captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff, here in iowa, where we take a close look at women voters as we head into the final weekend of campaigning before the caucuses. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan in washington d.c. also ahead on tonight's newshour, david brooks and e.j. dionne talk yesterday's republican debate and a full week of news. plus, barbie gets a makeover: toy maker mattel introduces three new body types and various skin tones for the classic doll. and, how a ballet in denmark tells the story of asylum seekers by using a mix of professional dancers and refugees. >> this will help people in thinking differently for refugees. they look at us as normal human beings, the way we are. not just the parasite. >> sreenivasan: 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. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the ford foundation.

working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: american consumers spent less, businesses invested less and companies exported less. as a result, the economy slowed markedly in the final quarter of 2015. government data released today put overall growth at an annual rate of just 7-tenths of a percent, from october through december. for the year as a whole, the economy grew 2.4%, about the

same as the previous year. wall street rallied on the news, hoping that weak growth might delay interest rate hikes. strong earnings by tech firms helped as well. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 400 points to close at 16,466. the nasdaq rose 107 points, and the s&p 500 added 47. but for the month, the dow and the s&p lost 5%. the nasdaq fell almost 8%. the state department confirmed today that hillary clinton's private server held 22 e-mails that are now deemed "top secret." the associated press reported that, as a result, state is withholding those e-mail chains from a batch being released today. clinton used her own server as secretary of state, and has said none of the material she received was marked classified at the time. department spokesman john kirby said today it's still not clear why that happened. >> ...it's certainly possible that, for any number of reasons, traffic can be sent that's not marked appropriately for its

classification. that is certainly possible. i am not making any judgment about this. that's why we're doing a review here at the state department to look at the classification at the time the traffic was sent. all i can tell you definitively is it wasn't marked classified at the time it was sent. >> sreenivasan: a clinton campaign spokesman criticized the decision to withhold the e-mail chains as "over- classification run amok." the announcement came three days before the iowa presidential caucuses. we'll hear from judy, in iowa, after the news summary. talks aimed at ending syria's civil war got off to a shaky start in geneva today. after days of uncertainty, the main opposition group announced it will send a delegation to meet with a u.n. special envoy-- but not with syrian officials. today, the envoy met with representatives from bashar al-assad's government, and he urged the opposition to engage, if it wants to be heard. >> we have been strongly suggesting to them that the best way to actually discuss the implementation of such type of

discussion and therefore of improvement is to be done here and to do it with us, as proxy talks or directly. whatever is the format. >> sreenivasan: the talks are the first since negotiations collapsed in 2014. the syrian civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions. there's word u.s. military leaders will ask president obama to send hundreds of additional troops to iraq and syria. "the new york times" reports top commanders believe it will take more trainers, advisors and commandos to defeat the islamic state group. at the white house today, spokesman josh earnest rejected suggestions that the president feels the military has pressured him-- and he resents it. >> my eyebrows raised in the same way that yours apparently did when you read that. what i can tell you is the president is quite pleased with the kind of advice that he gets from his national security team. i assure you that if anything it

is the leaders at the department of defense who are feeling pressure from the commander in chief to find new ideas and new ways to further intensify those elements of our strategy that are working. >> sreenivasan: there are currently some 3,700 american troops in iraq and a small contingent of special forces in syria. the u.s. navy has confirmed that iran flew a surveillance drone over the aircraft carrier "harry s. truman", in the persian gulf this month. iranian state tv showed footage today, and said it came from the unarmed drone. an iranian commander called the pictures "beautiful and accurate." u.s. officials branded the move "abnormal and unprofessional," but said the drone posed no danger to flight operations. in oregon, the last four armed occupiers were still holding out today at a national wildlife refuge. but overnight, the f.b.i. released drone video of the fatal shooting of lavoy finicum. he was the militia spokesman killed tuesday by oregon troopers. special agent greg bretzing said finicum fled from a traffic stop, then ran into a roadblock,

seen in this graphic footage. >> the truck gets stuck in the snowbank. finicum leaves the truck and steps through the snow. agents and troopers on scene had on at least two occasions finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket. he did have a loaded nine millimeter semi-automatic handgun in that pocket. at this time, o.s.p. troopers shot finicum. >> sreenivasan: finicum had said he'd rather die than go to jail, but other members of the militia have claimed he did nothing to provoke the shooting. ten other members of the group are already in custody. late today, a federal judge ordered the occupation's organizer, ammon bundy, and his brother ryan, held without bail. operations stopped at the largest port complex on the east coast this morning, after thousands of longshoremen walked off the job. the port authority of new york and new jersey said it had no advance notice. a union spokesman said the longshoremen are rebelling against interference in port operations by an anti-corruption commission.

and, president obama has unveiled new efforts to close the pay gap between men and women. proposed rules would mandate that companies with 100 or more employees report salary data by gender, race and ethnicity. the information would be used to enforce existing discrimination laws. still to come on the newshour: countdown to the iowa caucuses, why women could hold the winning votes for hillary clinton or bernie sanders; and what last night's debate means for the g.o.p. plus, barbie's new look: are toy manufacturers picking up on diversity? and much more. >> sreenivasan: and now to the race of the white house. it's crunch time for the candidates in iowa as they make their final push to monday's caucuses. republicans, minus donald trump, battled on the debate stage last night. for the democrats, there is a

last minute push for women voters. judy woodruff joins us now from des moines. judy, what's the mood as the clock ticks toward the caucuses? >> hi, hari. i did just get here last night but it's safe to say everybody in the state of iowa including the majority of people here who will not be participating in the caucuses monday night is very affair there's a presidential race under way. whether they are a republican or democrat or something in between, they're aware that this is a contest like no other. you've got a tight race in both parties. on the republican side, that's phenomenon named donald trump has managed to up end the contest. he's managed to define the way other candidates are seeing. you ask even if they're not supporting donald trus7ñ they'll talk about their candidate in

relation to mr. trump. on the democratic side what was supposed to be a fairly predictable contest, hillary clinton presumed to be the fronf challenge from senator bernie sanders and that one's turned out to be a nail biter too. >> sreenivasan: there's little things that make that big difference. here it is forty afternoon before the iowa caucuses. the state department says there's 22 e-mails from the private server she kept the e-mails that have been declared top secret and there's no release. any comments from the clinton camp today. >> well hari they're pretty much reacting the way they have to all of these other e-mail stories about the private server she had at her home in new york. they are saying first of all that all these e-mails whether they were received by second clinton or whether she sent -- secretary clinton or whether she sent them, they>ú were not classified or top secret at the time. repeatedly they said and they'll

say it again today we want all e-mails released. we don't think any of these should be kept back. the campaign press secretary brian fallon put out a statement saying this is overclassification ru run awe amuck. it's clearly a distraction coming up right now just days before the caucuses. now i want to tell you one angle in this democratic race we were interested in looking at is how women are dividing their vote here in iowa between hillary clinton and bernie sanders. so our team spent the last few days talking to democratic and independent leaning women across the state. >> woodruff: it's three days out from the iowa caucuses and democrats here have an important decision to make. >> i need you. get everybody you can to get out monday night. >> woodruff: go with presumed favorite former secretary of state hillary clinton, veteran

of the party power structure? >> well, i may not be the youngest candidate in this race. but i will be the youngest woman president in the history of the united states! ( cheers and applause ) and-- and the first grandmother as well. ( cheers and applause ) >> woodruff: or defy expectations by sending vermont senator bernie sanders to the next contest in new hampshire with new energy to behind his message of inequality? >> if you are a woman, you understand the history of change. the suffragettes and the people before the suffragettes who said that women will not be considered as second class citizens. >> woodruff: polls suggest the race is close. and political analysts here say women are a crucial demographic. >> the fact that, yes, hillary worked towards women's rights, but she was also indifferent about gay rights, lesbian rights, everything on that spectrum, it constantly changed. and bernie never did. >> i would be thrilled to see a woman be president. i think it's time past for that to happen, but that's not a big factor with me.

i want the quality of the candidate, and i think she has the qualities we need right now. >> woodruff: clinton has made women a main focus, but they're proving harder to persuade than her campaign expected. a recent quinnipiac poll of iowa democrats likely to caucus shows women overall back clinton 54- 40%. but sanders undermines that with his enormous lead with younger democrats-- 18 to 44 year olds supported him four to one. he is leading with women under 45, and that makes clinton's job even harder. twenty-five year-old gwen merz is one of those women. she plays in a weekly dodgeball league just outside of des moines, where she just moved recently from illinois. merz says she has already made up her mind who to support. sanders won her over when he took her question at a recent campaign event. >> 100% he answered what i

asked, and that's so rare in a candidate. if you look at the last town hall, bernie answered a lot of hard questions. they threw them at him and he took them like a champ and answered them all correctly. and hillary just danced around the issues and didn't have a straight word to say. >> woodruff: on wednesday merz attended this women for bernie luncheon in des moines. where actress susan sarandon urged attendees to get out to vote for sanders. >> definitely a flip flopper. i want somebody who has the chutzpah that backs up what they say instead of saying, oh, now it's popular, let's be for it. >> woodruff: bonnie campbell is the former attorney general of iowa. she ran unsuccessfully for governor as a democrat in 1994 and now works as a political consultant. she's also a strong supporter of hillary clinton. >> when i was a young woman, there was no birth control and abortion was absolutely out of the question, it was illegal.

that's a battle we've been fighting and they think, i think many young women think we've won. i think their lens is different, it's shorter. and they haven't hit the glass ceiling yet. they're still in college. they haven't gone out into the work world and discovered that, "wait a minute. i don't get paid as much as that guy who does exactly the same thing that i do." >> woodruff: the fact that clinton would be the first female president could improve the lives of women in ways that are hard to measure, campbell says. >> i want all the little girls out there to look up and see a president take the oath of office who's a woman and say, "ah, i guess i could grow up to be president." it's more than just how you are on issues. >> woodruff: but for many women voters in iowa, especially younger ones, it is issues and the passion about pursuing them, that matters more.

>> one of the things that sanders has been able to do is sort of light a spark about the idea of income inequality, and he is the messenger that would be able to break up wall street and the monopoly and the corporate america that he rails against. whereas secretary clinton has focused in a more measured way on those issues, he has been more liberal and progressive. >> bernie sanders really focuses in on giving everybody equal opportunity and giving everybody a chance, and i really believe in being just a humanitarian and treating people as people and not as just a statistic. >> i've gotten more politically active since i've gotten older. and, you know, i'm retired now, and i think about my life and my grandchildren's life, and i think our country would really go forward with hillary. >> woodruff: both campaigns are working frantically to make sure their supporters show up to caucus monday night.

but whatever happens, the clinton camp has learned here the contest for the nomination may not only take longer, but also involve a tougher fight for the votes of women than they had counted on. >> woodruff: from the democratic battle for women's votes, to the republicans' battle for the spotlight. political director lisa desjardins reports on the large g.o.p. field, and last night's debate here in iowa. >> i did something that was very risky. and i think it turned out great, because i'm on the front page of every paper... >> reporter: donald trump, today in new hampshire, crowed about what happened last night in des moines, iowa. he held his own rogue fundraiser for veterans-- claiming to raise at least $6 million... ...as just across town... >> donald trump has chosen not to attend... >> reporter: seven other republicans gathered, to soak up the extra oxygen and try to move past trump. >> let's begin by being clear

what this campaign is about. it's not about donald trump. he's an entertaining guy. he's the greatest show on earth. this campaign is about the greatest country in the world >> reporter: this debate drew fewer viewers than all but one g.o.p. face-off this cycle-- around 12.5 million people. but it kept up in quality and quantity of punches. >> i would note that the last four questions have been: rand please attack ted, marco please attack ted... >> reporter: ted cruz, center- stage in trump's absence, tussled with the "fox news" moderators early on. >> if you guys ask one more mean question, i may just have to leave the stage. >> reporter: but before long, the texas senator was on defense, on immigration: >> i don't want immigration reform to fail... >> reporter: ...confronted by videotape of what he said about a 2013 immigration compromise in the senate. >> but, but megyn, the bill was 1,000 pages. i introduced a series of amendments, each designed to fix problems in the bill. >> reporter: but cruz found no friends on stage. senator rand paul rejected his colleague's words.

>> that's an authenticity problem. that everybody he knows is not as perfect as him because we're all for amnesty. i was for legalization. i think frankly if you have border security, you can have legalization. so was ted, but now he says it wasn't so. that's not true. >> never have and never will support any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty. >> reporter: marco rubio, too, had to confront his immigration achilles heel... ...jeb bush reminded republicans of rubio's past. >> well, i'm kind of confused because he was the sponsor of the gang of eight bill that did require a bunch of thresholds but ultimately allowed for citizenship over an extended period of time. i mean, that's a fact. and he asked me to support that. >> reporter: rubio shot back at bush, his one-time mentor in florida: >> you wrote a book where you changed your position from a path of citizenship to a path of legalization. and the bottom line is this, we are not going to be able to do anything on this issue until we first bring illegal immigration under control. >> reporter: in trump's absence, everyone had more time. chris christie presented himself

as a no-nonsense governor, and hit a conservative chord when asked to cut one government function. >> how about one that i've done in new jersey for the last six years. that's get rid of planned parenthood funding from the united states of america. >> reporter: john kasich aimed to be the smart, grounded voice, and took on topics others often avoid. >> the time has come to stop ignoring the mentally ill in this country... >> reporter: and ben carson, as he does often, spoke broadly of freedom and specifically of the constitution: >> ...do ordain and establish this constitution of the united states of america. folks, it's not too late. enough said. >> reporter: it will be too late for some soon. iowans vote on monday. for the "pbs newshour," i'm lisa desjardins. >> sreenivasan: and now to the analsis of brooks and dionne. that's new york times columnist david brooks and washington post columnist e. j. dionne. mark shields is away.

ej let me start with you. one of the stories last night was the person not at the debate stage. did donald trump make the right decision? >> 124 hours ago i might have said no. and at this point i think he may have made the right decision. the noises may send the idea tht iowa awe caucus goers are very serious about politics and they wouldn't take kindly to a guy who says i don't like the moderator so i'm skipping out. but that could be so much pummeling of ted cruz and here i'm channeling donald trump whod today. the des moines register headline was rough night for cruz. cruz is trump's main competitor number one, and so the results he brought about may actually help him here. i think the other thing p%k that'sindicative is that tok is very bullish on marco rubio, and cruz has shifted his negative advertising from trump to rubio. he's got the ultimate republican

attack ad. marco iraq yor rubio, the repubn obama. a week or so ago you would have said he was the favorite and now he's running behind in the polls and he's being really challenged from both ends. >> sreenivasan: what do you think. does this help or hurt donald's momentum. >> it hurts. he's been dropping, both you cruz and trump. some of the j1!rising. i thought last night both trump and cruz, trump because he's petulant and spoiled. shouldn't have gone after megan kelly. his basis report is 75 year old republicans. those guys love paying kelly. he shouldn't have gone after her. and cruz as ej just said he got hit badly. as we saw in the clip, whined about it. chris wallace in some of those

exchanges. his personality was beginning to show. it's interesting, four days of them thriving. they still have comfortable leads with some others rising and i think trump has a turnout problem. he tracks non-voters. people who are not traditionally voters. he does very well with people voting in the last four elections. there's a good chance a chunk of those people won't turn">> sree. >> one thing shoot should be said is jeb bush probably happened the best night. trump did him the favor, the bully was gone and jeb really found his voice. that won't make any difference here where jeb isn't in contention but it will help to run at least in new hampshire. today's convention words of wisdom is doing. he's got a very strong organization builtj)ez the evangelical christian movement. evangelical christian movement has won the last two iowa caucuses for their candidate. rick santorum and before that

mike huckabee. but there's no question that cruz is in a kind of where he hasn't been in a while. >> those people do come out. one of the odds things as ej just referenced is the ad wars. almost nobody in this entire campaign has gone after donald trump, the front runner. people are afraid to take him on. most of the adds have bee ads ho rubio and cruz today shifted and started attacking rubio. so nobody wants to take on trump either because they'll afraid what he'll do. afraid of offending his voters. it's a weird situation where the front runner is getting off scott free so far. talk about guy with big vulnerabilities. a couple have not run against him. >> there are a lot of outside groups that have really kicked in here. just watching my television, i've seen a lot of ads trying to tell people donald trump is not a conservative. i mean i think somebody out there is putting money in to try

to get at donald trump finally. sreenivasan va david one o>> srf the contentionions was between cruz and rubio on immigration. you see the needle rubio is trying to thread here. >> yes, as bush sort of did. i guess rubio's flip is a bigger flop. he was thefc leader of the gangf eight. what cups was doin cruz was doie crucial weeks where to position himself. he was leading with some amendments that would be in favor and he decided to side against. rubio was really a champion. what's sad is that it's now a contest to see who can be the most anti-immigrant. that's all right for trump. the idea you can be forced on some compromise close the border and have a pass to citizenship. even though popular among republicans nationwide is not popular among iowa caucus goers. so they are competing to show how anti-immigrant they are and

competing to show they would never make a compromise with the democrat. they are really appealing to the hardest of the hard core right now. >> sreenivasan: ej, what happens if you take in sort of hard line stance on immigration now and you make it to the general and if you're marco rubio you might want those latino votes. >> part of the problem rubio has he's flipping and flopping and flipping and flopping on this because he's got in his head two things at the same time which is he knows his original position was not hard enough, not anti-immigrant enough for many republican caucus goers and primary voters. but then he has an eye at the same time on the general election and those republicans have to up their shares of the latino vote from where it was for mitt romney the last time. so i think he's twisted himself into many knots. there was a generally good debate but he didn't look good there. jeb bush went on the attsagains, proving among other thing that

jeb bush didn't take kindly to his protege challenging him in the presidential election. but on the whole, as david said, it's a very bad display by the republicans. not only of an anti-immigrant feeling but opportunism at the top of the party. >> sreenivasan: who is stacked where they are right now one, two and three going into iowa. and is that likely to change. >> i continue to think and my predictions have been wrong consistently this entire year but i think the big story out of iowa is that trump under performed. he's got a turnout problem. sanders under performed too because he lies too much on the young voter but he will show up. remember going to the caucus is a multihour occupation. it takes a big time commitment and a small percentage of iowaians actually do it. and so it's getting people out is a core challenge so thing st

likely story he will under perform and we'll be tucking about cruz or somebody else. >> sreenivasan: ej, is that how it stacks up for you. >> i think nobody knows what donald trump people are going to do. he managed to mobilize aau lotf people very quickly for that vet are run's event. a lot of people are going to be looking at the des moines register poll which has a good history relative to all of the other polls here. i think that trump needs a significant lead in order to come out winning, because there will be some fall off in his vote. but whether he runs with equal to the polls or not. i think cruz is the guy who has a win here. if he loses here, he's the one person who could really be hurt by iowa. >> sreenivasan: ej staying with you for a second. let's turn tog[ democrats. sanders and clinton have been running neck and neck in certain polls. sanders turned up the heat on

clinton this week, line of attack saying she's too connected to wall street. is that a strategy that could work for him? >> i think a democratic primaries are packing someone for being two close for wall street only has worked. and clearly bernie sanders has found a very substantial audience for this message in the party. i ohink, and its last minute story about e-mails here as judy mentioned earlier, is just not a story she wants to come out at theatthe end of this even if asr spokesman turns out he says this is over classification run amuck. it's just not the way she wanted to close. the other side though is hillary clinton is always best when she's under pressure. and she's probably won her best part of the campaign in the last week. you could see that in the cnn forum at the beginning of the week. she seems more comfortable. and she does have a very very strong organization and has an

older electorate behind her which in a turnout contest is better than having the younger electorate. the way i see it is there are two sort of markers for bernie. some people compare him to howard dean in 04. dean had a1 lot of support andt just collapsed, a lot of young people from out of state who didn't vote here. or obama 08. it's well past where howard dean was. the question is how close does he get to obama. this is a very tight race and smart people i talked to here thinks this could be the race that keeps us up late on monday night. >> sreenivasan: david if it's such a tight race where o'malley supporters play a role, especially in those rooms where they have to walk from one section to the other. >> they have to be really tight. i think it is as ej says, a turnout thing. and then a message thing. sanders has such a clean message. if you've been paying close

attention you know what he's all about. ej says clinton improves as a campaigner when the going gets tough. what's the one single theme you know about her. you know her sist me bu historye hasn't picked a theme. i think pete pull show up at these caucuses, substantively people's wages are down because of globalization not the patterns on wall street as awful as they are. as a line of attack this election so much has been the organization of hatred. it's about finding people or institutions that people in each party really distrust whether it's wall street or washington. if she can mobilize those, the hostility that seems to be striving people. >> sreenivasan: i've gotw to ask, is iowa worth paying as much attention to? it's not by any stretch demographically representative of the entire country. perhaps it's changed over the last 50 years and this is now a

reflection of how the political system is working, who tries to gain it. but should we be paying as much attention to this state. >> i guess i should say the answer's yes. i think there are two things in contradiction here. on one hand it's absolutely true eat neither iowa or new hampshire are representative of the country as a whole. beginning with the fact that they have a much higher percentage of white voters in the country as a whole. but i end up, i find myself defending their role for the following reason. campaigns have become so much about advertising. candidates going from airport tarmac to airport tarmac. that there is still something lovely did not romantic about candidates having to answer questions from actual voters instead of us in the media. and that part of it i really like. >> sreenivasan: all right. do you agree. >> i agree. the process is great but the results should be taken with a grain of salt.

especially the republican campaign will be over in april or may. we've got a long time to go here. maybe a democratic one too. >> sreenivasan: all right david brooksz and ejñ%onne. thanks for being with us. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: drug shortages lead to a kind of medical rationing; refugees' desperate journeys transformed into ballet; and a young girl takes charge of her future and her r.o.t.c. but first, the iconic barbie doll-- beloved by some and loathed/decried by others-- is going through something of a transformation. toy-maker mattel is introducing three new barbies with three different body shapes. the company acknowledges the financial reasons for the decision but more importantly, the changes are meant to deal with a changing marketplace and issues of diversity in the real world. william brangham has a look. >> brangham: this is what the newly refashioned barbies are going to look like... on the left, that's the new

"petite" barbie. in the middle is the "tall" barbie. and to right, the "curvy" barbie. in this behind the scenes video, "time magazine" was granted a look at the making of the new dolls. and in it, mattel's evelyn mazzocco told "time" that the decision to introduce these new body styles was partly about business, but also about the growing sense that the original barbie-- with its wildly unrealistic body-- needed to change: >> our decision to go on this journey to really evolve the brand was inspired by many things. of course, it was inspired by softness in sales. it was inspired by what we were seeing on social media: does she really know what's going on? she seems to be out of touch. it was driven by moms saying, "i don't think barbie speaks to me." >> mattel is really responding to a culture in the u.s. and globally that's changed dramatically over the last 50 years. >> brangham: richard gottlieb is

with a group called the global toy experts, and he says that while barbies sold well last christmas, mattel seems to be acknowledging that the world is changing. >> barbie has really had some strong headwinds in terms of cultural identity in the u.s. and around the world. as mattel-- as they globalize, they've got to contend with a world that's multi-racial and -cultural. a big part is that children and parents want doll child can identify with... a sense of accessible beauty. i can look like this. a sense that this is obtainable. this is a person i can be. >> brangham: this, of course, has long been the criticism of barbie dolls-- that her exaggerated body shape, and stereotypical depiction of what women are supposed to look like, gave generations of young girls a role model they could never match up to. >> she has these exaggerated breasts, she has a tiny waist. if you were to think about her

proportions in terms of a real woman, she probably couldn't bear a child, so you have that element of things. >> brangham: megan garber is a staff writer at the atlantic, and recently wrote a piece about the new barbies. >> then you also have the idea that she focuses on fashion and appearance, and there hasn't been much out there about her historically that she has much more aspiration to be more than pretty and blond. mattel has tried to fight back on that a little bit by making her an astronaut, or a doctor and all of these different things, but fundamentally the appearance of barbie has superseded everything else. >> brangham: in the online news site mashable, writer katie dupere, while complimenting mattel's recent move, also summed up many people's feelings about the doll: >> barbie has, to some extent, always been this bully to women. her impossibly thin waist has taunted us, pointing out what for many of us is our biggest insecurity-- our body size. though she is carved plastic, she has screamed at us across

generations, telling us our bodies aren't good enough. >> brangham: in the associated press, the university of maryland's kumea shorter gooden also applauded mattel's move, but pointed out that "european- american hair" prevails, and the dolls are dressed in a way that "convey[s] a traditional and constraining gender norm about how girls and women should look." >> we live in an age where there is taylor swift on the one hand and there is also beyonce and kim kardashian and gina rodriguez; all these different shades of skin, but also body types, and i think barbie is trying to reflect that in the culture. you look at these barbies and they are still very much barbie dolls-- they are thin in general. even the curvy one is thin by most standards. these are very incremental changes but i do think they are changes and we have to embrace those changes. >> brangham: of course, barbie is also living in a much more competitive market than a few decades ago, with cell phones and apps and games constantly vying for kids attention. lego and its global brand

recently overtook mattel in total sales. ♪ ♪ and just on the doll front alone, the global blockbuster "frozen" saw its heroine, elsa, become one of the best selling dolls, even two years after its release. >> it's important to look at it from cyclical standpoint. when "frozen" came out, dolls did incredibly well, cannibalized barbie sales. but overall, mattel and toy companies been challenged by world in which so many ways to play. >> brangham: but will any of these changes matter at the cash register? we talked with some parents today at a toy store in arlington, virginia: >> i think its great i love the new barbies.

>> brangham: the new barbies are available online for pre- sales now, in stores later this year. the real test will be when the new dolls hit the shelves later this year. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> sreenivasan: now, how shortages of some prescription drugs are forcing doctors to make difficult-- often ethically fraught-- decisions. in some cases, choosing one patient over another to receive a much-needed drug, or splitting a single dose between two, even three, patients. for a look at what's behind the rationing, how doctors and their patients are coping, and what might be done to correct the problem, we turn to sheri fink of the "new york times," who has been reporting on the story. in addition to being a reporter, she is also a medical doctor. dr. fink, what's interesting is, you're talking about some of the best hospitals in the country that are going through this.

not a small far away hospital where you might expect there would be a shortage. this is, payment us a picture of how wide spread this issue is. >> the shortages are affecting all types of hospitals, clinics. broad range of medical specialities. it has touched in recent years, this problem has touched just about everywhere>> sreenivasan:t happening. is it specific types of drugs, is it specific companies. >> it has to do with some of the drugs often are made by one manufacturer. so if something goes wrong in a quality sense, for example and they have to shut down production, that could leave the market not having enough. it could be that there's not an economic incentive for a lot of drug companies to get into this. it could be that manufacturing chains that you know in the factories are running all the time and if one goes down it can affect lots of different drugs.

so there are economic reasons, there are regulatory reasons. there are all sorts of reasons. and the shortages are becoming a fact of life. they?"+years, the number of new shortages increased. new federal law requiring manufacturers to tell the fda if they see something like this on the horizon, have decreased the number of new shortages, the number of existing shortages is quite high. and again, it's affecting all different parts of>> sreenivasa. so there's a hospital facing a tough choice saying we have five patients that need this drug. we only have enough drugs for two patients. what do they do. >> this is the part we don't see. because of course the doctors don't want to make patients feel that less trustful with their treatment. and these are these tough he had cull decisions, as you said -- ethical decisions as you said. how do you make these choices. they are not purely medical choices, they have ethical overtones. they have overtones of values.

for example some of the doctors are describing to me about, in some cases a drug is used for children÷7wchildren need less o. so could you treat two children with the same amount of drug that you treat one adult. how do you make that value judgment between lives. it's very difficult. >> sreenivasan: so age is a factor, they use weight as a factor, do they use the existing condition of the patient as a factor in. >> all of the above. the point of my investigation, i've been looking at this for a few years, it's being done all sorts of way. there is no one way. there are very few guidelines. today a group ofux children's cancer doctors actually published rationing guidelines because children's cancer, the compelling parts of our medical system, that has been hit by shortages in recent years. and these doctors were so worried and they had so little ethical guidance that they said let's get together for a few

years, work this through, get physicians involved, patient representatives involved and come out with some strategies for, to offer to doctors who have to make these decisions or who may have to make them. >> sreenivasan: one of the quotes you have in your stories we've been forced into what we think is highly an unethical corner. when you profile one of the characters in your story is essentially working on inventory in the basement of the cleveland hospital and he decides which one of the clinics and doctors and essentially which patients will get these drugs. >> yes. that quote was from peter adamson, dr. peter adamson the children's ecology group that came out with these guidelines with the national cancer institute. the person you're speaking about is chris schneider. so the cleveland clinic has been unusually proactive. they have hired a full timemw pharmacist pretty much just to deal with these shortages in recent years. and so chris schneider is

screwing around the basement of the cleveland clinic staying on top of these drug shortages and trying. the first step of course is to conserve, is to wipe out any waste that you might have in your system, and to maximize so you don't have to make those tragic choices. but ultimately sometimes they have had to put restrictions on which uses, which groups of patients would get a drug and which wouldn't. >> sreenivasan: what about the patients in all this. you're saying often times they don'tn't know that the medicine's being rationed away from them. >> that's right. sometimes they're not being told. a lot of times tier not being told. doctors told me they don't want to worry a patient. there's a patient i wrote about. her name is bev and she has crohn's disease and she relies on intravenous nutrition so she can't even like you and i do. during a shortage period that affected many elements of her nutrition, she wasn't told. she wasn't getting zink and

ended up in the hospital and said this was a class i zink deficiency. this is one example of people finding out after in many cases what patients aren't being told. this is anotherry ethical dimension, should patients be told and what point and how does the doctor explain the relative risks of a substitute drug versus the standard drug. it's all very complicated. >> sreenivasan: sheri fink from the "new york times," thank you so much.o+-z4 >> sreenivasan: this week the government of denmark approved a law that enables the authorities to seize valuables from asylum seekers in order to pay towards their shelter and living expenses. it's an effort to make one of europe's top destinations less attractive to refugees and migrants. but one of denmark's leading dance troupes is taking to the stage to expand understanding of the hardships many of those same

refugees have faced. they're doing it by incorporating a number of asylum seekers into a new ballet. it opens this evening in copenhagen's old opera house. special correspondent malcolm brabant was at rehearsals, and sent us this reflection from the director and cast, in their own words >> you cannot explain it in words. people dying all around you. friends, relatives, children. bombs, explosions, cars, you don't know when you're going to be dead. ♪ a refugee a refugee >> my name is salam susu. and i'm from syria. i lived in homs. i work as a university professor in music. i came here. i play music. and i work with very high

professional people who really make me feel like i'm home. and i really restart being a real human being, feeling with everything. >> my name is christian lollike, i'm the director of this piece called "europa," it's called asylum ballet. it's a mix of asylum seekers and royal ballet dancers. i'm trying to explode the idea of what is a refugee because very often in europe, refugees are considered as parasites who come to take things from us and as a problem. and i want to show that they are much more. >> it was necessary for me to leave pakistan because of my sexuality. my name is muhammad al ishaq, from lahore, punjab. it was becoming hard for me to

survive and extremely hard for my parents to survive because of me also. because they also started getting threats from the religious authorities who gave me threats also that either i become non-gay, like non- homosexual and get married normally to a woman or find my own ways, or be ready to be killed. >> when the bombs came, we were hoping they would hit our neighbour. not us. my name is elian yaakob dawood. i came from syria. and now i'm here in denmark. ♪ ♪ i need to send a message. we all send a message. we are good. we love the life. not everybody is a religious fanatic.

>> i think it's actually scary and wrong that the danish government is trying to scare people away instead of being constructive and work together in the european union to create a solution on this problem. it's very important, especially in denmark where a lot of people are afraid of asylum seekers and refugees. i think it's very important to see that they are human beings and they have all kind of skills and qualifications. >> they are not all similar. there are a lot of really high educated people who run away from death to rebuild their life, to integrate into the society to live a life that they really wanted. and to explain that we are good enough to be in your society. >> this will help people in thinking differently for refugees. they look at us as normal human beings, the way we are. not just the parasite.

as far as i'm concerned, it's very self therapeutic for me. speaking about my own life, it gives me a feeling that when i tell people my story, people respond in a way that is not confrontation or condemnation. i'm not scared that they're going to punish me. it's not the people who come from war trodden countries only. it's not just the war that people are dying after. there are other reasons also. as i do not come from a place where there is war going on. there is a war going on at a society level for me, for my sake. i'm sure there are people who have other reasons, other than war or even sexuality who do not find a place to survive where they are. >> we got asylum today. the papers and the commun and i can't explain too much

because it's so good. like, you had a paper. you are not nobody any more. you became a human being. >> my dream? to have a life again. to live. to experience my humanity. it's really incredible. i really start to experience my skills on a real world, with real people who really start to know who i am. i'm stepping on stairs to dream. ♪ ♪ >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, how today's teens are battling gender stereotypes. shantell gonzalez is the only female commanding officer of her j.r.o.t.c. unit at alonzo and

tracy mourning senior high in miami. her story caps off a week of coverage from our student reporting labs on redefining gender in our society. it's part of our "outside the box" series. >> fall out. attention. right face. >> i was in the program here at alonzo tuesday morning. the officer is in charge of the entire company. >> this comes with several struggles and conquest. she's never let that come between her and her passion for serving. >> being a female and trying to leave male especially in your age group, that's some things being told what to do by a person in general and then being told what to do by a female is even harder for them to listen.

but they will eventually, if you do it the correct way they will eventually follow what you will say. >> in order to keep up with the demandsíofficer, a training couf current and former marines. staff sergeant, a recruiter at the miami school says he sees the expectations of others but the expectation she has herself. >> she comes here with enthusiasm. she's u opted mystic about about it. >> i feel working out, pushing herself more. when i see her do that makes me want to push myself. >> how do you think men get where they are. they work for it. you have to do the same thing. >> according to secretary carter women will start combat roles next year. paving the road for women like

shantell. >> sreenivasan: to see other profiles, visit outside the box page on website, www.pbs.org/newshour. on the newshour online: thornton dial challenged the art world to rethink what it meant to be called an artist, and his work spoke to his experience as a working-class black man in the south. dial died monday at the age of 87. we asked three curators to break down four of his most striking paintings, which you can find on our home page. and with many questions swirling about the spread of zika virus, our science team put together a comprehensive guide of what it is and what you need to know to protect yourself and your family. find that list on our home page, www.pbs.org/newshour. and a reminder about some upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. gwen ifill is preparing for "washington week," which airs later this evening. here's a preview: >> ifill: last minute ads; consequential debates; point and counterpoint; and finally, voters get their first say. we take you to iowa to tell you what to expect, as the 2016

campaign begins, in earnest. that's tonight, on washington week. hari? >> sreenivasan: tune in to pbs newshour weekend: west point cadets, using social media to fight isis propaganda. >> woodruff: i'm judy woodruff in iowa, where we'll be reporting all weekend, and on monday for our coverage of the caucuses, including a special report at 11 pm eastern. >> sreenivasan: that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by bnsf railway. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> 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 "bbc world news

america." >> funding is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and aarp. >> what is fearless at 50? just ask jessie anderson, who jumped out of her own 50th birthday cake. boom. or how about dr. hector flores, who he grabbed life by the microphone to do some improv. don't forget my man guy ford, the firefighter who's lighting the business world on fire.