captioning sponsored by newshour productns, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, congress rushes to make a deal to keep the federal government open before a midnight deadline. then, another flashpoint in the syria conflict as american forces attack pro-government fighters in a rare offensive. and, makvog sense of the tility on wall street: howro long will the er coaster last, and what the wild swings mean for main street. >> optimists have a seemingly strong case, with data to back them up: the u.s. and global economies appear to be doing just fine. >> woodruff: plus, on the ground in south korea-- the 2018 winter olympics get underway amid the russian doping scandal and an

olympian's feud with vice president pence. 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 nal-life conversations in 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. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfred p. sloa foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.or >> and with the ongoing support of thesenstitutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your vbs station frwers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: wall street's wild ride took it way south ain today, as fears of coming inflation and higher interest rates, overcame u.s. markets. the dow jones industrials

dropped more than 1,000 points for the second time this week, to close at 23,860. the nasdaq fell almost 275 points, and the s&p 500 gave up 100. both the dow and s&p are down 10 percent from their highs of just two weeks ago. that officially signals what experts call a "correction." our other major story tonight: deal or no deal on the federal budget? u.s. senate leaders labored alld day to pass a g bill that keeps the government running. the house of represees waited to cast its own vote, as time ticked away. sa desjardins reports. >> desjardins: at the capitol, hours away from another governme solution with admitted flaws. >> i am confident that no e senator her side of the aisle believes this is a perfect bill, >> desjardins: still, senate leaders pushed their mega-budget deal as a way to avoid a shutdown and end budget uncertainty. >> i'm also confident this is our best chance to begin

rebuilding our military and maks progress on isirectly affecting the american people. >> it's a strong signal that we can break the gridlock that has overwhelmed this body and work together for the good of the country. >>esjardins: but as the midnight funding deadline drew closer, the senate floor was mostly empty. that's because a single senator, republican rand pa of kentucky, objected to an immediate vote, saying he wouldj keep oting unless the senate had a chance to reduce the spending in the budget deal. this as most members were still digesting the dense 652-page final bill, dnleased near ht last night. in it, a big boost in defense spending: over $160 billion over the next two years. and for non-defense, a $130 billion increase for non- defense. fe packed proposal also includes fundingor community health centers, a 10-year amtension of the children's health insurance p, and nearly $90 billion in disaster

yeaid for areas hit by las's hurricanes, wildfires and other disaers. but more than two-thirds of the bill's spending is unpaid for, a major concern for fiscal conservatives. la republican senator jeff of arizona, it's a bad deal and bad direction. l >>e bipartisanship. it seems like the only bipartisan measures we can do now is when we spend obscenely anspread enough money arou where everybody's okay and we just can't do that. we've done that for too long, and it's just too bad. separate hurtles await if bill in the house. >> i'myust telling people wh i'm voting the way i am. >> democratic minority leader nancy pelosi says she won't vote for the bill. today she agalled for house speaker paul ryan to guarantee a vote on protections for daca recipients brought to the u.s. illegally as children. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has already made

that promise. senate majority leader mcconnell has already made that promise. the speaker, who likely needs democratic votes to pass the bill, insisted that he is committed to a daca solution. but, he added, the budget must come first.or >> in r to shift our focus and get on to the next big priority, which is a daca solution, we got to get thisme budget agr done, so that we can go and focus on this. i'm confident we can bring a bipartisan solutthn to the floor can get signed into law and solve this problem. >> desjardins: but first, congress still has to pass a funding bill, with just hours until a shutdown. but as we speak right now,na r rand paul's on the senate floor still objecting, still blocking a vote on this budget. that means blocking the funding that wou s avert ahutdown. >> woodruff: so we are, what, six hours away from when they have to do something. where do things stand? >> okay, let's game this out. in truth, if the senate were to pass something at this exact instant, it could still take six to seven hours for them to get the bill to the house and have the house be able to vote, so, judy, i think at this moment because of the delays in the

senate primarily, we will hae technically a shutdown. it could be a few hours into the overnight. i think what's going pen is this battle will be determined in the dark in the midnight hovers where we'een the most ferocious fights of this past year happen, and to bw honest, jud don't know yet if there are the votes on the house side to pass this bill. it seems so, but it's not clear. >> woodruff: so let's step back a moment, as you started to do there. talk about this budget bill and how thi process works at this point. >> right. it's important to realize what thist arge budbill is is permission to spend money. it's guidance and maximum amounts they can spend. they're raising the maximumt amount, ey're not saying how you can spend it. to do that, congress wants another six weeks o time to do the normal appropriations bills. so this bill does two things. it raises those maximum spending amounts and it has a continuing resolution or one last short-term funding bill that will go to march 23rd, th

the item that's most imperative to avoid a shutdown, the short-term c.r. or continuing resolution, but they're tiedg together, and now they're both being blocked. >> woodruff: i watched yourni report last. you got into some of what is in this bill, but flush out some more. >> a lot of folks concerned about the opioid crisis. there is $6 billion worth of fundin let's have some perspective on that. that's not much compared to the $25 billion recently requested from senators in high-impact states. another thing, the military.o we hear a about this $160 billion increase in their annual budget over the next to years. there's also another $16 billion for the military in something called the overseas contingency fund, emergency funding that's been kicked around year after year and has become an annual spending item. the milita getting aigger increase than people understand. there's a slew of tax extenders, nascar, plug-in cars, indian

reservdoion, many, manzens of tax cuts in this bill. >> woodruff: so we heard senator flake lamenting what does this does to spending. a there increase in the debt ceiling included here. tell us a little bit more about how that works. what does this bill do to e debt? > so the debt ceiling would be increased for aar, not by a until nal amount, but by however much it naturally grows until xt march, mar 2019. then you also look at what does this bill do itself in terms of red ink, if the spending amounts in this bill were extrended ove ten years, it would be $1.5 icit.ion added to the def let's add that on top of the other bill recently passed, the tax cut law, another $1.5 trillion over ten years, two big bills from republicans. compare that to tarp, the troubled asset reviews program, remember that, that was so unpopular to, save the ban, and the obama stimulus, $1.5 trillion together, and that ist

what the amo each of these bills would add to the deficit. the republicans did not like those two bills earlier. that's what started the tea party movement. now they're passing two different bills that would add that much red ink, each of them. >> woodruff: ter years rat. very quickly, speak ryan talked about immigration. where did immigration come down here? >> it is going to be major debate in the senate next week. nor mcconnell has sad he's not starting with any particular immigration bill but instead allowing all the amendments that people want to come to the floor. he says it will be a full process. we'll have to see the exact rules. it could take more than a week for the senate to run through all the different ideas that senators have and to vote on all of them. but get ready. bxt week will be a ver one in the senate. >> woodruff: i have a feeling the midnight oil in the desjardins household will bebu ing. >> a lot of federal workers will be up late to see if they go to

work tomorrow or not. >> woodruff: thank you.th >> woodruff: iday's other news, the white house says it "could have done better" in handling allegations of domestic violence against formbr top staff rob porter. the two ex-wives of the until- yesterday staff secretary, say he physically assated them. and yesterday, one released a photo of herself with a black eye. ne reports today said some white house officials knew of the claims weeks ago. but deputy press secretary raj shah says chief of staff john kelly only became "fully aware" of the facts yesterday. >> the allegations against rob porter are serious, and deeply troubling. he did deny them. the incidents took place long before he joined the white house, therefore they were investigated as part of aou back check, as this process is meant for such allegations. it was not completed, and rob rter has since resigned. >> woodruff: shah said president trump did not know about thega alons until tuesday. the pentagon will permanentlyec mark theds of service members who sexually harass or

bully others, li the job or . the new policy comes nerrly a year a scandal in the marine corps over an online nude photo. pentagon officials say they're also making it easier to report problems, and hold abusers accountable. in north korea, intercontinental llistic missiles rolled through pyongyang, in a huge military parade. this, on the eve of the winter olympics' opening in sth ko sporting a black fedora, the north's leader kim jong un, presided over goose-stepping soldiers, and missiles, marking the anniversary of the country's military. meanwhile, vice prespence arrived in seoul, meeting with south korean president moon jae- in a promising full support. >> the united states of america will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder in our effort to bring maximum pressure to bear on north korea until that time comes when they finally, and

permanently, and irreversibly abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions. >> woodruff: before arriving, mr. pence said the north's participation in the olympicss amou "propaganda". moon took a more conciliatory tone, and said he hopes theov games e a diplomatic opening. former president george w. bush said today he believes russia interfered in the 2016le presidentialion. he spoke in abu dhabi, capital of the united arab emialtes. during a the 43rd president said: "there is pretty clnsr evidence that the russ meddled." but he went on to say: "whteher they affthe outcome is another question." president ump is nominating a beverly hills tax attorney, charles rettig, to be commissioner of the internal revenue servic the white house announced the choice today. rettig has represented companies and individuals in tax disputesd he also de mr. trump's decision not to release his owne tarns, during the 2016

campaign. twitter has turned a quarterly profit for the first time. thncompany made $91 million the 4th quarter of 2017, despite long-term challenges. those clude a backlash over twitter's handling of russian- linked accounts and hate speech. and, hundreds of thousands of ecstatic fans swarmed downtown philadelphia today, for the eagles' super bowl victory parade. with trophies in hand, players and fans, decked out in eagles green, or not, braved freezing temperatures to celebrate. philadelphia beat new england last sunday, for its first super bowl win. still to come on the newshour: how the white house chief of staff handled domestic violence allegations against a top aide. why the u.s. military coalition making sense of the stock market

and whether its overpriced, and much more. >>oodruff: we return now t the resignation of a top white house aide following accusations of abuse white house staff secretary rob porter stepped down after allegations of domestic violence by his two ex-wives and photographs surfaced of his first wife with a black eye. chief of staff john kelly initially defended porter and urged him to stay on the job. but porter worked in the white house over a year without a security clearance, raising questions about how much genera ked white house staff knew about the allegations. to help explain this, newshour white house correspondent yamiche alcindor, and chris whipple, author of "the gatekeepers: how the white house chiefs of staff define every

presidency." welcome to both of you. and yamiche, i'm ing to start with you. i have two main questions, but the first one is: why did chief of stff john kelly contin to defend rob porter, even after those photowere made available? >> that is probably the moston important queshen looking at whether or not john kelly will keep the credibility that he came into fice with. i spoke to hope kicks hud. she's someone who is supposed to be romantically engaged with rob porter. >> woodruff: the white house communications director. >> yes, and she's supsed to be rob porter's girlfriend. she told me she could not answer any questions about how that statement was crafted that initially had john kelly calling him man of integrity, but the reporting i have been doing essentlly shows that hope hicks was very much involved in crafting that statement and that they were defending someone because they thought he ha a good reputation and that his girlfriend was helping do that. the white houstoday said tht there was -- that the chief of staff was not fully aware of all

of the things that rob porter was accused of, even after thehe picture, souestion was posed, why after the picture would john kelly still say heha a couple more day, he's going the transition slowly, and then today he was paing his bags? >> woodruff: the other big question i think on people's minds, yamiche, is rob porter worked in the white house ovea year in the sensitive position, actuss to virly everything that goes across the president's desk, but he did not have a permanent security clearance. he had interim clearance. the white house said thy were still working on it. how could that be? >> of course, we're a year intoe thisdency, and there are simply multiple people who are working in the white house with thatame status. the white house confirmed today that rob porter definitely was handling classified information and that he was doingouch like jared kushner, who, of course, is the son-in-law of the president. he also does not have a security clearance as of january 2018. that means that there are multiple people who could have problematic backgrouat are operating in the white house. ece white house has said there

are background continuing and that rob porter was one of those people still getting a background check, but it's interesting that the f.b.i. already interewed the ex-wives and he was handling classified information. >> woodruff: and he was doing his job. chris whipple, you've studiedff chiefs of styou've written a book about them. what's your reaction to all of this? >> well, you know, this has been for a year the most itsfunctional white house in modern history, ans hard to believe that it gets worse by the day.t ere we are, and john kelly was supposed to be the guy who would make the trains run on time in the we wing. he famously said that he was not put on this earth to manage the president. he was simply in charge of managing the informatioflow to him. now even by that very narrowti defi of the job, which by the way is not sufscient, he' failed. you know, the idea that the staff secretary could operate for a year without a security clearance is mindbogglg.

i spoke to two former republican white house chiefs today, each was incredulous. it just isn't done. >> woodruff: that was going to be my next question to yu: how unusual is it to have someone in a crucial senior position, staff secretary, working side by side with the chief of staff, without a permanent clearance? is the f.b.i. withholding permanent security clearance? >> unprecedented according to the people i've talked to, includintwo former white hous chiefs. unother very high ranking republican former mp white house adviser. and so it's uneard of but it's hardly the only thing, the only precedent at this white hose has shattered, after all. i think that, you know, when i think of john kelly, i'm reminded of don reagan, who was ronald reagan's disastrous second white house chief of aff, regan was imperious,

arrogant, and politically inept and o'oblivious. it's no coincidence thea iran-conandal happened on his watch, as i describe in my book, "the gatekeepers." i think kelly shares some of isose charactcs. he's arrogant, he's politically inept. he loves to call everyone in congress "idiots." this is a guy who has been out of his depllth politisince he stepped up to the podium in the white house briefing room and atacked representative wilson with a phony story. >> woodruff: i rememnr do regan well, having covered the reagan white house. quickly to you, yamiche, finally, what is chief staff john kelly's position now? is he going to be able to hang on to hs job? >> in the trump white house, the person has their job for the time being. right now the white house is sying that if the president loses confidence imeone, they will know it, which means he could be either here for another four years or three years or he could be fired tomorrow. the trump white aouse has had

rotating cast of character, and there is no way to tell. i should tell you i talked to a source very closeplto peo inside the white house, and staffers are really surprised and really dismayed that john kelly came out with that statement supporting rob porter, because theyeel as though it makes the whole white house look bad. there is reporting that trump is so mad about michael wolff's book and he's not a hapout how he's portrayed, and that makes him look bad. that's really important to this president. he wants to look good for the american people. in this he really loo bad and the administration looks bad. >> woodruff: very tough episode. yamiche alcindor, chris whipple, thank you both. >> tanks. >> woodruff:t was yet another bloody day and nerve-racking ride for the u.s. stock market,w as thelunged another 1,000-plus points, whilet volatility s again, and two of the major indexes fell

into what's knion as a "corre" several ideas have been cited llabout what's behind the including worries over inflation and wh ironically, be heating up too quickly. some also have suggested thep markets shoto high of late with what has been the second longest bull run in history. that's the focus tonight for economics correspondt, paul solman, part of his weekly series, "making sense." >> reporter: okay, you've heard explanations of this week's stock market jitters: rising interest rates, which induce investors to sell stocks and buy suddenly-more-attractive bonds; a bursting bitcoin bubble; baby boomers hitting 70 and finally obliged to start cashing out their 401k's and pay taxes on them. but how about the explanation that stock prices were and still are historically out of whack? stock prices of s. companies have recently reached their

second-highest level since 1888, "ccording to nobel laureate robert shiller's "pe," or c-a- p-e, an acronym for "cyclically- adjusted price/earnings ratio". since a share of stock is, in theory, a share of a company's profits, a high p.e. or price/earnings ratio means a high stock price, relative to profits. cing the s&p 500 index, an average of 500 majpanies, shiller's cape has had three dramatic peaks: the roarin' ¡20s; dot.com boom, and last week. and even though the index adropped almost ten perce 's still above the ratio in odtober of 1929. so on a day like you may be wondering: how low could the market go? well, first peak on shiller's art came in 1929 promptly followed by the crash of '29de and the s&p bottomed out in march of 1933, having dropped

by more than 80 percent. a similar drop from last week's peak of 2867 would drive the s&p below 600. the dow, below 5000. and what's been the average price/earningsatio over the entire 129 years? about half of what it closed at toy. but before you panic, the highest shiller peak ever was about 40% above the current ratio. that was during the first ternet boom, which lasted quite awhileso xuberance, whether "irrational" or not, could stili have a ways to go. a repeat performance of the dot com boom would imply an s&p index approaching 4000, a dow nearing 35,000. now a warning about predictions: as i once heard the famous economics professor john kenneth galbraith say: "there are two

kinds of ecomists; those who n't know the future, and those who don't know they don't know." and as anoth famous economist, paul samuelson once said, "the stock market has crectly forecast nine of the last five recessions."op lookmists have a seemingly strong case, with data to back.s them up: t. and global economies appear to be doing just fine, with a u.s. unemployment rate at barely four percent, wages finallyg, business so good that companiesg may be borroo invest again at last. and the s&p, en after this week's cascade, is still up more than 12% over the past 12do months; th still up about 19%. but the pessimistsoint out that people were just as upbeat in 1929, when unemployment was, as best we can tell, below three percent and the 1920's were still roarin'. and then look what happened next.

u find this unsatisfying, kind of like president harry truman'h famous lamen "all my economists say 'on one hand...', then 'but on the other'..."? e well, whe is there but truman's answer: "give me a one" armed economi" for the pbs newshour, this economics correspondent paul solman. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour, what to watch for in this year's winter olympics. a spy thriller set in the time of nazi germany. and a brief but spectacular take from one of the hosts hit comedy podcast "two dope queens." but first, to syria. the war there will soon mark its seventh, bloody anniversary. s,d, as nick schifrin repo conflict known for its complexity and brutality is

breaking ghastly, dangerous new ground. >> reporter: even after sevenf years, the fogthe syrian waras is as thick ever. there is fing in syria on at least three fronts, and the syrian people remain the primary target. for a fourth straight day, syrian and russian jets and artillery pummeled the last significant rebel holdouts. the targets are in idlib province and the damassts suburb ean ghouta, where in the last week, rescue workers and activists reported nearl.200 deaths the relentless bombardment reduced entire neighborhoods, and their hospitals and their schos, to rubble. even in this war, the u.n. calls these bombings "extreme." tiand it says it's investi whether some of the bombs have been filled with chlorine. amonthe victims of the violen-- 400,000 residents who remain trapped. many need medical atntion and food, and the u.n. says the syrian regime is preventin.aid deliveri

meanwhile on the u.s.' fnt line in northern syria, american commanders vow to hold their ground on behalf of kurdish ande arab a manbij is the most important forward operating base for u.s. and local troops who cleared northern syria of isis. yesterday, top u.s. commanders made a rare visit to inspect front lines. they say local kurdish and arab forces need to remain here to stabilize tharea and prevent an isis return. major genera the special operations commander in iraq and syria. >> we need to ay here until that political environment is stable and our security here, our presence here provides that level stabilization and brings security. >> reporter: but that presence is destablizing the u.s. relationship with nato ally turkey. turkey sees kurdish syrian fighters as a threat, and attacked them in the northwest region of afrin. turkey's now threatening to targeturds, and americans, in manbij. this week turkish president recep tayyip erdogan, a nato ally, demanded the u.s.

withdraw. >> ( translated ): go ahead and leave.te you aring us not to come to manbij. we will come to manbij to deliver the land to its true owners. >> reporter: and a third front in the eastern province of deir el-zhour. yesterdathe u.s. says it launched air and artillery strikes against the syrian regime, to dend u.s. allies. it was the largest direct u.s. strike on syria since last april. when the u.s. launched cruise missiles in response to a syrian regime chemical weapons attack. but today, the pentagon insisted it wasn't trying to open up another front. >> we are not looking for a conflict with the regime any action that takes away from our ongoing operations to defeat isis is a distraction. f >> reporte more on this moment in the many-sided syria war, i'm joined by journalist and author gayle tzemach lemmon. she's just returned from kurdish-controlled northern syri and traveled there last summer on assignment for the newshour. and hassan hassan.

he's a senior fellow at the tahrir institute for middle east policy, a think tank here in washington. he also co-authored the book "isis: inside the ar terror." , ank you very much. gayle tzemach lemmt me start with you. you just returned from northern syria. you saw the kcourdssolidating some of their gains. how detrucktive could it be fory tuo be talking about even invading? >> it's destructive and it's a distraction. it's destructive for the kurdish perspective in that here they have this democratic project they're working on. an now they are really sending civilians and obviously those in uniform to the front to defend freedom. on the distractionide, for the u.s.-backed forces who were fighting there, certainly they're fight is taking resources and people away fromt the fiainst isis. >> schifrin: so let's go torn nortyria, hassan hassan.

how serious is turkey about this in. outturkey is quite serious ab this. they have demonstrated they are very serious since 2016 wheni they sed their priorities in syria from working very closely with russia and iran to basically reraw the political and military map in the north. and what they did in that period is anothmonstration they are very serious. nobody expected turkey to go this fa. they had -- i think theic ams expected that turkey was thinking of goi, ng thet they didn't think they had the courage or the appetite to go and fight in. >> schifrin: gayle, for a while we had mutual enemies. everyone was on the same page fighting isis. it doesn seem like that is te case. has that exacerbated some of the problems in northern syia? >> very much so. the fight against isis was a unifying force where all sides could freeze their fights with one another and focus on the

isis fight that is over i mean, i talked to syrians who said, listen, if you think this wadis ening, it's just now ramping up to its next phase, where parties who were warring before the isis fight will go bck the fighting one another because it's really now out the end game and who has what territory going into whatever the end of this war looks like. >> schifrin: hassan hassan, just ramping up. that's horrifying to think about that. we have ths other strike in which the u.s. saiy were acting in self-defense. is this the came where the regime and its allies are being hre aggressive or is it u.s.abeing more aggressive? >> i think the syrian regime has been considered more hovocation. the done it before. the united states struck back, downing a syrian lane i think a year ago, and after that the deacon politics zonreed

between the russians and americans held for a while. now we see this incident in darr gainst the syrian democratic forces on the otherf sidee river. it's not a secret that theme syrian reoesn't like the americans in syria. this is a message that we're still, there we're still thinking of you leaving at some point. >> woodruff: gayle, there are so many attacks in syria. the ones we are also talking out now, separately in the east, some of the last hold-outs for the rebels are just even worse than some of the ones we've seen in the past, right? t'ssyria is the war tha constituent wished the power of adjectives to describe its hell. when youead what is happening right now, more than one million syrians fled from other parts ot syria ere racked by war. people feel like the war is yollowing them and taking awa their children, their parents, their loved ones with its

horrs. and in eastern gutah, people say this is the worst fihting we've seen in the last couple days in the past seven years. >> schifrin: that's horrifying. hassan hassan, what is the assad regime after. we've hoively seen a lot of violence in syria over the years. these are several of the hold-outs. at's their aim? >> the clear aim of bashar al assad, they want the capture als ia. they don't have the resources and the legitimacy in some areas to do that, but eve now and then they go after a certain t ar kind of unroot or uproot any alternatives that are being built se in some of thereas. so they are after all these areas. now they know their limits, and they have to demonstrate their willingness to go back to these areas by a relentless bombing campaign every now and then.

>> schifrin: and gayle tzema lemmon, relentless bombing campaigns, are you optimistic at all about the future of syria ere?r your last few trips t >> the one thing that gives you optimism is people are pushing forward regardless. we interviewed a woman last summer. she left raqqa eight and a half months pregnant. she fled to a camright ouside oaqqa, gave birth to a baby that was less than tw kilos. we didn't know what happened to her. i want and found her this lat trip, and she's doing so well, which is such an exception in this story of this w. she's working for an ngo. she's supporting her fam she has a very clean, a very warm home for her children tha is in an i.d.p. camp but also feels very cozy when you' there. so she's pushing forward, putting her kids in school. and that strength and that resilience is what gives you fule hope about the real aw tragedy of this war.

>> schifrin: hassan hasan, quickly, resilience, hope, but you also see more violence in their future? >> i do. i think justin -- just two months ago people thought ear -- syria was headed toward more civility with different countries working together. we had momentum toward isis. we have turkey, russia, and iran working together. but now suddenly, everything is unraveling in different parts of syria. that tells you how fragile these things are. >> matt: absolutely.ha an hassan, gayle tzemach lemmon, thank you both. >> woodruff: the winter olympics are set to begin in south korea. it comes at a particularly tense moment in the region, anas the united states and north korea have rattled other countries with threatening language in the months leading up to these games. but there's also a lot of

excitement around the olympics themsees. and john yang is here with a preview. >> judy, the opening ceremonies are less than 12 hours away andt compn has begun. we spoke earlier with christine brennan, sports column fist for "usa today." she was at the olympic venue in pyeongchang, south korea. we began by asking her whatt is like there. >> we're talking more about the cold weather than we are about north korea ing a few mil away. i know that might sound strange, but i've been here almost a week, and it really is a sense that it's the olympics, it's sports, it's gaes. the athletes are here, and maybe, maybe cuwe can fjust on sports and not on the politics. we'll see. we know mostmp oly games some politics comes up. but the way south korea is running these game, the efficiency, everything has been finished for a while, but first

appearances it's running well. >> yang: christine, there will be live coverage on u.s. television tonight. who are some of the u.s. men to keep an eye on >> nhan sen is a great story. he's the only undefeated male skater in the world this year. think about that. all these competition, and he'sn the only who hasn't lost. and so he goes into these games with a real sense that he could maybe win the olympic gold medal. then again that is his slippery l eet of ice and it's a quarter inch blade of steeand to land all those quads he's the quad king. he's the first man ever to land five quadruple jumps in a long program to that last year u.s. nationals 2017 did it again at thndu.s. nationals in 2018 a there's going to be a lot of pressure on nathan shannon. he's a really smart young we've had several conversations and he even talks about the pressure he talks about the intensity of this and he understands the moment and he's going to try to take it all in while he's also of course trying to stay on his feet. the fascinating thing about figure skating is we know that

it is art and it is sport. you've got both marks you've got e judges looking at the artistry as well as of course all the jumping and everything else that they're doing athletically and nathan chan was >> yang: you've been recorng on a controversy involving adam rippon and vice president mike pence. tell us about that. >> we interviewed adam, who is f one ofirst openly guy athletes to compete in the winter olympic games for the united states. i talked to him about many things, including mike pence being the delegation leader fo r the u.the opening ceremonies. e am said, there goes my chance to see mike peho has funded guy conversion therapy. i'm not buying it. he was critical of pence and president trump and he hs already said, as has lindsey vonn, the skier,e that thy will not go to the white house to celebrate. uence's office denied that pence ever did want to fnd guy conversion therapy, although there is interesting wording on

his web site from the year 2000 during a congressional campaigne anywayut that in there, within an hour, we heard from the vice president's office that he wanted to rebut an reply the adam rippon. i have continued to report this story in the last couple weeks, and my reporting from various sources includes the fact that pence went so far as to want to have a conversation with adam rippon and work through u.s. olympic committee channels to have that happen, and adam rippon declined the request from the vice president. >> yang: christine, what about the u.s. women figure skatersi >> theg names from the last few years, gracie gold, ashley wagner, they're at here. it'sew crop except for one big name. and that's mariah nagasu married 24-years-old eight years ago. she made the ofimpic team and shed fourth in vancouver then didn't make it in 2014 and now she's back. what a great story. there's a woman in women's figu skating.

think about that. but maria nagasu is a wonderful story about perseverance and coming back from disappointment over and over again. otherwise brady to nell and karen shana the other two americans. brady to now is the reigning now new u.s. champion. shbarely misses a jump in practice and almost never misses a jump in competition thatas her strong suit. it's not the artistry of say someone like ashley wagner or gracie gold or even murai nagasu. so we'll see how she does. but at the top it's the russians and alina they give up the medd and zeg and they will be there 1 2 or 2 1. i'm pretty sure we can say that the russians control women's figure skating right now but the >> yang: now in december, the international olympic committee banned russia from taking a team to the games becausengf the docandal, but will some russian athletes still be competing? >> it looks like about 169 russians will be here. and that is not a comete ban, but it's far less than the 232 that were in sochi. so there is that, but there are

battles and there are hearings and court of arbitration hearupgs that will go right basically until the time of lighting theauldron at the opening ceremony here. the end result, it's probably not satisfying to a lot of people, including myself, who thought they should just ban the ruians outright, no russians here. no russians here state suppo a state sponsored doping. the worst doping we have seen since the east germans of a generation or two ago.th but k if you want to look at any positives a couple of things. one is there is no russian flag going to be raised f medal ceremonies no russian anthem at all it will be the olympic dam as well as the olympic flag and then also no russian flag coming into the opening ceremony and maybe the best of all again if you're looking to punish the russians whi i think many people are maybe the best of all is that when people 20, 30 years from now look back in the history books of how many medals what russia won at the 2018 winter olympics the answer we already know the answer is zero.

>> yang: and for those of us camped outs in front of our television sets for next two weeks, who are some of the other americans to watch >> certainly lindsey vonn coming back, going to be barreling down the mountain once again. she's now in her mid-30s to try win another downhill gold medal. her compatriot on th slopes, mckayla schifrin, who was one of the newcomers and o sta the sochi games four years ago. well she's back and she is going to be in several races and could win several gold medals. watch those two kind of the old gud and then the passing o the torch to the new guard shifrin that's going to just be and then you know i think also kewhen you look at sports ce hockey the men's hockey is going to be interesting and kind of jarring for people to watch because you won't have the n.h.l. players for the first time in quite a whil but that makes it kind of interesting too. i'm not going to go all the way to the miracle on ice in 1980 but it is a young american team with minor leaguers and college players refreshing. and i think fans and viewers might find that interesting and on the women's side. two big stories one the u.s.

women's ice hockey team. we talk about equalityomen and equal pay for women. they were really ahead of the game back in the spring ofast year. they were boycotting the world championships for better pay and more equal opportunities for them compared to the men's ice hockey team for the united states. and they did get a better ntract. so the u.s. women are going to be facing the canadians. i am as sure as i can be t pt they will ying for the gold medal. canada u.s. it's going to be must see tv. the u.s. has lost the last couple and they so want to beat gothe canadians to win tha medal in women's ice hockey. and one other story a footnote for men's ice hockey of cour the korean team unified as we watch the koreans come into the opening ceremony as a unified team. the two dozen or so north koreans with the south koreans you will also see that the nomen's ice hockey team actually has three or fouh korean players who the coach sara murray from canada has to integrate can be fascinating to sehow that works. >> yang: christine brennan of "usa today," thanks for joining

us m >> thanks veh. >> woodruff: one postsipt: since we spoke with christine, a white house official traveling with the vice president said mr. pence offered to meet with rippon but did not ask to et with him. the vice president told rippon in a tweet: "i want you to know we are for you." christine stands by her story. >> woodruff: next, imagine at the eve of world war ii, a missn by the u.k. to prevent war with germany froeven ffrey brown speaks to an author who tells that tale in the latest book on the newshour bookshelf. >> bro: september 1938, germany threatens to invade check clockback britain fears being drawn into war just 20 years ter the end of first word war. diplomats scurry between european capitals to negotiate, assessing each other's stengths and weaknesses.

it's the real-life setting for the new htorical novel "munich," the latest from robert harris, well-known for his imaginative takes on cient and modern history. welcome to you. >> hi, jeff. >> brown: you have written non-fiction and fiction about this particular moment. what iit that galvanizes you still? >> i think it's an incrediblyt dramaticy, four days in september 1948, when the world came very close to war, the mother-in-law -- mor compromises that had to be made, the controversy that still surrounds it, the sheer drama of chamberlain and hitler meeting. i wanted to write a novel for 30 ars. >> brown: so these character, it's hugh legat and paul von hartmann. >> the backgrounof the characters chamberlain and hitler are real. the places treat, munich,

hitler's apartment are all real, but into that i put these two characters hugh legat is a completely made-up figure, 27-year-old high-flying foreign office diplomat who is working treat and flies with jaron channel be, and the germany guy owes a lot to adam van trot. he was killed in 1944, but iew lot on the character of vonn trot for his upon trail. he was kind of a nay sant embryi resistance tler and the german foreign member industry which i wanted to put in book. >> brown: it's often said you're fictionalizing history to see the what. >> ifs. is that what you see yourself doing? >> i thought at first of doing this as a what if?ha what if therbeen no munich agreement, because part of the argument for the book is chamberlain and hitler did the

opposite to what most people think. chamberlain got what he wanted and hitler was four warehouse with this whole deal. and chamberin's a much different character to hitler. i thought of dwhag if, and showing we might well have lost the war if we hadn't had munich, but it became too conjectural, so i decided to p as mh of the actual truth and facts in. so i hope people come away with a different impression of the munich agreement. irk also a different impression of nille chamberlain. in history he's the great appeaser. if your book he comes off better. >> well, yeheh, ertainly was the great appeaser, but he was a dynamic, driving figure. if you look at it, he got hitler on the back fooaut, bec hitler wanted to invade czechoslovakia and begin e war in 1938. and to the end of his life, he was lamenting that chamberlain had cheated him out of the war. chamberlain was hugely popular in munich. he go louder cheers than hitler.

this drove hitler mad. but he reahilize german people weren't ready for war. chamberlain appealed behind hitler's back to the people. p stponed the war, and britain rearmed money more quickly, and fought on a better issue, poland, much better to fight on that than the taking of germans back into germany. itingown: when you're wr this, we know tending. you build all this tension and there is a great plot, but i know how it's going to end ultimately. do you worry at all about that? >> not at all.on of the most successful postwar story is "the day of the jackal." ng doesn't stop it bei thrilling. i did a novel called "pompeii." we all know pompeii was destroyed. people are waiting for the shoe to drop in a way is ofen a source of greater drama when you don't know what's going topp

. >> brown: to the degree you're looking at different periods of history, what does somethi have to have for you to want to tackle it? >> i think it has to have something that's new. it has to have something that's relevant. i hope that from munich people take away the fact that whenever we use these loose terms about appeasement and munich,actually we're misusing them and there might not have been the great churchill victory speeches in 1940 if we dn't had neville chamberlain patiently trying the buy time and t make sure where we did fight, we fought on a big issue, and not som people would probably have given up on if it were not a war in '38. if i can twist th history and show something new that i like. >> brown: what about our own moment? do you see anything here in ten or 20 years you might want the tackle? >> the rowbl is 's all s bizarre, you can't do it in

fiction. it's putting thriller wrirs out business. i find it again and again with modern reality, it's sosh outlanthere's nothing your imagination can come up with that's more bizarre. that why i reach into the past. if i was going the write something about modern america or britainght take a roman emperor or something like that. irk that's one approac >> nero. >> brown: the new novel is "munich." robert harris, thank you very much. >> please. thank you. woodruff: next, we turn to another installment of our ekly brief but spectacul series where we ask people to describe their passions. tonight, we hear from comedian phoebe robinson. p she co-hosts tcast "2 dope queens" from wnyc studios.ia her hbo spl of the same name, airs this friday.

>> i'mrom cleveland, ohio, the i was the only black girl in my grade. and i was just like really dorky. i wasn't cool. like i didn't go to hiool parties. i would later find out about all these parties where people were making out and i was legit atin home watthe west wing being like, "i think i'm like donna." recently i looked back at a clip of me doing standup at gotham medy club and i had this tiny, tiny babfro and still as flat chested as i am now but i was smaller, i was like a size two, now i'm a 10. what up double digits. but it's kind of cool to see myself from like a 24 year old to now a 33 year old doing comedy and actually like having success at it. two dope queens, jessica and i met four years ago, we never really set out to have a podcast. we just realized there aren't a lot of people, the upright citizens brigade that talk like us, that necessarily have the same like pop culture referenceu

i don't ever recall like someont ning like living single or martin or you know the black cinderella movie with brandy and whitney hoton as like a joke reference.st when the podirst came out get messages from white guys, not to profile, but it was from white guys and they would always comment on the way t talk and be like, "your show would be so great, but you should stop saying the word like," or you all these sorts of things where it was just like, do you like hit up jerry seinfeld and are you like, "you sound too much like a rich white guy" like i don't think you do, you know? i also have another podcast called sooo many white guys because guess what? there's a lot of them. we also have like a token white y at the end of each season just for diversity, l.o.l. so we have-- one episode we had tom hanks who was truly amazing and he actually recorded theoi ou message on my phone, so >> she's not home righso you know what to do when the beep goes off. beep! >> i think people who listen to

the podcast we're kind of like, "oh this is what snd up is." it's not just what i'm being presented with like a guy in a suit jacket in front of a redn curtke there are people who are going to make jokes about like having trans family members and it's really going to be smart and intelligent and not just likpunching down and people are going to talk about the female experience in a way cool andteresting a different and people can identify it with whether or not they're a wo being in a male dominatedin stry, particularly a white, that was making me feel like maybe i'm not funny. i was really like, maybe until like six months ago, i was like seriously considering like,p. quitting stand i was like, i don't know if i'm good enough, i don't know if i can cut it and i just had to really figure out that, you are good enough. just because you're not dke other peops mean that you're bad. it means that you're different and that's great. i'm phoebe robinson, this is my brief but spectacular take on being dope queen. >> woodruff:ou can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at

pbs.org/newshour/bef. >> woodruff: a quick news update, the government is preparing for a own if congress cannot approve a funding bill by tonight's midnight deacadline. yovisit our web site for the very latest updates on the budget battle throughout the night. that is the news hour for t and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. itin us online and again here tomorrow eveningmark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and 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, frenchn, german, italnd more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com.

>> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. c and tributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned byss media acroup at wgbh access.wgbh.org elyse: tonight on history detectives:

is this bob dylan's? i don't believe it. i'm getting goose bumps. man: we heard that the beatles were going to come down here. are these autographs real? oh, man! man: i found it in a thrift store. was this really made by frank zappa? that's a big question. elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives o ♪ i getangry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wous ed 'cause he'got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ it's ju t like watchihe detectives ♪ funding for tonight's presentation of history detectives was provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station