♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “newshour” tonight. former president donald trump appears in court to argue that he's immune from criminal charges stemming from his time in office. geoff: the pentagon reveals defense secretary austin is being treated for prostate cancer. the fallout from his undisclosed surgery and subsequent hospitalization. amna: and 2023 blows past the last record for the hottest year and nears a critical global warming threshold that countries have been trying to avoid.

>> there's growing concern among scientist that we may have underestimated just how sensitive the climate, the earth's temperature is to greenhouse gases as they increase. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by -- >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson, and camilla and george smith. >> consumer cellular, this is sam, how may i help you? >> with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> the john s and james l not

foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. donald trump was in court in washington dc today, while his attorneys argued the former

president is immune from federal prosecution connected to the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. geoff: the three-judge appeals panel seemed skeptical of the trump legal team's argument that trump was acting in his official capacity as president to, quote, ensure election integrity when he undermined the results of the 2020 presidential election. >> i think it's paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care of -- that the laws we faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal laws. geoff: npr justice correspondent carrie johnson was at the courthouse today and is following all of the latest developments. thanks so much for being with us. we should say the case is not just about donald trump, it's about the presidency and the powers of the presidency. how did mr. trump's legal team argued that he should be immune from criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the election? what was the case that made in

court today? >>'s lawyer made a number of arguments, one that the role should be very limited. another essential argument he made was that presidents can only be prosecuted if they have already been impeached and convicted ♪ by the u.s. senate. even in the most extreme of circumstances, and he also pointed out that were these judges to disagree and open an avenue for criminal liability for former president's, it would open the floodgates to lots of recriminations and tit-for-tat from administration to administration of different political parties. geoff: the judges peppered trump's legal team with questions, trying to test this community theory, with one judge asking if the president could order the killing of a political rival and get away with it as an official act. >> could a president order

assassination of a political rival, could he be impeached? >> my answer is a qualified yes. there is a process that would require impeachment and conviction by the senate. geoff: so there is no precedent, donald trump is the first president to face nominal charges. what will inform these judges ruling? >> history is a guide here. no former president has been charged, but former president richard nixon did accept a pardon from gerald ford, which acknowledges some women liability on his behalf and concern about potential criminal action. one of the judges in this case also asked trump's lawyer why the impeachment -- conceded that he should not be impeached there but that there should be a role for judges in a criminal complaint thereafter. the judge could not get the lawyer to understand the

distinction or acknowledge it. so there is a real contradiction the judges were grappling with today over the sweeping nature of trump's arguments, versus the reality on the ground. geoff: you mentioned earlier that trump's lawyers argue that prosecuting mr. trump would open a pandora's box of indicting former president's for actions they took while in office. how did this esha counsels team respond to that argument in particular? >> the spencer own cancer lawyer -- special counsel lawyer said the reason it's happened now is because of the unprecedented actions of former president donald trump, who now faces two federal indictments. this one in d.c. over january 6, and another in florida over materials he allegedly refused to return to the fbi and stored at his resort in unsecured areas of that facility, mar-a-lago. so james pierce said were the court to accept trump's view of

his sweeping power, even post-presidency, would present an astonishingly frightening future for the country that presidents would have a license to commit crimes and get away with it, basically. geoff: we should note that donald trump attended the hearing today, is an indication of how his campaign strategy is intertwined with his court appearances. what was it like inside the courtroom? >> trump entered a few minutes before the hearing began, around 9:30. he was relatively quiet, he wrote some notes to his attorneys. the only thing people could hear him say was, is this where i should sit? after he left the courthouse he went to hotel and then raise concerns about the political nature of his prosecution. there is no evidence that current president joe biden played any role in this case, none whatsoever. geoff: what happens next, does

the losing side appealed to the supreme court? >> in some ways, delay is donald trump's friend, even if he loses here. it matters how quickly the court directs him to act. member the trial was set to start march 4 and that seems unlikely now. but prosecutors do want to get it going before the election, and how quickly the appeals court rules and what they say trump can and cannot do next could determine whether he faces any trials before november. geoff: always a pleasure to speak with you. ♪ amna: the pentagon and walter reed medical center today revealed that defense secretary lloyd alston is suffering from prostate cancer. his doctor say it was detected early in his prognosis is excellent. there remains a course of

criticism about why austen withheld his diagnosis and much of his treatment for so long from the public and the president. nick schifrin has been following this story. let's start with the secretary's health. what do we know about how he is doing and why over just learning about this cancer diagnosis now? nick: his doctor say they expect a full recovery, but they also say it could be a slow recovery. there is no real answer to the second question, and that his client we are getting all the criticism you reference. let's go through the timeline as we did last night. in early december, one month ago, austen learned he had prostate cancer. on december 22, he underwent a prostatectomy, the removal of part or all of the prostate under general anesthesia and transferred his step -- his duties to his deputy. his doctors would diagnose a urinary tract infection and fluid in his abdomen.

on january 2 he again transferred his authorities to his deputy but did not say why. on january 4 he informed the national security council and his deputy about the hospitalization. on january 5, he makes his first public statement, and at no point during that entire process did he say or admit that he had prostate cancer. take a listen to the spokespeople today of defense department and the national security council, admitting how in the dark they had been. >> as soon had this information to make available, we provided it. we got it this afternoon and provided it literally moments before i stepped in the room. >> literally nobody in the white house knew that secretary austen had prostate cancer. >> the pentagon has cited the fact that the chief having the flu was a reason for why some of

delay. amna: we are so glad he has an excellent prognosis and we wish him a full and speedy recovery, and it seems to beg a lot more questions. nick: even after the fact that he had cancer revealed today, mike rogers accused him of concealing the fact that he was incapacitated and he was accused of a clear violation of the law. even democratic chairman jack reed called for transparency and accountability from the defense department. amna: so bipartisan criticism. what is the administration saying in response? nick: the administration is releasing a couple of steps they say will answer some concerns. the white house released a memo by the chief of staff laying out requirements for any cabinet

secretary to inform the chief of staff if he or she as cabinet secretaries are unable to perform their duties. the pentagon issued new requirements expanding list of people who have to be informed when the secretary has to transfer his duties and also requiring the disclosure -- and both the white house and pentagon are launching reviews but staffers i talked to today said that is not enough and there's still no answer as to why the second in the military chain of command withheld the fact that he had prostate cancer. amna: nick schifrin, thanks as always. ♪ amna: in the days other headlines, winter storms battered much of the country with everything from tornadoes to blizzards. one system killed at least 3 people in the south. heavy rain and several reported

twisters struck the florida panhandle. hurricane-force winds peeled roofs off homes, downed trees and knocked out power to thousands. in the midwest, more than half a foot of fresh snow fell in some areas, disrupting travel. interstates and schools were closed in several states. senate republicans signaled today that congress will need to pass another short-term funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown. they've agreed on overall spending, but need more time to pass 12 individual appropriations bills. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell set a short-term continuing resolution would get them past the looming january 19 deadline. >> they have a topline agreement. in the meantime, we need to prevent a government shutdown. and so the obvious question is, how long does the cr need to be? and, that'll be up to the majority leader and the speaker to determine the length of the cr. amna: republican house speaker

mike johnson has said he would oppose any further short-term funding bills. he did not immediately comment on today's developments. the president of ecuador says his nation is in a state of internal armed conflict tonight. that comes after masked men folk into a public television station with guns and shouted they had bombs. police said later they had arrested all the intruders. the president said he is designating 20 drug gangs as terror groups and ordering the military to neutralize them. in ukraine, the power grid operator reports more than a thousand towns have lost power amid russian attacks on the electrical grid. scenes of damage are widespread, and authorities say more than 500 drones and missiles struck ukraine, just over new year's weekend. a ukraine air force official says air defenses are stretched thin. a new south korean law will ban the centuries old practice of raising and selling dogs for food. parliament voted today to ban

the production and sale of dog meat. animal-rights groups pushed for the change, but reactions among the general public were mixed. >> i am raising my children and a dog together. the dog is my third child. i'm so glad the bill was passed today. consuming dog meat should never happen again in the future. >> i don't eat dog meat, but it's been consumed for a long time in our country it's a unique part of our culture. it's not like everyone is consuming, it's just a matter of preference. amna: the law is set to take effect after a three-year grace period. nasa has decided to delay sending astronauts to circle the moon, until 2025. that's a year later than planned. an attempt at a human landing on the moon is also being pushed back, to 2026. meanwhile, a pittsburgh company gave up today on trying a moon landing with a robotic craft. it launched tuesday, but a fuel leak ended its chances. on wall street,

stocks lost monday's momentum. the dow jones industrial average shed nearly 158 points to close at 37,525. the nasdaq rose 14 points. but, the s&p 500 slipped 7. and, michigan is polishing its first college football championship trophy, since 1997. the wolverines cemented an undefeated season last night, beating the washington huskies, 34-to-13. afterward, white and gold confetti showered the field in houston, as coach jim harbaugh and his players celebrated. back in ann arbor, bars filled with students erupted in cheers. still to come on the newshour, the increasing risk of criminal charges for women who experience a miscarriage. a revelatory eyewitness account of the ukrainian resistance against russia's invasion, and how women sports are breaking into mainstream we do coverage. >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington,

and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: secretary of state antony blinken is back in israel for his fourth visit since the war with hamas started three months ago. as part about long, regional tour that has him walking and increasingly narrow diplomatic line as he tries to keep the conflict from spreading. william brangham reports. willia when he arrived in israel, the secretary of state bore a smile, but a sharper message -- leaders across the middle east are demanding an end to the fighting in gaza, and a clearer focus on what comes next. >> i've just come from, a number of countries in the region: turkey, greece, jordan, qatar, united arab emirates, saudi arabia, and i want to be able to share some of what i heard from those leaders with the president, as well as with the prime minister and the cabinet later today. geoff: but in tel aviv, israeli leaders aren't ready to listen

to that advice. defense secretary yoav gallant told blinken that while military strategies in the north of gaza have shifted. operations in the south and center of the strip will intensify. displaced gazans in khan younis, desperate to escape the fighting, sent a plea to blinken for help. >> my message to the u.s. secretary blinken: get us back home to northern gaza, even if to a tent, it's better than here. william: blinken received promises from middle eastern leaders for help rebuilding gaza, but only if an eventual palestinian state can exist alongside israel, something prime minister netanyahu has said he will not allow. >> israel must be, must stop taking steps that undercut palestinians' ability to govern themselves effectively. extremist settler violence carried out with impunity, settlement expansion, demolition, evictions all make it harder, not easier, for israel to achieve lasting peace and security.

william: defending israel to the global community has become an increasingly lonely position for the u.s. today the uk's foreign secretary david cameron said israel might've committed war crimes in gaza. >> if you're asking, am i worried that israel have taken action that might be in breach of international law because this particular premises has been bombed or whatever? yes, of course i'm worried about that. and that's why i consult the foreign office lawyers when giving this advice on arms exports. william: as israel can palestinian seeking shelter have nowhere left to go. >> this is the fourth time i have dismantled the tents and moved them. i am not ready to sacrifice my children and my grandchildren. we are leaving, we do not know what awaits us. william: as fuel supplies dwindle, donkey carts have become one of the only ways gazans can transport their belongings, or their dead.

on a bench outside central gaza's al aqsa hospital, this aunt grieved the death of her 2 year old nephew, ahmad issa shahin. the little boy was brought, lifeless, to the hospital, the rest of her family's fate is unknown. >> i don't know if my sister, or her children or my if my father is coming. i'm waiting for them, but he was the only one they brought to the hospital. >> we found only some skin from my daughter's head and some of her hair. we didn't find anything else. may god rest her soul. she was a top doctor. william: dr jamal naeem carried the remains of his dead daughter here. he's lost three children, three grandchildren, and his mother, all killed in their sleep when their home was bombed. >> we have no one except allah. on the day of judgment, we're going to hold the israelis to account, the arabs and all the muslims in front of god, and all those who didn't stand for us.

william: nearby, another burial for another child. dr. mohammad abu jayyab's sister's home was bombed, killing her 3-year-old son. >> they say leave midtown and go to deir and then they bomb deir. go to rafah and then they hit rafah. people don't know where to go and what to do. william: hand him to me, i won't cry his sister promised. but no amount of kisses are enough for a mother's final farewell. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. amna: 2023 was the hottest year on record, by a long shot. europe's top climate agency released data today showing

global temperatures average 1.48 degrees celsius or 2.66 degrees farenheit, above pre-industrial levels. record high temperatures are expected to continue this year. for more on the implications of this record heat i'm joined by radley horton, professor at columbia university's climate school. welcome back. did we expect to see that kind of increased this quickly? >> no, we did not. at this point, we've gotten used to seeing records as warm as any prior year. gotten used to hearing it's the ninth straight, the nine years have been the last -- last nine years have been the warmest on record. over the last six months we were a half degrees fahrenheit warmer than any of those previous years. you can think of it like all the previous years were stacked pretty close together, and along comes a year in 2023 where the last six months were a full half degrees warmer than any of those

previous years. this was not expected. amna: what drove that increased this past year? >> there's a few factors, but we have to start with human activities, the burning of fossil fuels. we are putting so much more heat in the system. there is growing concern among scientists that we may have underestimated just how sensitive the earth's temperature is to greenhouse gases as the increase. there are some other things going on besides those human activities. we had a moderately strong el niño underway right now, that could be responsible for some warming of the planet, but not this much. similarly, we had a volcanic eruption under the ocean that actually put water vapor up into the atmosphere, which unlike most volcanoes -- but it could not come anywhere close to

explaining this agree of shattering previous records. amna: global warming also means more extreme weather events. where have we been seeing those? >> there are so many examples. i will highlight some of the cases where the records got shattered. you look at the degree of some of these heavy rain events, these tragic floods in 2020 three, like we saw in libya, for example, and greece. certainly heat waves front and center. we saw exceptional heat across southern europe, across china, across the southern u.s.. this is hugely impactful for our economies and ecosystems. how about the forest fires we saw across canada? by some estimates, four times more burned area and ever seen before in canada. it is directly related to planet warming or than we thought it could, causing the air to dry out and essentially sucked

moisture out of that vegetation, priming the pump for these extreme fires. amna: you also mentioned the economic component. the u.s. alone had 28 weather disasters last year. the combined damage killed 492 people and cause nearly $93 billion in damage. in short, can we afford to continue at this pace? >> no, we can't. we have to urgently reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. that is clearer than ever. some of the things that don't get captured by measures like gdp. the initial concern, because this year was so much warmer than prior years and because of growing evidence that we may have underestimated how vulnerable we as a society are to a little bit higher temperatures, it's becoming clear that if we want to avert these worst-case scenarios and

catastrophic outcomes that are beyond our climate models, our financial and crop models tell us is possible, we need to urgently reduce emissions and adapt to the climate change that is underway. amna: we are just barely below the 1.5 degree limit the world agreed upon that we would like to avoid the most severe outcomes. we talk about the tipping point a lot. is this it? >> we don't need to focus exactly on 1.5 degrees. the key take away is that we are failing terribly at reducing our emissions. you are right that it is becoming more and more clear than it was just five years ago and getting the 1.5 degrees is catastrophic for society. we have underestimated how vulnerable are exist -- our systems are. whether it is the tipping point or not, we are way more

vulnerable than we realized and it is even more urgent than we thought that we dramatically reduce our emissions. amna: bradley horton, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: we are learning more about what went wrong when a door panel blew off an alaska airlines flight mid-air. officials are looking into whether four bolts that were supposed to hold the panel in place were missing. the investigation grounded at least 170 other planes from alaska and united airlines. and it's leading to many questions about boeing and the role of the faa. jon ostrower covers this all closely as the editor in chief of the air current, a site with reporting on the aerospace and aviation industries. thanks so much for being with us. you were the first to report that united airlines found loose bolts during its early

inspections of the 737 max 9. alaska airlines said it also found what it called loose hardware. it accounts for this, faulty installations, or poor design? >> i think you're hitting exactly on what boeing, the faa want to determine. did it happened during clients, did happen during assembly? and getting to the bottom of that is the key question to what caused this door on the alaska airlines flight to depart the aircraft at 16,000 feet. geoff: the ceo of boeing today acknowledged the company's mistake during a companywide town hall meeting. what more can you tell us about that and what this means for boeing, which has come under fire for a series of safety issues connected to this very plain? >> today's town hall in

washington where boeing builds the 737 was a moment for boeing to pause and talk to its employees about what they know, what they don't know and what they can say, and what they are doing to make sure that any issues in the factory don't become safety issues in the field. that is something they will continue to reiterate publicly. one of the really important things as we look at this and look at the span of the history that has befallen boeing over not just the last five years but the grounding after the accidents and ethiopia and indonesia, coming off that and rolling through the pandemic, there is a major shift in how boeing was producing the airplane. production had halted during the grounding and in the pandemic caused a huge turnover. those were discrete events. what is important to put into context is that boeing has tried to move beyond the tragedies

that befell ethiopian airlines and lion air back in 2019 and 2020. but what keeps recurring is a series of quality missteps that are not nearly as severe as we saw in the crashes in 2019 and 2020, but certainly have not mitigated these quality escapes that cause tremendous disruption to boeing and the airlines, and in this case very acute crisis for alaska airlines and the 171 passengers that were on board that airplane. when boeing looks at how they move forward from this, i think it is important to put into context that boeing strategy fundamentally as a company has not changed. they've adopted new safety procedures and reemphasized tactical moves in terms of how they approach safety. but fundamentally, the company

strategy in terms of its goals for shareholders and customers has not changed. that strategy currently is not by all accounts in the conversations we having with senior leaders all across the aviation industry, whether it be boeing's best customers or their suppliers or stakeholders who are interested in their success as a natural asset, looking at a strategy producing the opposite result they want to achieve. so that will be the legacy of this immediate issue, once the aircraft is expected to reenter service, when more is known and the initial investigation is done. geoff: their questions on what this all means for the faa. united an alaska airlines both found loose parts in the early inspections of the grounded aircraft. leads to questions about the faa inspection processes and its

overall oversight. what does accountability look like for the faa right now? >> certainly congress will be asking questions about that in the weeks to come. it is important to remember that while the conversations apply to boeing itself, when the max returned to service at the end of 2020 following the grounding, the faa took responsibility for key delegated tasks, including the final inspection and air ticketing of each and every delivery. so the faa has played a role in boeing's factories and their delivery since then. serve certainly how they approach this will be an important question going forward. geoff: thanks so much for being with us. ♪

amna: the case of an ohio woman has garnered national attention, after she had a miscarriage, and now faces criminal charges. 34-year-old brittney watts was 22 weeks pregnant, and her pregnancy had been deemed non-viable just days earlier, when she miscarried in the bathroom of her home in september of 2023. two weeks later, she was arrested on charges of felony abuse of a corpse for how she handled the remains. if found guilty, she faces up to a year in prison. joining me now is mary ziegler, a law professor at the university of california, davis. her most recent book is roe: the history of a national obsession. help us understand this charge, abusive vote corpse. what is she being accused of exactly? >> is from very old laws that almost never apply in this circumstance. you're thinking of people

mistreating remains for medical experimentation, or you are thinking of people after a homicide, dismembering bodies to hide the crime. this almost never would be a charge she would see applied in a miscarriage case. essentially what prosecutors are faulting her for is not grieving in a way they thought appropriate following her miscarriage. essentially they are faulting her for the way she disposed of the fetal remains and the way she behaved after she did that. amna: miscarriages this late in pregnancy are rare, but up to 30% of pregnancies do end in a miscarriage. are there laws in ohio or anywhere else around that, in terms of how you should be handling or reporting that miscarriage? >> know, if you are pregnant and looking for guidance about what to do if you experience a miscarriage, the only information you're likely to find is when you should seek medical attention, there is no

kind of how to guide about what you should do if you experience a miscarriage at home. so it is also unusual for prosecutors to be holding her to a standard that wasn't written down anywhere when she made the choices she did. amna: so critics have looked at the case and said it represents criminalization pregnancy. do you agree with that, have we been seeing that trend? >> i think this case is remarkable in a couple of ways. there's a history of laws criminalizing the actions of pregnant patients, particularly, usually actions that were taken by low income people, people of color, substance abuse, sometimes of illegal or legal drugs like alcohol. to my knowledge you almost never see a prosecution of someone like brittney watts, who everyone has conceded that the pregnancy was already nonviable when the actions that she took

that of lead to charges began. so it is a continuation what also an acceleration of a trend, something we have not seen much for. amna: there were found to be more than 1300 cases where pregnancy loss was used in a criminal investigation or prosecution. that was from 2006 june 2022, the month that roe v. wade was overturned. tell me about what we've seen since then, where'd of these prosecutions fit into the larger effort to roll back abortion access? >> it has been not just the undoing of a right to choose abortion, but the recognition of a fetus as a rights holding person. in pursuit of that goal, they've sought to write this idea of a fetus as a rights holding person into his many areas as possible.

the interpretation of the constitution, that doesn't treat the fetus as a rights holding person and outlier, to make it weirder and weirder to say we treat it as a person for the purpose of abusing a corpse, for fetal homicide law or wrongful death law, to put incremental pressure on a supreme court to move toward the recognition of personhood. so this is very much playing the long game, but it is worth remembering that it took two years to undo roe v. wade. in some ways this is the row -- the new roe v. wade of the next 50 years. amna: the supreme court late last week allowed idaho to continue to enforce its near-total abortion ban. the court will hear the case in

its april session. from what you seen in other states in terms of women traveling out of state or having to file legal cases to challenge for the right to terminate magnets is, what is the impact on the ground in idaho? >> what we are seeing in idaho is likely to be of the most serious import for people experiencing complications in wanted pregnancies, people who may have been able to fit in under the understanding of a medical emergency that the biden administration has championed, i think it is also likely to have an effect on physicians who are not going to want to risk the kind of criminal consequences that idaho's law authorizes for making the wrong decision. it's not unlikely we will see the supreme court of whole this law or reject the biden administration's interpretation of federal law and permit the idaho interpretation to take effect in june when the court renders a decision.

amna: mary zigler, thank you, always good to see you. >> thanks for having me. ♪ geoff: the all-out war in ukraine will enter its third year and month. the battle lines nearly as frozen as the nation itself during that's frigid winter. but two years ago there was concern thatkyiv would not even last week. nick: ukraine's national anthem is a dark but determined call for freedom. it begins with the line, ukraine has not yet perished, but it continues, fate shall smile on ukraine, and her enemies will vanish. our enemies will vanish, that is the title of the new book out today by the wall street journal's cheap parnas bear --

affairs correspondent. helping define our understanding of the war. he joins me here in the studio. thank you so much for coming in. the book is extraordinary because of the breadth of the reporting. it is also extraordinary because it is personal. you were born in ukraine, that is you in the lasses right down there in art class as a kid. you write in the book, it felt wrong to wear on the streets of my hometown the best and helmets by the botanical garden where i used to go on dates, by the museum where i used to spend afternoons. the russians thought it was theirs, and a country they believed didn't exist. part of a nation they told themselves had been invented. how dare they, i thought. how personal is this story? >> very much so. i've spent much of my career's

-- covering wars and insurrections and other countries. i always thought of ukraine is such a peaceful place, it would never happen there. and then one day it did. i was prepared for that, but still there is a sense of personal insult. this is a city that is being bombarded and destroyed. nick: you reveal that there was a difference between ukrainian and u.s. intelligence before the war. the ukrainians had lower-level intelligence, and they knew that those senior officials were actually lying to putin. explain that, and how that play out? >> basically the u.s. had high-grade intelligence, so they knew what the generals were telling them. there was the capacity to rout

ukraine very quickly and that ukrainians would not be resisting very much. what ukrainians knew from contact at the lower levels was that the russians were not a strong and a lot of the russian spy network to facilitate a rapid takeover was actually not going to work for the russians. nick: you write extensively about how close some of the russians came to kyiv, at one point the russians had a 12 to 1 advantage. how close did they come to their goals in the capital? >> the main russian plan was to take over the air feels -- airfields.

it was a pivotal moment at the start of the war. in the russians were there, they had crossed the river to the west of kyiv and established a foothold. it was a tremendous effort by everyone who could hold a gun to repel them, at a high cost. nick: one of the success stories that ukrainians had by october of 22 into is specifically, what did you see when you were one of the first reporters into some of these areas liberated by ukrainian soldiers? >> my photographer who was with me throughout this war drove very early in the morning and we were among the first to enter the city. i'm driving on the road and we saw russian armored vehicles,

and we saw a man crawling from behind one of those vehicles without a leg, he clearly was either from russian forces are one of the looters trying to steal items from them. nick: even a year ago you spoke to soldiers who were criticizing the ukrainian focus in eastern ukraine as taking away some of the focus for more strategic goals in the south. why do you think president zelenskyy had a sense that he could ignore some of the military advice he was getting? >> i think it was a political decision. he was trying to assemble ukrainian resistance and the whole idea was, it was a big cost to the ukrainian military,

but it was also a big cost to russia. if you remember the only russian force that was on the ground was wagner, the only russian force that was capable since the spring of 2022. in wagner was destroyed there. nick: you write, looking back on the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion, it was clear ukraine had won the war for its independence. ukraine wasn't going to disappear from the map once again. that is of course still true today, two years almost after the full-scale invasion. i wonder if you think it it's good enough or whether ukraine and ukrainians you talk to think that is good enough? >> it is never good enough, obviously. ukrainians do want to regain the other 18%, there are ukrainians

living there under terrible conditions under occupation. but the country has survived and is continuing to survive at a tremendous cost. the front line moved much in the last year. there are battles every day and the war goes on. nick: the book is our enemies will vanish. thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ amna: the ncaa announced a new eight your broadcast deal with espn last night for over $900 million with women's college sports making up the bulk of the deal. while women's athletics have traditionally been on the sidelines, in recent years they have scored some big wins with mainstream audiences, effectively tripling their coverage in the process. stephanie sy dives into the rise of women sports and the fandom and how they move forward.

>> i was at this championship game in 2017. stephanie: she is a diehard fan of women sports. >> i'm a huge wnba fan and women's basketball fan in general. stephanie: catching a women's basketball game at her local sports bar proved complicated. >> the experience has been walking into a bar, looking around at the 20 plus tv's and knowing it is very likely game you want to watch is not on tv. >> that is until she took a trip into portland oregon and walked into the first women's sports bar. >> it was transforming. it's not a sports bar for women, it is a bar for women sports. >> it was opened in 2022. she maintains the sports bar aesthetics keeps the tv's tuned

only to women's sports coverage. but it took a game plan. >> if it was just what was on tv on cable, there would not be enough to open the sports bra. so i reached out to some of the bigger brands. while traditional broadcast media is often treated women's sports as a benchwarmer, new media has given it more play. >> streaming platforms have completely changed the game. >> media and marketing researcher shelly says women's sports grew from just 4% to 15% of all sports coverage in the past four years. >> it is amazing, and yes, it is triple where we have been before. but it is only 15%. >> we will look back at 20 23 as

a watershed for women's sports coverage. >> it is the fruition of a landmark piece of legislation known as title ix, signed by richard nixon in 1972, giving women and girls the right to equal opportunity to women and girls in sports. >> it makes complete sense that we would be seeing this explosion in women's sports. >> rin herself for the high school athlete just after title ix was passed, but she didn't get to enjoy the benefits, as the new rules took years to be enforced. >> i'm honored to be in at the very beginning, just getting a glimpse of what would come in the decades to follow. stephanie: what followed our big, headlines stealing moments, like the showdown in the ncaa basketball final.

katie ledecky beating michael phelps for most individuals swimming titles. and simone biles come back to become the most decorated gymnast in history. >> today's is the greatest date to be a woman in sports, until tomorrow. but the mainstream sports media has not caught up. >> the 2020 three wnba finals for the most watched in 20 years. the national women's soccer league saw 20% increase in tv ratings this season. women's college volleyball is continuously shattering its own viewership ratings and that women's basketball final averaged more than the five game average for last year's world series. >> the rise of social media has been a fabulous turn of events or women's sports and women sports fans. in the old days, it just wouldn't be covered. >> 18-year-old kelly carlson is

active on tiktok where she posts exclusively about her favorite sport, women socked her -- women's soccer. >> i was blown away because i didn't have other people in my life who liked women's soccer. >> carson was first drawn to the sport during the 2019 world cup. when the u.s. women's team was campaigning to earn as much as their male counterparts. >> it definitely draws you to a team when they stand for more than just the sport that they play. >> i love all things women's basketball. we can be competitors. >> watching female bottlers is empowering, and for her signs, enlightening. >> showing two little boys that

women can and will compete, it diminishes that whole stereotype of, women are just one way. >> they are playing at such a high level, it makes it entertaining to watch. >> he recently became one of the men who make up roughly half the audience for women's sports. he is now a season-ticket hogle -- season-ticket holder for his team. >> they were the first ones to have a parade on the las vegas strip. how cool is that? >> they represent a seachange for women's sports and are key to its growth, says brennan. >> they were raised very differently than their fathers and grandfathers. they will be fighting to make sure there is advertising for women sports. >> while college sporting events

or spit evenly between men and women, professional sports are dominated by men's leaks. but jillian is banking on that changing. >> we will have all kinds of memorabilia and art on the walls. >> she is getting ready to open a bar of their own, the midwest's first female sports bar in minneapolis. >> i was that young girl athlete that never really had representation in the kind of sports are -- or sports bars. >> a bar of their own will open its doors this march, when it is expected to be another banner year for women's sports. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. ♪ geoff: later this evening on pbs

, independent lens presents a film about the links people go to flea north korea. beyond utopia focuses on a pastor helping families as they embark on a dangerous, treacherous journey across china and southeast asia, leaving their homelands behind. >> there is no freedom of religion, no freedom of thought, no freedom of press. there's only one paper, one radio station. there is one tv station. >> north korea is the only country in the world that completely bans outside broadcasts. >> and spying on one another is very much part of life in north korea. geoff: beyond utopia airs on pbs tonight at 9pm eastern. check your pbs station listings. and that's the newshour for tonight i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. i raymond james financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure. an british style. all with cunard's white star service. >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic

engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.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 viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. ukraine's support lags in the united states and europe, poland's new government vows to rally the west. foreign minister radek sikorski joins me. then, candidate joe biden returns to south carolina, hoping to recharge black voter support for 2024. we hear about this trip. and one of america's most celebrated writers calls for a cease-fire in gaza. walter isaacson talks