bastion of the National Front, Henin-Beaumont, they now know who their main opponent is. Steeve Briois is the town's mayor and the second most important person in the party.
MAYOR STEEVE BRIOIS, Henin-Beaumont (through translator): There's a global phenomenon today, an awakening. The people are rebelling against the elite. So it's a good thing that Mr. Trump was elected. It's a good thing that Brexit happened in Britain. It bodes well for us for France.
MALCOLM BRABANT: This is France's Rust Belt, northeast of Paris. Slag heaps and heavy machinery preserved in industrial museums are all that remain of coal mines shut down two decades ago. There's high unemployment. The working class here have followed a familiar political route of abandoning socialists like President Francois Hollande for right-wing populists.
MARINE TONDELIER, Green Party: The Front National is like a vulture party. That's to say that it shows something that is decreasing, poor, complicated, and it tries to seize it, and it's exactly what they did here.
EUGENE BINAISSE, Former Mayor, Henin-Beaumont (through translator): A wall of silence has descended on the town. We think we're being observed by the National Front, and anything you say can come back and bite you.
SUMMARY: Sunday will mark a grim anniversary in Paris -- the series of coordinated terror attacks throughout the city that killed 130 and injured nearly 400 on November 13, 2015. The bloodiest site, Bataclan Music Club, where 89 people were murdered, will reopen Saturday with a concert by Sting. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant visited Paris to report on how the city is faring, one year later.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Paris will mark a grim anniversary Sunday, one year after a series of coordinated attacks across the city on Friday the 13th, 2015.
The Bataclan music club, where 89 people were murdered during a concert, is due to reopen tomorrow with a concert by Sting. Gunmen and suicide bombers allied to ISIS murdered 130 people in total, wounding nearly 400.
Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant has been back to Paris to see how the French capital is coping one year on.
MALCOLM BRABANT, Special correspondent: Paris has returned to a version of normality, but for those caught up in the worst attack on the French capital since the Second World War, nothing will ever be the same again.
In a discreet corner of this cafe is Caroline Langlade, a survivor of the Bataclan. Along with several others, she hid in a tiny room for over three hours. They barricaded the door with a sofa and mini-fridge. The terrorists tried to get in, failed and resumed the massacre they began while the band was on stage.
(GUNFIRE)
CAROLINE LANGLADE, President, Life for Paris (through translator): I have a really hard time going to closed-up places or dark rooms, movies, concerts, but also restaurants where there's too many people at night. It makes me quite jumpy. I tend to panic.
MALCOLM BRABANT: During the interview, sirens wailed nearby, and Caroline became uncomfortable. The film director has found it difficult to concentrate on work and instead devotes her energies running Life for Paris, an organization for survivors and families of those murdered on Friday the 13th.
CAROLINE LANGLADE (through translator): I'm no longer afraid of death. I have seen it up close, and I almost died several times that night. I'm no longer afraid of death, but my fear changed.
And, today, what frightens me most is suffering, physical suffering, human suffering. I had to face a gigantic amount of it that evening, and I think that I have lived through all the suffering I could have had for a lifetime.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including Donald Trump's veep pick, Mike Pence, who may not be the attack dog the candidate was said to have wanted. They also weigh in on what type of convention the nation should expect in Cleveland — and how many Trump relatives will speak.
Driver plows through revelers watching Bastille Day fireworks in Nice; Hollande calls it terrorist assault
A Bastille Day fireworks celebration was shattered by death and mayhem Thursday night in France’s southern city of Nice when a large truck barreled for more than a mile through an enormous crowd of spectators, crushing dozens in what the president called a terrorist assault. It came eight months after the Paris attacks that traumatized the nation and all of Europe.
Officials and witnesses in Nice said at least 80 people, including children, were killed by the driver of the rampaging truck, who mowed them down on the sidewalk. He was shot to death by the police as officers scrambled to respond on what is France’s most important annual holiday.
Graphic television and video images showed the truck accelerating and tearing through the crowd, dozens of victims sprawled in its path, and the bullet- riddled windshield of the vehicle. Municipal officials and police officers described the truck as full of weapons and grenades.
“The horror, the horror has, once again, hit France,” President François Hollande said in a nationally televised address early today. He said the “terrorist character” of the assault was undeniable and he described the use of a large truck to deliberately kill people as “a monstrosity.”
“France has been struck on the day of her national holiday,” he said. “Human rights are denied by fanatics, and France is clearly their target.” Hollande, who only hours earlier had proclaimed the impending end of a state of national emergency on July 26, said it would be extended by three months and that additional soldiers would be deployed for security.
In Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama released a statement Thursday night condemning “what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France.” He said he had directed his team to get in touch with French officials to assist with the investigation into the attack.
“We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack,” the statement said.
French officials quickly came to the conclusion of terrorism as the likely motive, as the scope of the slaughter grew clear. The use of a large commercial truck as the principal weapon of death raised new questions over how to prevent such attacks. The officials warned residents to stay indoors and canceled all further scheduled festivities in Nice, a seaside city of 340,000, including a five-day jazz festival and concert tonight by Rihanna. “There are numerous victims,” said Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, on BFM Television. “It’s a tragic, exceptional situation.”
Witnesses described scenes of pandemonium, with conflicting accounts on social media, including a false report of hostage-taking in Nice.
“We were enjoying the celebrations when we suddenly saw people running everywhere and tables being pushed down by the movement of panic,” said Daphne Burand, 15, who was at a bar near the beach to watch the fireworks.
“No one explained to us what was happening, and I heard some gunshots not very far away,” she said. “I waited at the bar for more information because I thought it was a false alert. But then, people were still running.”
San Diegan Tony Molina told news stations he was vacationing in Nice with his wife and 14-year-old son and had witnessed the attack.
“It was zig-zagging,” he said of the truck in a brief interview aired by CBS News 8 in San Diego. “I would say it was going about 25 to 30 miles an hour as it did so, and just plummeting through. It looked like it was hitting several people. I can tell you right now, even as I look out in front of our area, I see about 10 covered bodies that they haven’t even begun processing yet.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the identity of the driver was not immediately clear, but the Nice Matin newspaper reported early today that he was a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin.
Christian Estrosi, a former mayor of Nice and currently president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, said in one of a series of Twitter messages that the truck was carrying arms and explosives when it struck the crowd about 10:30 p.m. local time.
Estrosi told French television channel BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him.”
He added that the driver’s behavior appeared to be “completely premeditated.”
The attack amounted to a gut-punch to a nation that was struggling to restore some sense of normalcy and had begun to drop its guard.
Hours after Hollande said during Bastille Day festivities in Paris that “we cannot prolong the state of emergency eternally,” the massive white truck came crashing through.
The main strip through Nice was littered with bodies, one after the other.
“Whatever the nature of what happened in Nice, the threat of terrorism is particularly high,” Brandet, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said on the iTele television station. He added that security forces were on high alert in the area and in cities around France.
Dozens of people were seriously injured and many more were psychologically shocked, Brandet said. The region has activated a so-called White Plan, put in place during the Nov. 13 Paris terror attacks, to open all emergency rooms to receive victims, he added.
The Islamic State, the militant group that asserted responsibility for the attacks in Paris last November that killed 130 people, did not make any immediate claims for the Nice assault.
It typically takes the Islamic State several hours, and sometimes up to one and even two days, to assert responsibility for attacks in Western countries. It typically does so through its Amaq channel on the encrypted phone app Telegram, which serves as the group’s news wire.
However, as in the hours immediately after the Paris, Brussels and Orlando attacks, there was a now familiar celebration on channels run by groups that support the Islamic State, as well as on at least one channel affiliated with the group, also known as ISIS and ISIL. They cheered, and laughed at the carnage.
On a channel created Thursday, called the United Cyber Caliphate, run by a group that has previously attempted to carry out cyberattacks in the Islamic State’s name, a message included a single word — France — followed by a smiley face.
The channel of an Islamic State member, Aswarti Media, which has repeatedly been shut down, was posting the phrase “Allahu Akbar.” Yet another suspected pro-ISIS channel showed an image of the Eiffel Tower going up in flames.
Several pro-Islamic State forums posted old messages in which the terrorist group urged followers to carry out lone-wolf attacks against France.
Analysts noted that the Islamic State has called on its followers to kill civilians in Western countries by any means possible.
The Nice attack took place just as the Euro 2016 soccer tournament had concluded. France had hosted the tournament, and the entire country had been on high alert. There had been reports that suspects linked to the attacks in Paris and the Brussels assault in March had planned an attack during the tournament.
With tens of thousands of people gathered at stadiums and in designated “fan zones” during the games, the police and private security took extraordinary measures to try to secure the sites.
It was difficult to know if the measures were successful or if in fact there were no plans to attack the soccer tournament.
One question people will be asking is whether the security forces, as well as civilians, let their guard down once the tournament was over thinking that the danger had passed.
SUMMARY: Relatives of fighters who joined the Islamic State militants and other groups came together at an anti-radicalization conference in Paris with hopes of reaching a turning point in the fight against extremism. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): While we’re reporting on that war-torn country, for months, we have reported on Western-born young people who travel to Syria to join the Islamic State.
Parents and relatives of some of the young European men who’d joined ISIS and other extremist groups met late last week at a conference in Paris. Among the group were also family members of victims of the terrorist attacks last fall in Paris. They gathered to grieve, to condemn terrorism and the extremism that drives it, and look for ways to prevent other young people from following the fates of their loved ones.
From Paris, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
MALCOLM BRABANT (NewsHour): This is the Bataclan club, where Islamist gunmen slaughtered 89 concert-goers last November the 13th.
It was, briefly, a place of pilgrimage for a group of people inextricably linked to the massacre through the ideology embraced by their relatives, even though they didn’t participate in the attack.
Karolina Dam, mother of 18-year-old Lukas, a boy with learning difficulties, converted and radicalized in Denmark and believed killed in an airstrike on the Syrian Turkish border. Janne Mortensen (ph), also from Denmark, whose convert foster son, Kenneth, was killed in Syria three years ago.
Briton Michael Evans, whose brother Thomas converted and joined Al-Shabaab in Africa. This footage shows the jihadist with the nom de guerre Abdul Hakim just before he was killed in a battle with Kenyan troops.
MICHAEL EVANS, Brother of Killed Foreign Fighter: It’s just such a tragic waste of life. You know, people out just enjoying their night were cut down for nothing. It’s so sad to be here. I don’t understand how someone who is my own flesh and blood could be — could think like this. I just don’t understand.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Canadian Christianne Boudreau wants deradicalization programs to make the most of the experiences of families like these, by using them as educators, helpers, and guides.
She’s campaigning in memory of her convert son Damian killed in fighting near Aleppo in Syria.
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BJORN IHLER, Utoya Survivor: All forms of extremism are very similar in many ways. Extremism thrives on the same kind of factors regardless of what ideology is titled. And at the end of the day, their ideology very quickly becomes just an excuse, essentially, for being violent.
The issues we need to address are not necessarily the theological issues, but rather the ideological issue of violence and how violence is being used for political means.
SUMMARY: How does one recover from the trauma of being caught in the middle of a terrorist attack? Psychotherapist Mark Colclough, who was in one of the Paris cafés when it was attacked by gunmen two weeks ago, offers some special insight on tools and strategies he has been using to heal. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
MALCOLM BRABANT (NewsHour): Back home after witnessing four people being murdered, psychotherapist Mark Colclough is deploying all his professional skills to minimize the anguish.
Two weeks on, how traumatized do you think you are?
MARK COLCLOUGH, Psychotherapist: I can’t scale that really on a one-to-10 scale. I still have signs of trauma and shock. And post-traumatic stress is very much still there.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Can you describe the sort of things that are troubling you still?
MARK COLCLOUGH: Sure, flashbacks of the gunmen, very clear.
There's been a dream that’s recurred several times about me being in the hallway of my house and looking down to the sitting room, and I can see shadows on the wall, and I’m with my travel friend who was with me in Paris.
And I turn around to say to him, look, look, like there’s a break-in. There are thieves in the sitting room. I turn around to look at him, so I know he’s behind me. In the dream, I look back and he's not there. And I look forward again to look into the living room, and the gunman is right in front of me shooting at me this time. And that’s where I wake up.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Do you think you are going to be permanently damaged?
MARK COLCLOUGH: Oh, no. No. I don’t think that at all.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Is that because you personally and professionally have the tools that enable you to deal with this?
MARK COLCLOUGH: Yes. I think I have been in and out of therapy since I was 19. It’s been — always been in my interest has been psychotherapy and psychology. So I'm aware that I have tools and I have quite a robust sense of self.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including the political and psychological aftermath of the Paris attacks, 2016 candidates speak out on the refugee crisis and fighting the Islamic State, plus reassessing President Obama’s strategy in Syria.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): And to the analysis of Shields and Brooks. That’s syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Welcome, gentlemen.
So, this entire week, we have spent looking at what happened in Paris.
My question is, David, has this — what has this done here in the United States? Are we now in some kind of new normal, as we were after 9/11?
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times: I think what ISIS has done psychologically is, it’s like a drug, you have to take more of it to get the effect.
And so their malevolence, their viciousness, their violence, they have ratcheted up a level. And they started doing that from the first moment we became conscious of them, with the beheadings, with setting people on fire, and then this killing.
And while they haven’t achieved the super al-Qaida 9/11, they have created a more menacing atmosphere, I think, in this country, certainly in Europe and around the world, in Nigeria, Boko Haram. And so I think there is a sense of living with violence.
And so I think about Israel, with, whatever you think of Middle East policy, the citizens there live with violence. And you adjust in some ways, you develop rituals in some ways, but it preys on the consciousness in a lot of complicated ways. And I think we’re now more or less in that world.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you feel it has changed things?
MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated columnist: I don’t think it compares with 9/11; 9/11 was a profound traumatic experience in this nation.
And just in the reaction, I think that there’s — you can see what 14 years of conflict has done, and 14 years of being at war has done, as well as what ISIS has done. Fourteen years ago, when the United States suffered the greatest infliction of loss of life on its own soil in our history, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, visited a mosque. He said, Islam are our friends. These are — the people who do this are traitors to their faith, and we must remind and remember that.
He looked like Abraham Lincoln, compared to the reaction of politicians in this city, and particularly in Lisa Desjardins’ piece tonight, which was small, petty, vengeful, un-American, unserious and irresponsible.
SUMMARY: The attacks in Paris have raised concern about the threat posed by the Islamic State around the world, and how to counter it. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff talk with William McCants, author of “The ISIS Apocalypse,” Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Hassan Hassan of Chatham House and Richard Barrett, a former British intelligence official.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): We focus now on the changing nature of the threat from the Islamic State group and how to counter it.
For that, we turn to four people with deep expertise.
Juliette Kayyem was an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. She now has her own security consulting firm. William McCants is director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic world at the Brookings Institution. His most recent book is “The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State.”
Richard Barrett is a former director of global counterterrorism operations for the British government. He’s a founder of the United Nations’ Counter-Terrorism Task Force. And Hassan Hassan is a Middle East analyst at Chatham House in London. He co-authored the book “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.”
And we welcome you all to the program.
Will McCants, I’m going to start here in Washington with you.
What have we learned from the Islamic State group from these attacks? What new do we know about them now?
WILLIAM MCCANTS, Brookings Institution: Well, they seem to have shifted and taken on a strategy of global jihad.
They have always had the rhetoric of global jihadism, similar to Al Qaeda. They have always talked about hitting the far enemy, the United States, France, and others. But for most of their history, they have focused on state-building. And for the past few years, they have been pretty successful at it.
But with the attacks over the past two weeks, taking down the Russian airliner, the attack in Beirut, and now in Paris, we believe that its attention has shifted abroad.
SUMMARY: From the campaign trail to the halls of Congress, leaders weighed in on the fallout of the Paris attacks. Gwen Ifill speaks to Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR about how responses to the tragedy are playing out in the presidential race, calls from some lawmakers to change U.S. policy toward Syrian immigrants, as well as takeaways from the Democratic debate.
SUMMARY: How would Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders handle terror threats at home and abroad, in light of the Paris attacks and the shifting threat of the Islamic State? Sanders joins Gwen Ifill to discuss his views on combating terrorism and the anti-refugee backlash in the U.S.
SUMMARY: What’s Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s views on bringing Syrian refugees to the U.S., in light of the Paris attacks and the shifting threat of the Islamic State? Carson joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his stance on fighting the militant group.
SUMMARY: What’s behind Sen. Bernie Sanders’ latest campaign tactics? Lisa Desjardins reports, then syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including a terror attack in Paris, Donald Trump’s remarks against Republican front-runner Ben Carson and the emerging division on immigration among the GOP contenders.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): So, gentlemen, this is a fast-moving story. Still very much that we — we know President Hollande has closed the borders of France. He has called an emergency.
And, Mark, it’s a reminder that even though foreign policy, defense policy has not been front and center, I think, in the minds of most Americans, something can change in an instant.
MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist: No question, Judy.
And there is a sense of shock, but an increasing awareness of vulnerability. And I think that’s what — the reaction and understandable reaction is of most people, beyond the obvious sympathy and sense of outrage that the people have done it and the sympathy for those who are suffering. But it does remind us of our vulnerability.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And it’s clear at this point that President Obama and administration officials have said, Michael, there is no indication of an immediate threat to the United States, but, of course, that’s where your thinking goes.
MICHAEL GERSON, Washington Post: Well, this is one of the strategies of al-Qaida-like organizations, spectacular attacks designed to demoralize countries.
This was true of the U.S., true in Britain in 2005 with the underground attack, and it’s true in France now. But it doesn’t work. It actually hardens resolve. And, you know, France is playing an important role in the Middle East. I think that they’re not going to be deterred from that.
SUMMARY: Terror has struck again in Paris, where multiple shootings and bombings across the city, leaving as many as 120 dead. Police say scores were killed at a concert hall, where attackers also took hostages. Judy Woodruff gets an update from Kate Moody of France 24.
SUMMARY: Who is capable of conducting the multiple-target attack that terrorized Paris on Friday night? Judy Woodruff talks to Lorenzo Vidino of George Washington University.
