captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: an immigration deal moves farther out of reach as a government shutdown looms. a look at where the so-called dreamers stand, amid political strife. then, a false alarm in hawaii adds urgency, as the u.s. gathers nations to address the growing threat of north korea. we talk with the former chairman of the joint chiefs, admiral michael mullen. also ahead, ohio governor john kasich and former secretary of state madeleine albright discuss the decline of democracy worldwide, and the trump effect. and, actor john lithgow goes back to basics with his one-man show that puts storytelling in the spotlight. >> i try to recreate the sort of

period of discovery that i went through as a boy with my siblings, just listening to my father read great stories. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway. >> 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: in washington tonight, there is no sign of an agreement on immigration reform, or on a government spending deal to beat a looming deadline. instead, much of the focus remains on what president trump said and did at a white house meeting last week. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> do you affirm that the testimony you're about to give before the committee... >> desjardins: under oath, homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen again pushed back at charges the president ever uttered a specific profanity to describe haiti and african countries.

>> i did not hear that word used, no, sir. >> desjardins: but she did not answer if he might have said something similar, instead saying there was "strong" and "impassioned" language. democrat dick durbin, who was also in last week's meeting as well, pressed her. >> what was that strong language? >> ah, let's see. strong language. there was-- apologies, i don't remember a specific word. what i was struck with, frankly, and i'm sure you were as well, was the general profanity that was used in the room by almost everyone. >> did you hear me use profanity? >> no, sir. neither did i. >> desjardins: new jersey democrat cory booker fired back, questioning nielsen's honesty. >> the commander in chief, in an oval office meeting, referring to people from african countries and haitians with the most vile and vulgar language. that language festers when ignorance and bigotry is allied with power. it is a dangerous force in the country. your silence and your amnesia is complicity. >> desjardins: president trump himself today was meeting with

the kazakh president, but was pressed on a different detail from last week's meeting. >> mr. president, did you say that you want more people to come in from norway, did you say that you wanted more people to come in from norway? is that true, mr. president? >> i want them to come in from everywhere. everywhere. >> esjardins: this, as congress and the white house try to re-assemble talks over daca recipients, people brought to the u.s. illegally as children. as part of that, north carolina republican thom tillis defended the president's push for more border security. >> i, for one, think we need to have a balanced proposal, a compromise that solves and addresses the daca problem in a compassionate and sustainable way. but we also have to understand that we need to be compassionate to the threat to the homeland by not securing the border. you can only do that when people lower the temperatures, and recognize that securing the border is an absolutely

appropriate request as to solving the daca problem. >> desjardins: this immigration battle has direct connection to the latest government spending showdown. issue one, the senate, where a spending bill will likely need 60 votes, meaning some democratic votes. but democrats say first, they need a deal on daca in the spending bill. issue two, the house. without any democrats to pass the spending bill there, republicans must get the 218 votes needed from their members only. and many republicans have said they don't want to vote for any more short-term spending bills. outside the hearing room, a key character in all of this, south carolina republican lindsey graham, spoke to reporters. he insisted that the president was on board a daca deal last tuesday, and at 10:00 a.m. thursday-- but changed two hours later. >> yeah, i think somebody on his staff gave him really bad advice between 10:00 to 12:00 on thursday. i think the president i saw on

tuesday is the guy i play golf with. i actually liked the guy; he's actually funny. i thought he commanded the room, and the conversation at 10:00 on thursday was pretty consistent with the guy i saw tuesday. but here's what's going to matter-- how does it end? how does it end? does it end with the government shutting down? we should all be kicked out if that happens. >> desjardins: adding to the political storm, rolling protests from daca recipients and others erupted on capitol hill today, with police and other sources expecting those to only grow. and lisa joins me now. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now. lisa, what a day. you were up on the capitol all day. where do things stand right now in the senate effort to work with the white house? >> all right. senator dick durbin told me he will unveil a gang of six partisan bill tomorrow. senator graham is trying to work

with republicans and maybe toughen it with some idea of how they could deport felons, for example. he's thinking about that. will this lead to a shutdown? will democrats withhold their votes in the senate if they don't get a daca deal, one senator sheldon whitehouse told me if they think there is progress, but right now they don't see progress. >> woodruff: so things seem to be moving in a more conservative direction in all of this? >> yes. i think that's because of what the president said last week and its effect on the house. the president's remarks were essentially a bolder boulder toa fragile compromise trying to be built on the house side. now instead of this durbin-graham compromise, what i heard from the house today, a generall moderate person, they said that deal is not possible because they said a daca passes citizenship. it's something they won't accept. that used to be middle ground. if that, in fact, is really where they want to change, the two sides are very far aparted.

also mark short from the white house met with house republican number two kevin mccarthy today. that's the white house signaling, hey, we're working with the house. they're not reaching out to the senate. so we see that divide right now. >> woodruff: and on the spending bill, you're hearing house republicans thinking of adding something to that? >> right. if the daca impasse is too great, how do they passes spending bill? house republicans tonight will talk to their conference about adding a six-year extension of the chip -- children's health insurance program -- something many people want, and five-year repeal of the medical device tax. that's something that republicans have disliked for many years. it was part of the affordable care act. they may add that as a sweetener to pass a short-term funding bill, but can any of this work? it's unclear. tonight i think, judy, we're closer to a government shutdown, but it's tuesday. i think that honestly if you read how these things work, it's wednesday and thursday that matter the most. >> woodruff: things are changing almost hourly. >> yes, they are. that's right. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins,

thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: also today, the trump administration appealed a federal judge's ruling that blocked the president's decision ending the daca program. it is also asking the u.s. supreme court to review the issue, even before an appeals court rules. tomorrow, i will talk with senator dick durbin of illinois about the immigration debate and president trump's comments. in the day's other news, former white house chief strategist steve bannon met behind closed doors with the house intelligence committee. he testified in the investigation of potential collusion between the trump campaign and russia. bannon was forced out of the white house last summer. meanwhile, the "new york times" reported that special counsel robert mueller has gotten a grand jury to subpoena bannon in his probe. much of the southern u.s. got another unwelcome winter visitor. a major storm spread snow and ice from kansas to kentucky and on to the east coast. icy roads caused pile-ups near dallas, and wrecks shut down

interstates in missouri and louisiana. near covington, kentucky, a dashboard camera captured one car sliding smack into a police car. elsewhere, bitter winds forced schools and government offices to close. a southern california couple are facing charges of torturing their 13 children, ages two to 29. david and louise turpin were arrested after their 17-year-old daughter escaped sunday and called police. the girl and 12 siblings were living in this house, 70 miles from los angeles. some were shackled to furniture. >> deputies, when they arrived inside the house, they noticed the children were malnourished. it was very dirty and the conditions were horrific. >> woodruff: the turpins are due in court on thursday. a parade of sexual assault survivors told today of being sexually molested by former sports doctor larry nassar. the former michigan state

university and usa gymnastics doctor has pleaded guilty to abusing scores of women and girls. dozens spoke today as nassar's sentencing hearing began in lansing. many said they had trusted him. >> for years, mr. nassar convinced me that he was the only person who could help me recover from multiple serious injuries. to me, he was like a knight in shining armor. but alas, that shine blinded me from the abuse. he betrayed my trust, took advantage of my youth, and sexually abused me hundreds of times. >> woodruff: just yesterday, olympic gold medal gymnast simone biles joined more than 120 women and girls who have accused nassar. he could get up to 125 years in state prison. that is on top of a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography. in chile, pope francis begged forgiveness today for the rape and molesting of children

by priests. francis had infuriated many chileans in 2015, when he appointed a bishop who was close to a notorious pedophile cleric. today, he spoke to lawmakers, judges and other officials in santiago, on the first stop of a week-long tour of south america. >> ( translated ): here i feel bound to express my pain and shame. shame at the irreparable damage caused to children by some ministers of the church. i am one with my brother bishops, for it is right to ask for forgiveness and make every effort to support the victims, even as we commit ourselves to ensuring that such things do not happen again. >> woodruff: later, an estimated 400,000 people attended an outdoor mass in santiago. not far away, police used water cannons to disperse protesters opposed to the papal visit. there is more tough talk from turkey today against a syrian kurdish security force, backed by the u.s. recep tayyip erdogan is urging

nato to oppose the force. he says the syrian kurds are linked to kurdish rebels inside turkey, and he warns that he will do what he must to protect his nation's security. both the u.s. and turkey are nato members. infectious disease outbreaks are raising alarms in several asian and arab countries. officials confirm rising cases of diphtheria in yemen, with near 50 deaths, and in bangladesh with another 31 killed. and, in indonesia, 58 children have died in a measles epidemic. meanwhile, pakistan has launched a new anti-polio drive, under heavy security. taliban militants have attacked medical teams in the past. back in this country, the white house physician says president trump is in "excellent" health, based on friday's physical. dr. ronny jackson reported today that it's "very probable" mr. trump could finish his presidency with no medical issues.

>> his cardiac health is excellent, and so i think with all the other things in place-- he doesn't have really a family history of premature cardiac disease; he doesn't smoke; he doesn't have diabetes. a lot of the traditional risk factors, he doesn't have. >> woodruff: jackson also said that the president asked for a cognitive test, and had a perfect score. the mormon church and its 16 million members have a new president. russell m. nelson is a 93-year- old former heart surgeon. by tradition, he was chosen because he is the longest- serving member of the mormon governing body. nelson succeeds the late thomas monson, who died this month at the age of 90. and, wall street reined in today as oil prices and some industrial stocks slumped. the dow jones industrial average briefly topped 26,000, but in the end, it closed below 25,800. the nasdaq fell 37 points, and the s&p 500 slipped nine. still to come on the newshour: a warning gone wrong.

is the u.s. prepared to defend against a north korean missile? ohio governor john kasich and former secretary of state madeleine albright discuss threats to democracy at home and abroad. why this year's flu outbreak is so widespread. and, much more. >> woodruff: japan's public broadcaster sent an urgent news alert today, that citizens needed to take shelter from an incoming north korean missile. it was a mistake, and corrected minutes later. but it comes just days after hawaii issued a similar false alarm. the errors underscore tensions heightened by north korea's nuclear program, and a debate over how best confront that program-- including today, at a u.s.-canadian summit. here's special correspondent nick schifrin. >> reporter: today in vancouver,

the u.s. reunited an old alliance: the countries that waged war against north korea 60 years ago. the u.s. and canada are hosting a summit that u.s. officials hope unites the west to target north korea economically. >> let me be clear, we will not allow north korea to drive a wedge through our resolve of our solidarity. >> reporter: the u.s. has long said north korea's missile and nuclear programs are funded mostly by illicit revenue. washington hopes to deprive that revenue with more effective sanctions. secretary of state rex tillerson also said he wants to use allied navies to interdict north korean missile parts. >> reporter: back on the korean peninsula, the north and south are focused on diplomacy, and continuing their first direct talks in two years. the north has restored a military hotline. and the two countries will field joint teams in next month's

winter olympics in south korea, possibly including women's ice hockey. ♪ ♪ and the north could be allowed to send its best known music group, an all-female pop band whose songs are usually poems of propaganda that call north korean leader kim jong-un "our glory, our happiness." kim, according to some analysts, is using the talks to try to drive a wedge between the u.s. and south korea, and south korea is trying to prevent history from repeating itself. in 1947, before the last south korean olympics, north korean terrorists blew up a passenger jet and killed 115 people. today, south korean officials say increased dialogue can decrease tensions and fear. recently, that fear spiked, with false alarms that sent hawaiians running for shelter this weekend, and a similar one sent mistakenly today in japan. >> this should not have happened.

we are investigating the sequence of events that occurred. >> reporter: hawaii governor david ige said to prevent further false warnings, two people will have to send alerts. and, the state is also making it easier to cancel a false alarm. but given the current tensions, hawaii knows its warning system must be on a hair trigger. >> under a missile, ballistic missile attack, the time frame allowed for response is very short. and so, we have been working at understanding, to give to the people as much notice as we can. >> reporter: for more on all of this, we turn to retired admiral mike mullen. he was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff from 2007 to 2011. he now has his own consulting company. admiral, hawaii does not have its own missile detection system. the military, of course, has that. how is the coordination between the military and the states supposed to work, and do you have confidence it will work if there is a real north korean launch? >> well, i think this particular

incident points out how fragile everybody feels right now with respect to the threat. and certainly there was a them does doesn't side for the hawaiian people, the american citizens, but it was also a wake-up call i think that we all need to be better prepared in case this actually happens. and usually the interface between the military and the federal emergency management agency is pretty good. i'm sure as a result of this it will get better and quicker and i think it is not just a warning sign or a redding from for the citizens of hawaii. i think it's a warning sign and a red flag for the citizens of america. >> reporter: i want to ask about nuclear weapons in general. in response to not only north korea, but also to increased military capacity by china and russia, the straight's --

administration is reportedly considering developing two nuclear weapons launched by sea. do you think the u.s. needs more nuclear weapon? does it need small nuke her weapon? >> i think it's very clear that we need to upgrade our nuclear weapons capability. that's been debated for several years. and it needs to be funded. many of these weapons are very old technology. and we... they need to be upgraded. that said, i'm not sure we need more weapons rather than just the ones that we have to take care and to make sure that that arsenal is in good shape. from my perspective, all of this is heading in the wrong direction. we're talking about countries not just the u.s., developing more nuclear weapon, more capability at a time just a few years ago when it was all headed in the other direction. that's very much tied to the development of nuclear weapons in north korea. i think we need to do all we possibly can to make sure that

kim jong-un does not... is not able to retain those weapons and potentially use them. i'm encouraged by the summit today, that 14 nations would get together. i think a pressure campaign needs to continue, and we need to do everything we possibly can to make sure that there is a diplomatic solution here and not a combat solution. >> reporter: you mentioned diplomatic solution. you mentioned secretary of state rex tillerson today who did talk about a pressure campaign but emphasized diplomacy. at the same time reportedly there are steps that the military is taking the train and possibly to deploy troops in what could be a preparation for a possible war. do you think the u.s. military is laying the groundwork to attack north korea? >> i think the trump administration has clearly taken steps since they have come in to increase the level of readiness, increase the level of training

and certainly recognize that the possibility is here. i also think that from a diplomatic solution standpoint, you need to be able to deal with that from a position of strength, so that isn't all bad. our allies out there need to know that we're committed to them. we need to be ready. this is quite frankly an area in the nuclear world that we have not dealt with for decades. i mean, as a child of the '50s and the '60s, i can remember the kind of frightening incidents that occurred this weekend when we were taking cover in the early '60s. so all of this points to something that's very fragile. i don't think there's a lot of margin for error. it's really incumbent upon world leaders to make sure we get to the right place, including the leadership in china and in russia as well as those countries who were in vancouver today. >> reporter: south korea was in vancouver today and a lot of what the u.s. military has done

in the region, as you mentioned, is to reassure allies, including japan and south korea, but there seems to be a little bit of divergence. the u.s. is talking about pressure. south korea is talking directly with north korea and talking about diplomacy. can the u.s. solve this problem and can the u.s. go to war without south korea's direct support? >> i think that we have to stay engaged. i'm sure we are with south korea. i don't have any objection to the north and the south talking right now. i think we shouldn't be too exuberant in terms of potential outcomes, but it is a place to start. i really would look at the nuclear aspect of this and be encouraged once kim jong-un starts the take steps which moves us away from the brink and, an he clearly hasn't done that. we're close enough to south korea that this is not going to get resolved without

consultation between us and south korea. it is difficult to know exactly what combination would work here, which is one of the reasons i'm certainly supportive, but i think we have a long way to go, but i don't want to overstate the steps that have been taken in terms of potentially resolving this crisis. that's an important step, but there is an awful long way to go, and the danger i don't think has been reduced at all. >> reporter: the danger remains quite high. admiral mullen, thank you very much. >> thanks, nick. >> woodruff: "democracy faced its most serious crisis in decades, in 2017." that is the stark verdict of an annual report from freedom house, a washington-based democracy promotion and human rights organization. the report charts a 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom, analyzing whether countries hold free and

fair elections; the rights of minorities; freedom of the press; and the rule of law. the free-est nations on earth, according to the analysis: norway, sweden, and finland. the least free? syria and south sudan. the report says the united states remains a vibrant democracy, and free. but, there was a further erosion of american political institutions, continuing a seven-year trend. to discuss the findings, i spoke earlier today with former secretary of state madeleine albright, who served under president bill clinton; and with ohio republican governor john kasich. i asked him what has happened in this country that has led it, according to the report, to retreat from being a champion of democracy. >> well, i think, judy, that people are thinking about the problems inside of our country. to me that's part of the reason why president trump was elected.

people were saying, look, i don't have much income. my kid graduated from college. they have debt. they can't get a job. and it's somebody else's fault out there in the world, so therefore we need to withdraw, take care of ourselves. i think that's very short-sighted. i don't think that's the fundamental problem. but i think that was the reaction here. and the danger is when the united states of america withdraws, it creates a vacuum, and the vacuum today is not being filled by people that we share our values with. >> woodruff: but secretary albright, it's hard for people to believe that the united states, which was the beacon of democracy around the world, is now describe as a place in retreat when it comes to democracy. what are the specifics that's led to this? >> i think that the problem is that, as the governor said, people say, why should we worry about other countries? we need to worry about america, and that whole america-first stuff has made that a more likely policy to follow when, in

fact, what we have to show is that america is better off and americans are better off if every country is a democracy, because those other countries that are in decline are basically petree dishes for those people that hate us and terrorism and various problems that come from just people being on the move. so i think we've come to this because, and i hate to say, this because there has been leadership that has exacerbated divisions and not tse where we're trying to find common ground. >> woodruff: divisions and, governor kasich, the reported refers to violations of ethical standards at the highest levels in the u.s. government. >> yeah, i mean, there's parts of that report i think are really kind of silly, judy, to say that we've lost our freedom because the president didn't release his taxes, but yet he complied with the law to me is really silly. look, we're all concerned about the attacks on the press, but the press is resilient. frankly, the press is more

aggressive today than i can remember it in a long time. i'm not worried about the united states in terms of our basic freedoms. what i am worried is when we withdraw from trade agreements in the pacific, the chinese have an advantage. when we insult people in africa, it means the chinese have more ability to have sway. when we are not working with our allies and making unilateral decisions, it begins to undermine the strength of nato. these are things that are very, very concerning, not just to me, but the people around the world. now, again, i think these institutions are pretty darn strong, but you can't take anything for granted here in the 21st century. >> woodruff: secretary albight, you were telling me earlier, your main concern is when it look at what the russians are doing. >> the thing that troubles me is they did get involved in our election process, and it's gotten so personal here that we have not really been investigating enough what they have been doing in europe and

what their plans might be for 2018 in the united states. >> woodruff: at a time when -- >> hey, judy, secretary of state albright made a point here a week ago that i thought was spot on, and this is this reinforcing of polarization, the breakdown of our political leaders able to reach any consensus on anything is, you know, it's just destroying people's confidence in the ability of our government to make decisions that are in the best interests of the public and not in the best interests of political parties. >> woodruff: i want to pick up on what you said, governor, about polarization, because what we're seeing is a divide not just between the two party, but right now within your party, the republican party, over immigration. how do you see that divide getting resolved in your own party? >> well, judy, look, everybody, every american believes we have to protected our borders. that's a given. but the take 800,000 people who were brought here as kids and to

say that we're going to systematically engage in an effort to ship them out of the country or even the el salvadorians, their country is not ready to accept these people, you have president bush and president obama both saying they gave waivers to those people so they could stay. when you study this, you see many of those folks are terrorized about the notion if they go home, many of them fear for their lives. we need to have a policy that goes through the windshield, not through the rear-view mirror, and begin to punish people. maybe that's a strong word, but to do things to disrupt them once they are fully integrated in our society and they have been, you know, law-abiding people. judy, there is one other element of this that i thought about over the last few days. you know, the republican party says it's a party of the family. but we need to strengthen all families. i also think that we're all made in the image of the lord. and when we treat these people as somehow numbers or goals

without thinking of them as people, we fall short as a nation. and i know people want strong borders. i know they want immigration reform. i'm for... i am for strong borders and immigration, but we cannot project an image that we don't love our friends and our neighbors who are part of our culture. it's just not right. and i hope they will resolve this here in the next week or so. i don't understand the hold-up. think about the way you want your family to be treated. and if they think that way, we maybe get a better result. >> woodruff: secretary albright, as someone who knows how the united states is seen around the rest of the world, how much difference does it make in the united states' ability to get done what it wants to get done, how it resolves an issue like immigration? >> well, i think that people know and they see in the united states a country that is welcoming, that understands diversity, that has the statue

of liberty and that really we are the kind of country that understands that we have to be diverse. that's the strength of america. and i think that when the president makes statements that basically makes a whole set of people feel inferior, it undermines our policy. and what's been so interesting is to watch stories about how our ambassadors now have to try to explain what is going on. it undermines america's image. let me just say there are people who say who cares about our image. what we care about, and i think it's right, is the job of every president to protect our people and our territory and our way of life, and that can only happen if we have good relationships with other countries because we can't do everything alone. so it undermines america's strength and it makes it more difficult for our people to be protected. >> woodruff: finally governor kasich, last night on the program, i interviewed peter waner, a long-time conservative, a long-time republican, he said

to him it's extremely painful to watch what's happened, what the president has said in the last few days. what about you as a lifelong republican? >> i have already said that he should apologize. it was outrageous. and peter wenner, it's interesting, because he's talked about the war inside of people's faith, particularly in the christian movement, a war within, i mean a war but maybe a debate is a better term about what evangelicals are all about, what christians are all about, and to me as a person of faith, and look, i fail all the time, but i'll tell you what it's about, it's about love. it's about caring. it's about forgiveness. it's about compassion. and that's america. and when we lose that, we could lose our soul. i don't believe we will. finally, how about secretary albright? she's iconic. she's contributed a great amount to this country, and i am privileged to always spend time with her. she's terrific. >> thank you, governor. >> woodruff: and on that note,

we thank both of you. secretary madeleine albright, governor john kasich, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, the flu season already seems to be reaching a peak, and so far, it looks like a more severe season than others in recent memory. john yang gets an update on why, and what you need to know. >> yang: judy, the flu season started earlier than in the past, and the centers for disease control says it is the most widespread outbreak it has ever seen. officials say doctor visits are climbing, and pediatric deaths from the flu are up as well-- at least 20 so far. the c.d.c. says the flu leads to the deaths of thousands of americans each year. to bring us the latest on the current flu season, we're joined by dr. amber robbins, a family medicine physician at georgetown university, and the health and media fellow here at the

newshour. dr. robbins, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> yang: why is this season so bad? >> this season is bad because this year we're seeing more people with influenza a. now, in the past, we've seen a season with influenza a means that we have more cases of the flu, more hospitalizations and ultimately more deaths because of the flu, and so that is a concern this year as influenza-a is a predominant flu strand. >> yang: what makes influenza-a so problematic? >> right. it changes so quickly. so even though we have the vaccine that's made several months before the flu season actually begins here in the u.s., the virus itself changes so that it's not an exact match to the actual vaccine. so that is a point of concern. but it is important to know that even though that may be the case, if you get a flu vaccine, you are less likely to have hospitalizations and then the flu itself, if you do get it after getting the vaccine, your

symptoms are less severe. >> yang: and how effective is this vaccine this year? >> it's around 32%. that's what experts think for this year, which is a little less than it has been in previous years, but again, it's better to get it than not get it. it's better to be covered than not. >> yang: could this season get even worse? >> it could. the question is, though, where are we in the flu season? so like you were saying before, we know that the flu season started a little bit earlier than it usually does, but the question is: are we at the peak of this season or is this a trend that is going upward. so those questions we still don't know the answerers to until the flu season is over. >> yang: a little practical advice. when should someone go to the doctor. a lot of people try to tough it out. i see them in the aisles of the drugstores. when should they go to the doctor? >> whenever you feel sick, you should think about going to the doctor or call if you have any

questions. symptoms of the flu are fever, chills, night sweat, cough, feeling really horrible, and those are also symptoms of a cold, so it's really hard to decipher which one is which. and that's our job to, help you and be able to treat if we think that it is the flu. >> yang: is it too late for people to get a flu shot? >> nope. not too late at all. you can go to your clinic or local pharmacy and still get a flu vaccine, and the people who should get it are people aged six months and above, but also those who are pregnant, those who may have some long-term chronic diseases, like heart disease. we also know for influenza-a, those who are older or younger are the ones who are at more risk of having complications from it. so those are the people that we're saying, you definitely, definitely need to get your flu vaccine. >> yang: two things i hear a lot of people say: i never get the flu. i'm not going to get a shot. or, if i get a shot, i'm afraid i'm going to get the flu. what do you say to those folks?

>> well, people who say they've never gotten the flu, i hear so many patients say they wish they would have gotten the vaccine once they get the flu. so i would say, you know, even with your thoughts of not getting the flu, it's good to have some protection than no protection, and with flu being something that we're giving you and the flu vaccine, that's not necessarily true. in the vaccine itself, it's usually an inactivated flu virus, meaning that it's not a living virus. and what that does is it helps your system be aware of the flu and what it looks like, so that when you do come in contact with an active virus, your body knows what to do, and those fighter cells can go ahead and fight that flu. >> yang: we've heard a lot of talk about the shortage of anti-virals like tamiflu. what's that about? >> right. so there are some places where it's hard to get those anti-virals. and usually those places are the places that have a lot of flu case, but overall in the united states, there is not a shortage.

it's just depending on where you're trying to get the medication. so if you're in one of those places where you know that there are a lot of people who have the flu, just calling your pharmacy and seeing if they have the medication would be helpful. and again, that medication is good to have when you're in the first two days of the virus, because it helps shorten duration of having the flu and also decreases the severity of the symptoms. >> yang: very good. dr. amber robbins, thanks for the house call. >> thank you. >> woodruff: next, a master class in the art of storytelling. jeffrey brown recently traveled to new york for a talk with actor john lithgow. >> i recognized all those things that we found so funny. >> brown: the power of storytelling, the magic of theater: on display in john lithgow's solo broadway show,"

stories by heart." >> one of the first lines in my evening is, "all theater is stories and all actors are storytellers." we're part of a process. we're putting on a fiction which, hopefully, reaches out and which touches an audience. gives them emotional exercise, attempts to create a brief-- ahh! suspension of disbelief. that's what i do. >> brown: lithgow has been presenting versions of "stories by heart" around the country since 2008. now on broadway in a production directed by daniel sullivan, he tells part of his own story, of a young boy whose father introduced him to a world of storytelling and theater.

>> we would pick the stories and he would read them out loud, performing all the parts full out. when i hold it in my hands now, my father comes back. i try to recreate the sort of period of discovery that i went through as a boy with my siblings, just listening to my father read great stories. it was probably the closest we ever felt to my father, was bedtime stories with this big, fat book. >> brown: are you worried that it's lost, that art of storytelling? >> yes, i am worried about that. i mean, there's a certain missionary zeal to what i'm doing here. >> brown: in the show, lithgow performs two of the stories he heard as a child, playing all the roles, including a small- town barber with a whopper of a tale, in ring lardner's story," haircut." >> it was a saturday and the shop was full.

and jim got up from that chair and said, "gentlemen, i got an important announcement to make, i been fired from my job." the evening is a meditation on exactly what we're talking about. why do all of us need stories? want, need and love stories. and there's no question, we all, do. >> brown: lithgow, now 72, has had a varied, enduring, and much honored career. his best-known role, for which he won three emmy awards, might be from the hit tv comedy series, "3rd rock from the sun"" in which he played the commander of an alien expedition come to earth. just last year, he won another emmy for his portrayal of winston churchill in the netflix drama, "the crown." >> you can be difficult.

>> i can be a monstoer, but that's what's needed. >> brown: he received an oscar nomination for the 1982 film" the world according to garp," where he played a transgender woman, and has appeared in more than 50 other movies, including last year's "beatriz at dinner"" but theater has been there from the start-- the very start, in fact. in this 1947 photo, two-year-old john lithgow is seen making his onstage debut in "the emperor's new clothes" at a theater in ohio. and that man holding his hand? his father, arthur lithgow, an actor and producer of shakespeare festivals and much else at regional theaters around the country. >> my father produced a number of these plays multiple times, directing several of them, and acting in them with a kind of

exuberant flamboyance that you might have recognized from someone else in the room. this is my unusually nice broadway dressing room. >> brown: arthur lithgow read to his children from a book calle"" tellers of tales." many years later, the book serves as john lithgow's one prop. >> yes, this is "tellers of tales." this is the actual book, which is why it looks so old and ratty. >> brown: the ring lardner story, "haircut" is here. >> look at that, long chatting, just chatting, he can't stop. he's a chatty barber. and i mime every detail. >> brown: and so too is the other story lithgow performs i"" stories by heart," a hilarious rollick by p.g. wodehouse call""

uncle fred flits by," in which lithgow plays 11 different characters. and there is more to this story. when arthur lithgow was ill and grew depressed late in life, john spent a month caring for him and his mother, sara, and turned the storytelling tables. >> i surprised them with the book when i got this idea. they were all in bed and i told them to pick a story. and nobody can make you laugh with just simple prose more than p.g. wodehouse. and that's what they picked. and, by god, i made my father laugh. he hadn't been laughing at all. and this was a man who laughed all his life.

>> brown: it sounds like at the end, he felt he had not succeeded, right? >> i don't think any actor or director, anybody who creates theater, feels they have succeeded at the end of their lives. what we do is not indispensable. we entertain people. we create little moments that are then gone. >> never let them see... >> brown: but lithgow says growing old does have its perks. >> i'm an old actor, no question about it. turns out being an old actor is tremendous. i think all my competition has fallen away. i'm very aware of how lucky i am to be this viable at this age. and i'm just grabbing for all the gusto i can get. >> brown: arthur lithgow died in 2004. his son john performs "stories

by heart" on broadway through early march. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown from new york. >> woodruff: smart phones have surely changed the way we live-- including the way kids interact with and use that technology every day. there are growing concerns about what that is doing to children and that is the focus john yang has for us tonight as part of our weekly segment, "making the grade." >> yang: judy, earlier this month, two big shareholders in apple jumped into this debate. together, jana partners, an investment management firm, and the california state teachers retirement system own about $2 billion of apple stock. they called on the iphone maker to come up with ways for parents to restrict the amount of time children spend on iphones, and to study the effect heavy usage

has on kids' mental health. to discuss this, we're joined by charles penner, a partner at jana partners, and by jean twenge, a san diego state university psychology professor and the author of "igen: why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy-- and completely unprepared for adulthood." thanks to you both for joining us. dr. twenge, let me begin with you. i think i know the answer from what the title of your book, but what can you tell us about what the research says about kids and iphones? >> so i-gen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence with smartphones. that's had ripple effects across many areas of their lives. one place that's showing up is in their mental health. so right around 2012 in the big samples of teens, there was a sudden and pretty large jump in

symptoms of depression and anxiety and clinical-level depression and suicide among teens. and that happened right at the same time that smartphones became common. so there's also lots of studies showing links between mental health issues and time spent on electronic devices such as smartphones. so, for example, teens who spend five or more hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have at least one risk factor for suicide compared to teens who spend less than an hour a day. >> yang: what makes smartphones different from say television or a video game? >> well, smartphones can be carried into the bedroom. they're more portable. so they may interfere with sleep, and sure enough, the percentage of teens who don't sleep enough also spiked right around 2012, and that's a major risk factor for mental health issues. they can also be carried out of

the house wherever you go, so that means that teens are often spending lots of time on those devices even when they are with their friends in person. so with that said, of course, tv and video games are also linked to mental health issues, but the link isn't quite as strong as it is for smartphones and for social media. >> yang: i know you have said there are some beneficial aspects to smartphone use by kids. is there sort of a sweet spot, how much is too much time on an iphone? >> yeah, that's right. so teens who don't use digital immediate at all or don't use smartphones at all are actually a little less well adjusted than teens who use them a little bit. so the sweet spot seems to be from less than an hour the an hour or so of use a day. and it's more than two hours, so three hours of use and beyond per day is linked to that considerably higher risk of depression and other mental health issues.

>> yang: i want to bring you into this, mr. penner. what sparked this letter to apple? we think of activist shareholders talking about manage. changes and direction of business. what sparked this letter? >> we think apple is a really responsible company, a really innovative company, and i think a testament to that is how quickly we reacted to, this but we saw an opportunity for them to get out ahead of what we saw as potentially a developing issue and quite frankly burnish their brand with customers by offering parents optional controls but better controls that are more robust and more die -- dynamic, as proffer twenge has been talking about. >> yang: in apple's response, they said they are always looking out for kids, but they focused on restricting downloading apps and material, reaching material, accessing material online, not limiting the amount of time on it. are you satisfied with that response? >> it was a great first response and we didn't expect anything

different. they're a very socially responsible company. i think the next step will be to, as we said, kind of take the experts, you know, professor twenge, other people we've worked with, including dr. michael rich at harvard and boston children's hospital and a ton of other people who are experts on this issue, even more broadly just child development experts. you know, sit in a room with them, broaden the discussion beyond just kind of the engineers and the business folks, and the design team and really kind of redesign the controls from the ground up to be dynamic, to be age appropriate, you know, as i think professor twenge has maybe mentioned in other contexts. the research shows that even for the most worrisome aspects like social media usage, the effects start to taper off the older you get some look at all the research and execute on what they have said they're going to do, which is offer more robust controls, and we don't have any reason to think they won't.

>> yang: jean twenge, what kind of controls would you want to see apple develop? >> both based on the research and as a parent of three i-gen ers, i have my wish list. one would be some kind of way to shut down the phone at a certain time. so an hour before bedtime and then there's not the temptation to be on it right before bed, which is not conducive to good sleep or in the middle of the night, which is what some teens do. second would be to limit the overall time in a day that that phone could be used. say to two hours a day. and then the third would be instead of being able to just turn on and off certain apps, that there would be the capability to have certain apps be only used for certain amount of time per day. so, for example, you could say, okay, you can be on snapchat, but only for an her a day, or half hour a day. >> yang: jean twenge and charles penner, i'm afraid our time is up here, but thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: a news update before we go. the navy says it is filing negligent homicide charges against the commanders of two ships involved in fatal collisions last year. a total of 17 sailors were killed in the two separate collisions in the pacific. later this evening on pbs, "frontline" presents an update to "rape on the night shift," which focuses on the vulnerability of immigrant women working as janitors to sexual assault. tonight, the film turns towards efforts by government, businesses, law enforcement and female workers to address the problem and protect the workers. "frontline" airs tonight on most pbs stations. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and

we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

>> 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 >> you're watching pbs. elyse: this week on of history detectives,

is this a missing murder weapon from the st. valentine's day massacre? would you like to shoot it? wes: how did this recently discovered portrait of our first president aid an abolitionist's cause? "anxious to promote the happiness of the poor africans." eduardo: and what story does this drawing tell of life in a german p.o.w. camp? this is a treasure, a rare one. elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ it's just like watchin' the detectives ♪