captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff . >> ifill: on the newshour tonight: gunfire after a traffic stop. one militant is dead and eight others arrested while the f.b.i. surrounds a wildlife reserve where activist continue a three- week standoff. >> woodruff: also ahead this wednesday: on the ground takes from iowa and new hampshire, now just days from the first voting. >> ifill: and a new memorial to honor those who served in world war one. >> you can't understand the country we live in today, the world that we live in today, without understanding world war one, and this is our opportunity to try to do something with that. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it began on january 2nd, when an armed anti- government group took over a national wildlife refuge in eastern oregon. then, late yesterday, the standoff suddenly lurched into violent conflict. and today, questions swirled about what happened, and what happens next. after weeks of waiting, federal and state officers corralled the militia leaders during a traffic stop. >> looked like they were making some arrests and clogging up the highway. i am glad to see an end to this. hopefully it is an end to this. >> woodruff: they were captured as they drove to a community meeting in john day, oregon, 70 miles north of burns, near the wildlife refuge.

gunfire erupted during the confrontation, and the group's unofficial spokesman, lavoy finicum, was shot and killed. the arizona rancher had said he'd rather die than be arrested. jason patrick is one of those still occupying the refuge. >> they told us that we could safely leave. well, the group that was leaving has a dead man in it. there's another man who left and was in arizona and he's in custody. they've said peaceful resolution the whole time so it depends on what you believe. >> woodruff: f.b.i. officials refused today to give details of how the shooting happened, while insisting the whole situation could have been avoided. >> the armed occupiers have been given ample opportunity to leave the refuge peacefully. they've been given opportunities to negotiate. instead, these individuals have chosen to threaten and intimidate the america they

profess to love and -- through criminal actions -- bring these consequences upon themselves. >> woodruff: amanda peacher is with oregon public broadcasting, and has been covering the standoff. >> this is very tense and anxious place in burns today, there has a lot been suffering, while here some sympathize with the protestors, no one here wanted violence. so we are seeing a lot of grief and anxiety over what could happen next here in burns. >> woodruff: authorities arrested the group's leader, ammon bundy, at the traffic stop along with his brother ryan and three others: brian cavalier, shawna cox and ryan payne.

two other occupiers, joseph donald o'shaughnessy and peter santilli, were taken into custody separately back in burns. hours later, an eighth militia member, jon eric ritzheimer, surrendered to police in arizona. each will face felony charges of conspiring to impede federal officers. the group has occupied the malheur national wildlife refuge since january 2nd to protest federal control of public lands. >> we want to make sure that they remain open to the public, where people can hunt and fish and hike and camp and watch the birds. we also want to make sure that those who own the rights on these lands can use it without inhibitation from government. >> woodruff: but the local sheriff, dave ward, warned today that it's time for the standoff to end. >> it's time for everybody in this illegal occupation to move on.

there doesn't have to be bloodshed in our community. if we have issues with the way things are going in our government, we have a responsibility as citizens to act on those in an appropriate manner. we don't arm up. no matter what it takes. many have told reporters that they are willing to die there and they seem to be making preparations to sort of hunker-down. we have heard reports that they're building trenches, and that they are armed, although we don't know to what extent. and they seem ready to stay, and potentially fight. >> checkpoints have now been set up >> woodruff: checkpoints have now been set up along key routes in and out of the refuge to secure the area. one of the occupation leaders

says five or six militia members are still holding out there. >> ifill: in the day's other news, the federal reserve kept a key short-term interest rate unchanged. fed policymakers had raised rates in december for the first time in nearly a decade, but today they said they need to assess slumping markets and plunging oil prices. that could mean additional rate hikes will be slower in coming. >> woodruff: wall street wanted an even stronger signal that the fed will delay further rate increases, and stocks fell as a result. the dow jones industrial average lost 222 points to drop below 15,950. the nasdaq fell nearly 100 points. and the s&p 500 slid 20. >> ifill: the focus of the democratic presidential contest shifted, at least for a while today, to the white house. vermont senator bernie sanders met privately with president obama on foreign policy, the economy and politics. afterwards, sanders brushed

aside talk that the president's recent praise of hillary clinton shows he favors her. >> i know there was some discussion the other day about a politico interview, where he was tipping the scale towards secretary clinton. i don't believe that at all. i think he and the vice president have tried to be fair and evenhanded in the process and i expect they'll continue to be that way. >> ifill: also today, clinton called for adding another democratic debate before the new hampshire primary on february 9th. but the democratic national committee said it's sticking to its sanctioned schedule. >> woodruff: in germany, the ruling cabinet has approved new deportation measures for foreigners who commit crimes. now, the german parliament has to sign off. the government is under growing pressure to act since a wave of new year's eve violence in cologne and other cities. much of it was blamed on migrants. >> ifill: the united nations launched an appeal today for nearly $400 million in humanitarian aid to afghanistan.

u.n. relief officials said it's vitally needed to help a surge of refugees. more than 300,000 afghans fled their homes last year, as fighting rose sharply. qjw the united states and china dug in today over how to punish north korea for its latest nuclear test. in beijing, secretary of state john kerry and his chinese counterpart agreed on the need for a u.n. resolution, but not on a u.s. call for significant new sanctions. >> it's good to agree on the goal, but it's not enough to agree on the goal. we believe we need to agree on the meaningful steps necessary to get to the achievement of the goal, to the negotiations that result in de-nuclearisation. >> ( translated ): in order to maintain peace and stability on the korean peninsula, we have to first achieve de-nuclearization there. and only through negotiations will we eventually achieve de- nuclearization on the peninsula. sanctions are not the goal.

the key is to resolve problems. >> woodruff: china is north korea's lone major ally, but the u.s. has complained that beijing is not using all the leverage it has to influence the country. >> ifill: back in this country, the governor of michigan is defending his response to the lead contamination crisis in flint. republican rick snyder visited the city and announced an advisory group to recommend long-term fixes for the water system. but at a news conference, snyder deflected criticism that he isn't doing enough to reach out to the people of flint. >> i'm looking to do teletown halls where i can get on the phone with people and have them ask their questions. the citizens of flint because i do care about the citizens. >> so, will that be happening in the short term? >> yes. yeah and it's already starting and it's going to continue. and that's why i'm here today and be back on a regular basis in flint. >> ifill: also today, environmental and civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit to force replacement of all lead pipes in flint.

governor snyder said that might be an option down the road, but for now, the state is focused on recoating the pipes. >> woodruff: and ferguson, missouri has reached a tentative deal with the u.s. justice department, stemming from the police shooting of michael brown. the proposed consent decree was announced late today. it calls for better training of police officers and changes in the rules governing use of force. the deal goes to the city council for its approval, on february 9th. still to come on the newshour: campaigns down to the wire in iowa and new hampshire. greed and sacrifice in the battle to protect kenya's rhinos. women working in what has historically been a man's world. and much more.

>> ifill: now to the race for the white house. with only five days left until iowa voters head out to caucus, with new hampshire's first in the nation primary not far behind, one candidate continues to grab headlines even when he exits the stage. political director lisa desjardins reports. >> i probably won't bother doing the debate. >> reporter: and with that, the campaign spotlight made it's near-daily turn to donald trump. >> let's see how much money fox is gonna make on the debate without me. ok? >> reporter: the previously center-stage debate star said last night he'd he will shun the next one, set for thursday night. >> mr. trump... >> reporter: his reason? "fox news" wouldn't remove moderator megyn kelly, who trump has said she's biased, going back to the last debate on fox. >> ...that you are part of the war on women? >> reporter: trump's latest shots at fox news quickly became ammunition for his rivals, like ted cruz. >> i would like to invite

donald, right now, to engage in a one-on-one debate with me, anytime between now and the iowa caucuses. major candidates have pulled out of primary debates before, including ronald reagan and george w. bush. both of them ended up winning the g.o.p. nomination anyway. so, is there really any a risk for trump? maybe. a study out of the university of missouri, looking at debates this century, found that primary debates do have a big impact and are particularly useful to undecided voters. and, there's a lot of candidate- switching by voters after primary debates. but of course, trump has defied conventional traditional wisdom before. and this time he's drawing from his own playbook. back in september, the republican frontrunner defused questions about using a battleship as a prop by turning this rally into a fundraiser for wounded warriors. he says whatever he does during tomorrow's debate will also benefit the group. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins.

>> ifill: for more on what's happening on that debate stage tomorrow night --and how voters are preparing for the actual voting-- we are joined by local reporters watching developments up close up in new hampshire and iowa. paul steinhauser is political director at nh-1 news network, and joins us from manchester, new hampshire. and o. kay henderson is news director at radio iowa. she's in des moines. local-k start with you because five days out, so you actually get the first word here. how are things royaling here on these last few days? >> that's a great word, finger nails are being bitten down to the core. people are worried. it is a two-person race it looks like on the republican side between trump and cruz and on the democratic side it's you know a debate about whether enthusiasm or organization will win on caucus night. the organization of hillary clinton hoping that they can surmount the surging bernie sanders here.

ifill: does this threaten appears to be real walkout that donald trump is talking about for tomorrow night is that having any effect or is that much conversation for all of us? >> well, what it has done is it has made donald trump dominate the discussion again. that's what everybody is talking about. what is he going to do? he announced late today he is going to hold an event at drake university on the same stage where hillary clinton, bernie sanders and martin o'malley appeared earlier there week, it will occur at exactly the same time that the fox news debate will happen. and of course you heard just moments ago that te ted cruz is talking about donald trump and challenging him to a debate. it is hard for those candidates that are hoping they can have a debate on the republican side, when you have two candidates on the front of the pack firing at

each other. >> paul steinhauser, there is also a debate going on about debates. >> there certainly is. we didn't have a debate the week before the primary, on the democratic side we've had that gosh for 20 to 30 years. so nbc news now proposing a debate. and hillary clinton kind of about-face right? she was not in favor for more debates for quite some time so the dwrid of an extra debate even though it was unsanctioned sounds good to her. democratic committee not going to sanction that debate. bernie sanders says no i'm not going to do it unless it's sanctioned. sanders, the frornl front runnee role reversal pretty dramatic on the democratic side. all the candidates are you out your way. this is the first date since christmas week that i didn't have a candidate. ifill: they are happening your

way. there have been other things happening in new hampshire, newspaper enforcements all of a sudden piling up for john kasich. >> john kasich hasn't been getting a lot of media are, interest but a lot of newspaper normts. endorsements. donald trump is the front runner by double digits, now it's a battle for second third and fourth. gwen. >> i heard that hillary clinton is planning to be in new hampshire next tuesday. the morning after the caucuses you can have more than you can handle. what are these candidates saying as they go around, who are they trying line up and what difference is it making? >> are trump's message is clear,

cruz, making sure that the evangelical, front is with him. and striking a contract with secretary clinton on key issues, bernie sanders visited a union hall yesterday and talked about the tpp, he accuse he her ever being late to the dance on a number of key issues that are important to progressive democrats. secretary clinton today was at a bowling alley in adell, avoid, she was throwing some elbows at senator sanders. today she was talking about she, senator sanders and governor o'malley agree on many issues. she was focused on a closing message telling people that being in iowa had really changed her and informed her on a number of issues. ifill: kay, give us the understanding where

geographically these candidates are focusing. you talked about it being a three person race in iowa. where is ted cruz going, where is donald trump going and where is ben carson going? >> ben carson last held steady. he reminds me of allen keys who held firmly in the last race. democrats tend to be focusing on the eastern half of the state whereas you have republicans who are sort of rushing in to that northwest quadrant of the state, hoping to nail down the more conservative republicans. the way the votes are counted here is much different. democrats really have to run a statewide campaign. whereas republicans can truly run up the score in some of the more conservative areas of the state. and strike a win on caucus night. >> pawtle, that is an important

point how different iowa is from new hampshire. if you haven't made up your mind in iowa now you probably don't plan to show up for caucus. in new hampshire is not the same thing. what are the closing issues there? >> new hampshire voters traditionally make up their minds late. new hampshire voters like to see the candidates two three four times ask them the questions, and then they'll decide. the big battle for second third and fourth, it is a very different feel than in iowa. you're seeing a lot more outpouring towards independent voters. there are about 40% of the lact rat here, they -- electorate here, and on the democratic side as well, the independents, where do they go, do they vote on the republican primary or the democratic primary, that is the key question here gwen. >> where the independents were going to go, undecideds were

going to go, donald trump has been steady hasn't he? >> he has, in the upper 20s, lower 30s, you pick your poll, late july early august, hasn't changed. donald trump, hours after the debate will be right here in new hampshire. you mentioned john kasich. coming back on saturday, going to campaign straight hue here. kasich will be the onlying candidate here on caucus day. gwen. >> has bernie sanders approach changed at all, so far ahead it's a question of cruising to the end? >> no, they're not taking anything for granted so he may change his mind on this debate. we may have a presidential debate, next week, stay tuned for that. his lead you picked the poll, it could be anywhere the from 9 to 12 points. sanders is not taking a darn thing for granted here. hillary clinton doesn't want to

get blown out by double digits. ifill: kay, there is so much anticipation for the poll, everyone is waiting where it leads. tell us a little bit about why this is considered to be an important poll and how it's played out in past years? >> this is the poll that showed the santorum surge in 2012. this is the poll that showed barack obama was likely to win in 2008. it is considered, it's been said often, that this is the gold standard. people have been getting lots of calls from pollsters and the woman who runs this poll, ann seltzer says, iowans are more willing to chat with us. i can't stress enough, i've heard stories of people going to the printing plant to get the

first copies off the press to see what it says. ifill: you don't think the interwebs have changed that a little bit now? >> they have a little bit. but actually the chair of the iowa democratic party tells a compelling story about how she website out to the printing press one night to try to get the first papers off the press. ifill: okay, we'll be watching that both in new hampshire and in iowa. thank you both for joining us next time when we talk at least we'll have some actual votes in the can to discuss. paul steinhauser, and o. kay hernandez in the iowa radio network in iowa, thank you.

>> ifill: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: what a board game has to do with advancing artificial intelligence. the washington post editor on his reporter's 545 days in an iranian prison. and the vision behind a new world war one memorial. >> woodruff: but first, rhino and elephant poaching has reached unprecedented levels as the black market price of rhino horn and ivory tusk has skyrocketed. university of california berkeley students daphne matziaraki and james pace- cornsilk traveled to kenya and found that the trafficking networks are often connected to international terrorist groups and, on the ground, the situation resembles war. >> reporter: ol jogi conservancy in northern kenya is home to 46 eastern black rhinos. there are 500 left in the world. >> we had two rhinos i believe to have been shot with a

firearm, and one of those rhinos 6had its horns cut off. >> reporter: jamie gaymer manages this rhino sanctuary and protects the surrounding 58,000 acres of land from a major threat: poachers. >> the enemy who are trying to come and poach our rhinos are becoming more advanced investing in higher tech equipment, automatic weapons, perhaps their own intelligence is, is quite well established, and we have to evolve our security in order to combat that. >> reporter: black market buyers from asia and the united states have driven the price of ivory to $1,000 per pound, and rhino horn - used in traditional chinese medicine and seen as a status symbol - to $45,000 per pound--making it more expensive than gold. >> i don't know the definition of war, but certainly there is a very advanced enemy who is putting us under considerable threat. >> reporter: and this threat may be linked to terrorism.

the elephant action league has been investigating wildlife trafficking for years. in 2011-2012, co-founder andrea crosta spent 18 months in kenya, concealing his identity and meeting with ivory traffickers whom he says were brokers for the terrorist group al shabaab. >> then actually, the traffickers described to us how they organized the pick-up in this no man's land al shabaab or al shabab emissaries were coming over with the technical, you know, the pickups with their own scale. paying cash, always punctual to the point that some of the traffickers told us that back then al shabaab was a preferred customer because no tricks, no games, paying cash and disappear. >> reporter: government sources confirm a connection between wildlife trafficking and terrorist groups. a 2013 white paper from the us government's directorate of national intelligence describes how poaching threatens security in africa. demand for rhino horn and ivory so outpaces supply, and is so

lucrative, that criminal elements of all kinds, including some terrorist entities and rogue military officers, are becoming involved in countries across east, central, and southern africa. the u.s. government and organizations, such as the clinton global initiative, have tried to address the problem of wildlife poaching by reducing demand for ivory and strengthening trafficking enforcement, but andrea crosta says those efforts are not targeting the source of the problem. >> they thought that the best way to deal with this problem is to put more boots on the ground, to send a lot of weapons, to send, to train rangers. >> you don't address this part of the problem with boots on the ground. you address it with intelligence work, with investigations. >> reporter: back in kenya, gaymer protects the wildlife at ol jogi with a fleet of aircraft, attack dogs, and more than 100 armed men. >> to fight poaching is like you are in war. >> reporter: as rangers head out for their nightly patrol,

they're never sure how dangerous their 12-hour shift will be. >> unfortunately, it's gotten to the level now that human lives are being lost. >> reporter: after reports of overnight gunshots, gaymer is out early one morning conducting an aerial surveillance, counting the rhinos to make sure none were poached. >> the first layer on the ground are the ones who have to face the bullets, unfortunately. >> reporter: this time all the rhinos, and all the rangers, were accounted for. but the threat comes not only from poachers but also from the lure of big money. poachers earn a lot more than rangers according to ranger john kabachia. >> reporter: another ranger,

lakini was a poacher until two years ago, when he switched sides and decided to protect wildlife instead of hunting them. >> ( translated ): i've been killing elephants since i was 14 years old. i started hunting illegally when i was a very young boy. i learned how to use a gun a long time ago. if i was still poaching i probably would have been killed by rangers by now. >> i don't think the problem is going to get any better anytime in the near future. >> reporter: for now, jamie and his rangers continue their battle against an increasingly well armed and well funded enemy, with no end in sight. >> ifill: it's not the first time a computer program has defeated a human in a big match, but researchers say today they have made a breakthrough in the quest to develop artificial intelligence. hari sreenivasan has the story

from our new york studios. >> sreenivasan: scientists have developed a program to beat the chinese board game, "go." the object of the game is to surround and control more area of the board with markers than your opponent. it sounds simple enough, but "go" is considered an extremely complicated game. google developed a program known as "alpha-go" to defeat the top human player. the results were published in the scientific journal, "nature". here's an excerpt of a video about why the team at google chose "go." it was produced by "nature" and google. >> it's a very ancient game. it's probably the most complex game humans play, more configurations of the game than there are stars in the universe, which people previously thought was only possible within the human brain to find out who was ahead or what the right move was that swee we should play. combines techniques together and

for the first time ever "alpha-go" beats the professional player on "go." so on a full size global.♪ ♪ >> if i played chess there very young and that was my first game i fell in love with but then when i got to cambridge and being my undergrad club there, very strong "go" club, it seems to appeal to mathematicians there. >> one of the strongest chess players in the world and it was very important some people in the company that we could actually beat them at something. i decided the game of "go" was my only chance. didn't really know the game at that time. >> from then i always loved the game, and i thought it would be a great challenge for computers

to be able to play such an esthetic game as "go," much more of a challenge than it was for chess. >> there are hundreds of places that the stone could be placed down and hundreds of ways that one can respond to each one of those moves. black responds to white's moves and you get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of possibilities. in fact the search place of "go" is to enormous and too is brute forces have any way of succeeding. as a result, researchers, bruce pursuit force search, in a way they deal with position. >> very intuitive poks, so the great "go" player how they decide on a move, it felt right. >> our science correspondent miel o'brien joins us to help us understand more. miles we've heard of humans beating computers and video games. why is it so significant that a

computer is getting better and better at beating us at this particular game? >> because it is so hard. this is one of astho games that if you saw somebody playing it you would say that's not more than glorified checkers. but it has literally trillions ever possibilities. if you play the game. if you go back to 1997 when the ibm deeb blue machine beat gary casparoff, that was actually brute force hari. the machine would play off every subsequent move. there are a limited number of choices in chess. but in the game of "go," even though it's white stones and black stones, there are unlimited number of choices, hundreds upon hundreds, that builds, and that will choke the computer actually very quickly. what they did was figure out a way to kind of break down the problem and make the computer

smart enough to beat a top "go" player. there an announcement from facebook, google, ali baba, big tech companies, why do they have teams of people working on artificial intelligence? why does this matter to them? >> always solve the money, first and foremost, the short term, make sure you see the ad which in sometimes creepy ways is exactly what you're looking for when you are browsing online. that is built on pattern recognition, artificial intelligence. that's why the netflix suggestions are so apt, and that's why when you see on amazon seems to fit your needs for the moment. the better they get at that, the better their business model is for the present. medium-term and this is where we can talk about ibm's watson machine, so successful in 2011 playing general plan jeopardy, n

recognition, machine throarng do diagnoses. long term what google is talking about today, is the idea that we would have essentially computer scientists with enough intelligence to be side by side with human scientists, pushing break throughs. and then it gets into a very interesting world. sreenivasan: you've said that that's long term and that long term future is what also scarce some very smart people about artificial intelligence c about where its place is in society and whether we would become subsesubservient to it. >> all of those things are possibilities. i back talking to one of the leaders in the field today, ray kurswile, he thinks in 2029, computers, you will be able to engage in a human conversation

with the machine, not knowing it's a machine at all. when humans get to that point, then it turns into a whole new realm of sophistication and intelligence and ability to think in a machine context. it is important, this has been raised in the likes of bill gates and elon musk, that we keep control of it somehow. because ultimately these machines are going to be smarter than we are. sreenivasan: the conversation about artificial intelligence especially now couldn't happen without mentioning marvin minsky, one of the leaders in the field that has just passed away, i'm assuming there are proteges of his at one of these bik tech companies. >> he was one of the fathers of this world, helped coin the term, artificial intelligence, legendary thinker in this regard.

i remember interviewing him hari in 2010 on a piece we were doing on robotics and artificial intelligence. he stated the things that are simple for us are hard for computers and what's hard for us is easy for computers. this idea he thought that was so, you know, really unpredictable in some ways, until you think about it, is that stuff that a three-year-old, common sense things that a three-year-old knows intuitively is very difficult to teach to a computer and vice versa. and that interesting kind of paradox is what drives a lot of the thinking in artificial intelligence to this day. he was a great man and a great visionary. >> all right, miles o'brien thanks so much for joining us. >> you're welcome, hari. >> woodruff: 10 days ago,

washington post reporter jason ran was released from an iranian prison after more than 500 days' detention. he and three other americans were part of a prisoner exchange between the u.s. and iran. a fifth american was also released, separately. today, rezaian visited the offices of the washington post, where executive editor marty baron said he was greeted with a standing ovation. he said rezaian offered thanks for efforts on his behalf and sat in on a meeting of the newspaper's foreign reporting team, with his wife at his side. a few days ago, i interviewed baron about rezaian's lengthy captivity and what may lie ahead for him. marty baron thank you very much for joining us. how well is jason rezaian doing now? >> physically he seems in good shape, he's very happy to be back, he's in a position now where he is just trying to

reclaim his life, a life that had been taken from him for 545 days. he's spending time with his wife, resting and doing really whatever he'd like to do now. because as a free man he can do that. woodruff: how much is known how he was treated wh while in prison and is it fair to say he's recovering from what happened to him? >> well, i think it's important to keep in mind that he was in solitary for 49 days. and even after that, he was in a small cell with an individual who was from another country, a third country. they didn't share a language. he couldn't communicate with them regularly. and so he was largely without human contact during those 545 days with the exception of the occasions when his wife and his mother could visit him perhaps once a week or something like that toward the latter period of his time in prison. so it was a circumstance that

nobody would want to deal with. woodruff: and is he recovered from that experience? >> well, look, it's hard for me to say. i mean that's where his -- for medical professionals to say for his family to say. i'm not in a position to diagnose his condition or anything like that. he seems -- seemed in good spirits and he seems physically okay. but obviously, anybody who's been through something like that has a lot to deal with and a lot to process. woodruff: well, it certainly seems as if it was touch and go right to the end. we know the iranians held his mother and held his wife even after he was on a plane ready to leave. >> yes, it was a hairy situation there. in fact the iranians had separated his plotting and his wife from him -- his mother and his wife from him. they had been able to see him

briefly at the airport and then put his mother and his wife in a separate room, sort of locked them up and kept them for a while and then after several hours indicated that the plane had already left and that they should go home and in fact the plane had not left at all. they were supposed to be on the plane. this went on for quite some time. a lot of confusion. everyone was searching for his wife and mother, their cell phones had been taken from them and no one knew really what was going on. so the iranians were really playing with them i think and playing with their minds. woodruff: i interviewed last week the lead negotiator on this release, brett mcgurk, the president's envoy. they were dealing with some who had never even met an american before. do you think the u.s. government did all it could to get jason rezaian out? >> well, obviously they did a

lot. they negotiated with the iranians alongside the nuclear talks for quite some time. and then kept talking with the iranians after those nuclear talks concluded. we are very grateful for the efforts of the u.s. government for all of them actually from john kerry to brett mcgurk all the way down. it's hard for us to assess those efforts really. we weren't party to those discussions. and so we're just grateful that it was a positive outcome, eventually. woodruff: what do you know marty baron about jason rezaian's future? what are his plans professionally? >> that's for him to decide now, i'm not sure he has made any decisions along those lines. we didn't want to bombard him with a lot of questions after being released from prison after all this time. he is spending time with his

wife, like any other couple trying the spend time with each other. i don't think he's prepared to make a lot of decisions at this stage. he will in due time but those will be his decision not ours. woodruff: i gather that the washington post does not have a reporter in iran, is that right, and either way what are the plans for the future? will you be having someone covering iran for post? >> well, obviously iran is a very important story, one that we want to cover in every way possible. but it's really premature to say whether we are going to have a correspondent there. obviously we're terribly upset and angry about how our correspondent was treated. this should never have been done. it was a grave injustice. he did no wrong and the iranian government produced no evidence of any wrongdoing. we would need some assurances that this would not happen again from the iranian government and we're not in a position to decide unilaterally because the

iranian government has to let us in in the first place. we'll have to wait and see, that will be a decision to be made in due course. woodruff: martin baron, we thank you. and tomorrow night we will talk with matthew treive treiv, another american released by iran. >> ifill: it was not, in the end, "the war to end all wars". but world war one did have a profound impact on so much that came after. now there's a plan for a memorial to honor the service of americans who fought in it. jeffrey brown has our look. >> brown: pershing park in downtown washington d.c. was buried in snow this week.

the two acre park is a block from the treasury department and white house and just down pennsylvania avenue from the capitol. the statue of the man it's named for, general john pershing, commander of u.s. forces in world war one, stood tall above the white carpet. if all goes as hoped for by a group called the "u.s. world war one centennial commission", this will be the site of the first national memorial to commemorate this country's involvement in the war. edwin fountain is the group's vice chairman. >> world war one is very much lost in our national consciousness. it was subsumed by the depression and then world war two, it didn't have wealth of newsreels, nightly news coverage, hollywood production and other media and popular culture that later wars did. we're now two or three generations beyond the people who fought it. it's quickly receding in our national memory and it shouldn't.

>> brown: world war one -- the so-called "great war" -- began in july 1914 and ended with the armistice on november 11, 1918. overall, some 38 million soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded in one of history's bloodiest conflicts, mostly waged in europe. the u.s. joined the fighting in 1917, deploying two million soldiers overseas. 116,516 were killed, more than in korea and vietnam combined. sandra pershing's husband was the general's grandson. >> the general loved his troops, and he really would have wanted to be surrounded by images of everybody that helped during the war. i think it can be a very nice tribute to everyone who fought and served, and to a lot of

people now who can be here and enjoy it, and look around and say thank you, we're free. >> brown: the commission, authorized by congress in 2013, received 360 design submissions from around the world, and an independent jury winnowed those to five, titled: "world war one grotto of remembrance" "heroes green" "an american family portrait wall in the park" "plaza to a forgotten war" and, the winning design concept, announced yesterday, called "the weight of sacrifice". it was created by 25 year old joe weishaar, just two years out of an architecture program at the university of arkansas and yet to have his official license. he will work on the memorial with sculptor sabin howard and a baltimore architecture firm. >> there's no way at 25, i would have imagine doing something like this. >> brown: weishaar lives in chicago, where i reached him

earlier today. >> what drew me into the competition, was the realization there wasn't a world war one memorial in d.c. and i wanted to participate in that process and i wanted to help create something for the people of the war. >> brown: weishaar's design design includes two distinct spaces, including figurative sculptures and a small park, all ringed by maple trees. >> the upper plaza space is supported by the walls, the metaphor, is public space is a granted right because of freedom. and the people of war fought for that freedom both domestically and abroad. and so again, the great narrative is that the upper plaza is being supported by the protection of freedom and the

lower plaza is really a reflection of the past and a record of the past. >> brown: if the pershing statue represents the 'great man', older style of memorials. the commission was clearly looking to the more contemporary abstract style that began with maya lin's vietnam veterans memorial. since then, monuments to the korean and second world war have also been built on the national mall. >> the best thing about this design is the simplicity of it and the fact that the designer has been sensitive to the existing parks and the sense of an oasis in the city. >> brown: but philip kennicott, pulitzer-prize winning architecture critic for the washington post, raised a larger question as to whether a national memorial is needed. >> we have to remember that the first world war is already very, very well memorialized. many, many cities, towns, villages , squares have world war one memorials. so when you think about memory, the problem is not the lack of places to go and think about the war, it's the lack of willingness to understand the war in the first place.

so we could create a new way of memorializing that returned us to these existing memorials and reconnected us with the history and the honor that is built into them already. >> brown: edwin fountain says honoring the war requires a national spotlight. >> i think most americans don't realize that scale of that sacrifice, and what it represents in terms of what our sailors and soldiers and marines accomplished over there. and that, to the commission, needs to be commemorated with the same weight as we've remembered the other wars of the 20th century on the national mall. >> brown: in any case, this week's announcement is not the end of the process. money must be raised, an estimated $30-$35 million, all to come from private donors. and the design, construction, and everything else about the project must go through myriad reviews. still, the commission hopes to break ground in 2017, and dedicate the memorial a year later, on veterans day, the hundred year anniversary of the

armistice. and, yes, they say, the statue of general pershing will remain in whatever shape the memorial finally takes. i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: and finally, we bring you a profile of kaylee kipp, a young female welder from lebanon, pennsylvania, taking on a historically male-dominated industry. this is the third installation of our student reporting labs series called "outside the box". it is produced by the aspiring journalists at cedar crest high school. >> according to nbc news, only 3% of the professional welders in america are women. >> shaping me to help me be

myself and it helps me with my creativity. >> kaylee kipp is a student at cedar crest high school and is considering a career in welding. >> it's kind of like dangerous and me. >> she recently met a professional welder and they discussed what it was like to be a female welder. >> i don't think there's a big difference between women's and men's work, those who are passionate and those who aren't. >> pursuing welding as a career, i've been looking into it a lot, it's really neat, you get paid a lot and it would be really something doircht do. >> i think the bigger picture is why aren't there more women going into welding, why aren't there more women going into manufacturing? from day one women are fed the story of pink and princess and high le emotionally sensitive

creatures. but it's this drug that you know, we're passing around and boys are supposed to be masculine and hard and strong and it's definitely a false representation of individuality. >> it is something we have and want to do. >> we are all interested in different things and it does not matter our gender our sex what we want to do with our lives. ifill: pink and princess. how generation z refuses to let gender stereotypes influence their choices visit "outside the box" on pbs.org. also online right now, people have known for thousands of years that the earth is round. but that didn't stop recording artist b.o.b from starting a battle with astrophysicist neil

degrasse tyson about it. on our science page, we offer seven experiments that you can do just in case you still want proof. and tomorrow marks the thirtieth anniversary of the challenger space shuttle disaster, which took the lives of seven crew members including teacher christa mcauliffe. today, a fifth-grade science teacher shares his memories of that event, and how he uses space exploration to teach his students about math, science and the power of imagination. you can find his essay, on our home page. all that and more is on our web site: pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. ammon bundy, the leader of an armed militia occupying a wildlife refuge in eastern oregon, was ordered held without bail along with six other militia members arrested late yesterday. they'll each face federal felony charges of conspiring to impede officers. members of the federal reserve board announced a key short-term interest rate would remain unchanged. and ferguson, missouri reached a tentative deal with the u.s. justice department following the

police shooting of michael brown. the proposed agreement calls for better training of police officers, new rules governing use of force and other issues. tune in later tonight on "charlie rose", "bloomberg view"'s al hunt on the campaign trail in iowa. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, how ethanol is fueling the political debate in iowa. i'm judy woodruff >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, and al hut too, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by bnsf railway.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.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 sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

this is "nightly business report" next with tyler mathisen and sue herera. >> heightened concerns. stocks tumble after the federal reserve said it's worried about growth and the global economy. but is the central bank's ability to fix things limited? lying low. boeing doesn't expect to deliver as many jets this year as it did last and that has shareholders nervous. cash advance, no atm card, no problem as long as you have your smartphone. the new way people are accessing their accounts. all that tonight on "nightly business report" for wednesday january 27th. good evening, everyone, and welcome. the fed is on hold. today, the u.s. central bank citing lower economic growth and inflation expectations kept interest rates r