captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.r on the newshnight, congress rushes to make a deal to keep the federal government open before a midnighteadline. her flashpoint in the syria conflict as american forces attack pro-gorsrnment fighten a rare offensive. and, making sense of the owlatility on wall street: long will the roll, coaster lastd what the wild swings mean for main street >> optimists have a seemingly strong case, with data to ck them up: the u.s. and global economies appear to be doing just fine. >> woodruff: plus, on the ground in south korea-- the018 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 bn provided by:ab >>l. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessbls are availaas an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century.

pp carnegie corporation of new york. ting 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. w druff: wall street's wild ride took it way south againar today, as feof coming inflation and higher interest rates, overcame u.s. markets. e dow jones industrialsn dropped more t000 points for the second time this week,t

to close,860. the nasdaq fell almost 275s& points, and th500 gave up 100. both the dow and s&pown 10 percent from their highs of st two weeks ago. that officially signals what experts call a "correction."jo our other story tonight: deal or no deal on the federal budget? u.s. senate leaders labored all day to pass a funding bill that kee government running. the house of representatives waited to cast its own vote, as time ticked away. lisa desjardins reports. >> desjardins: at the capitol, hours away from another government shutdown, a sweeping solution with admittws. >> i am confident that no senator on either side of the aisle believes this is a perfect bill, desjardins: still, sena leaders pushed their mega-budget deal as a way to avoid a shutdown and end budget uncertainty. a >> io confident this is our best chance to begin rebuilding our military and make progress on issuesirectly

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 country. >> desjardins: but as the fdnight funding deadline drew closer, the senaor was mostly empty. that's because a single senator, republican rand paul of kentucky, objected to an immediate vote, saying he would keep objecting 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, released near midnight last night. it, a big boost in defense spending: over $160 billion over the next two years. and for non-defense, a $130 billion increase foron- defense. the packed proposal also includes fundi for community health centers, a 10-year extension of the children's health insurance progr, and nearly $90 billion in disaster aid for areas hit by last ye's hurricanes, wildfires and other

disasters. but more than two-thir of the bill's spending is unpaid for, a major concern for fiscal conservatives. to republican senator jeff flake of arizona, it's a bad deal and bad direction. >> i le bipartisanship. it seems like the only bipartisan measures we can do now is when we spend obscenely and spread enough money around where everyby'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'm just telling people whye i'm voting thy i am. >> democratic minority leader nancy pelosiays she won't vote for the bill. today she again called for house speaker paul ryan to guarantee a vote on protections for daca recipients brought to the u.s.h illegally as cildren.te senaajority leader mitch mcconnell has already made that promise.

senate majority leader mcconnell has already made that promise. the speaker, who likely veds democrates to pass the bill, insisted that he is committed to a daca solution. but, he added, tme budget must irst. >> in order to shift our focus and get on to ioe next big ty, which is a daca solution, we got to get this budget agreementone, so that we can go and focus on this. i'm confident we can bring a bipartisan solution to the floor thnd can get signed into law 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, setor rand paul's on the senate floor still objecting, still blocking a vote on this budget. that means blocking the funding that would avert ahutdown. >> woodruff: so we are, what, six hours away from when they ve 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 forto 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 have

technically a shutdown. it could be a few hours into the overnight. i think what's going toappen is this battle will be determined in the dark in the midnight hours where we've seen the most ferocious fights ofas thisyear happen, and to be honest, judy, we don't know yet if there are the votes on the house side to pass this bil it seemso, 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 thisrocess works at this point. >> right. it's important to re what this large budget bill is is permission to spend money. it's guidance and maximum amounts they can spend. they're raising the maximum amount, buthey're not saying how you can spend it. to do that, congress wants another six weeks of time to do the normal appropriations bills. so this bill does two things. it raioses th maximum spending amounts and it has a continuing resolution or one last short-term funding bill that ll go to march 23rd, that's the item that's most imperative

to avoid a shutdown, the short-term c.r. or continuing resolution, but they're tied together, and riht now they're both being blocked. >> woodruff: i watched your report last toght. you got ome of what is in this bill, but f ssh outome more. >> a lot of folks concerned aboutp the oioid crisis. there is $6 billion worth of funding. let's have some perspective on that.ot that'such compared to the $25 billion recently requested from senators in high-impact states. another thing, the military. we hear a lo about this $160 billion increase in their annual budget over the next two years. there's also another $160ll n 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 military getting a bigger increase than people understand. there's a slew of tax extenders, nascar, plug-in cars, indn reservation, many, many dozens

of tax cuts in this bill. >> woodruff: so we heard senator flake lamenting what does this doeso spending. there is an increase in the debt ceiling included here. tell us a little bit more about how that works. what does this bill do to the debt?e >> so thet ceiling would be increased for a year, not by a until nal amount, bu by however much it naturally grows until next march, mar 2019. then you also look at what doesb thisill do itself in terms of red ink, if the spending amounts in this bill were extended oves, ten yet would be $1.5 trillion added to the deficit.on let's add thaop of the other bill recently passed, the tax cut law, another $1.5 trillion over ten years, two big bills from repubthcans. compar to tarp, the troubled asset reviews program, remember that, that was so unpopular to, save the banks, and the obama stimulus, $1.5 trillion together, and that is what the amoun tof each ofhese

bills would add to the deficit. the republicans did not likthe e two bills earlier. that's what started the tea party movement. now they're passing two different bills that would add that much red inkeach of thm. >> woodruff: ten years rater. very quickly, speak ryan talked about immration. where did immigration come down here? >> it is going to be major debate in the senate next week. nor mcconnell has said he's not starting with any particular immigration bill but insteadwi al all the amendments that people want to come to the floor. he says it will be a fu process. we'll have to see the exact rules. it could take more than a weekse for thte to run through all the different ideas that senators have and to vote on all of them. t get ready. next week will be a very big one in the senate. >> woouff: i have a feeling the midnight oil in the desjardins household will be rning. >> a lot of federal workers will be up late to see if they go to work tomorrow or not. >> woodruff: thank you.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, the white house says it "could have done better" in handling allegations of domestic violence against former top staff meer rob porter. the two ex-wives of the until- yesterday staff secretary, say he physically assaulted them. and yesterday, one released a photo of herself with a black eye. news 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" ga the facts yesterday. >> the allegationsst rob porter are serious, and deeply troubling. d he dy them. the incidents took place long before he joined the white house, therefore they were investigated as part of a backgrnd 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 the allegaons until tuesday. the pentagon will permanently mark the recds of service members who sexually harass or bully others, on the job or onli.

the new policy comes nearly a year after a scandal in the marine c photo.r an online nude 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.is on the eve of the winter olympics' opening in south korea. sporting a black fedora, the north's leader kim jong un, presided over ose-stepping soldiers, and missiles, marking the anniversary of the country's military. meanwhile, vice president pence arrived in seoul, meeting with south korean president moon jae- in and 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 ty finally, and a permanentlnd irreversibly abandon their nuclear and

istic missile ambitions. >> woodruff: before arriving, o. pence said the north's participation in tmpics amounts to "propaganda". moon took a more c, ciliatory tod said he hopes the games provide a diplomatic openg. former president george w. bush said today he believes russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. he spoke in abu dhabi, capital of the united arab emirates. during a talk, the 43rden pressaid: "there is pretty clear evidence that the russians meddled." but he went on to say: "whether they affected the outcome is another question." president trump is nominating a beverly hills tax attorney, inarles rettig, to be commissioner of thrnal revenue service. the white house announced the chce today. rettig has represented companies and individuals in tax disputes. he also defended mr. trump's decision not to release his own tax returns, during the 2016 campaign.

twitter has turned a quarterly profit for the first time. the company made $91 million in the 4th quarter of 2017, despite long-term challenges. those include a backlash over twitter's handling of russian- linked accounts and hate speech, undreds of thousands of toecstatic fans swarmed do 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 w. still to come on the newshour: how the white house chief off stndled domestic violence allegations against a top aide.h whu.s. military coalition making sense of the stock market and whether its overpriced, and much more.

>> woodruff: we return now to the resignation of a top white athouse aide following accns 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 general kelly and white house staff knel about thgations. to help explain this, newshour white house correspondent yamiche alcindor, and whipple, author of "the gatekeepers: how the white house chiefs of stafne every presidency." ome to both of you. and yamiche, i'm going to start

with you. i have two main questions, bute the first is: why did chief of staff john kelly continue tod deob porter, even after those photos were made available? >> that is probably the most important question when looking at whether or not john kelly will keep the crdibility that he came into office with.to i spokope kicks hud. she's someone who is supposed to be romantically engaged with rob porter. to woodruff: the white house communications dir >> yes, and she's supposed 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 iegrity, but the reporting i have been doing essentially shows that hopes his very much involved in crafting that statement and than they were deng someone because they thought he had a good reputation and that his girlfriend was helpithat. the white house today said that there was -- that the chief of staff was not fully aware of ale ofhings that rob porter was accused of, even after the

picture, so t question wa posed, why after the picture would john kelly still say he s a couple more day, he's going the transition slowly, and then today he was packing his bags? >> woodruff: the other big question i think on people's minds, yamiche, is rob porter worked in the white house over a year in the sensitive posion, access to virtuallyverything that goes across the president's desk, but he did not have a permanent security clearance. he hadnterim clearance. the white house said they were still working on it. how could that be? >> of course, we're a year into this presidency, and there are simply multiple people who are working in the white house with that same status. the white house confirmed today that rob porter definitely was handling classified iation and that he was doing so much like jared kushner, who course, is the son-in-law of the president. urityso does not have a sec clearance as of january 2018. that means that there are ldmultiple people who coave problematic backgrounds that are operating in the white house.ho the whitse has said there are background checks continuing and that rob porter was one ofti

those people getting a background check, but it'sin teresting that the f.b.i. already interviewed the ex-wives and he was handling classatied infon. >> woodruff: and he was doing his job. chris whipple, you've studied chiefs of state, you've wr a book about them. what's your reaction to all of this? >> well, you know, this has been for a year the most dysfunctional white house in modern history, and to's hard believe that it gets worse by the day. buhere we ae, and john kelly was supposed to be the guy who wouln make the trains time in the west wing. he famously said that he was not puoon this earth t manage the president. he was simply in charge of managing the information flow to him. now even by that very narrow definion of the job, whiy the way is not sufficient, he' failed. you know, the idea that the staff secretary could operate urity year without a sec clearance is mindboggling. i spoke to two former republica

white house chiefs today, each was incredulous. it just isn't done. >> woodruff: that was going to be my next question to you: how unusual is it to have someone in a crucialenior position, staff secretary, working side by side hout the chief of staff, wit a permanent clearance? is the f.b.i. withholding permanent security clearance? >> unprecedented according to the people i've talked to, including two former white house chiefs. another very high ranking republican former trhimp house adviser. and so it's unheard of, but it's hardly the only thing, the only precedent that this white house has shattered, after all. i think that, you know, when i think of jon kelly, i'm reminded of don reagan, who was ronald reagan's disastrous second white house chief of staff, regan was imperious,d arrogant, litically inept

and o'oblivious. it's no coincidence the iran-contrscandal happened on his watch, as i describe in my book, "the gatekeepers." i think kelly shares some of those characteristics. he's arrogant, he's politically. in he loves to call everyone in congress "idiots." this is a guy who has been out of his depth politicay since he stepped up to the podium in the white house briefing room and attacked representative wilson with a phony story. >> woodruff: i remember don rell, having covered the reagan white house. quickly to you, yamiche,ll fi what is chief of staff john kelly's position now? b is he going able to hang on to his job? >> in the trump white house, the person has their jofor the time being. hight now the white house is saying that ife president loses confidence in someone, they will know it, which means could be either hereor another four years or three years or he could be fired tomorrow. the trump white house has had a rotating cast of character, and there is no way to tell.

i shoould tell you i talked source very close to people inside the white house, and staffers are really surprised and really dismayed that john kelly came out with thatat ent supporting rob porter, because they feel as though it makes the whole white house look td. there is reportit trump is so mad abf'out michael wo book and he's not happy about 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 looks bad and the administration looks bad. >> woodruff: very tough episode. yamiche alcindor, chris whipple, thank you both. >> thanks. >> woodruff: it was yet another bloody day and nerve-racking ride for the u.s. stock market, as the dow plunged another 1,000-plus points, while volatility shoup again, and two of the major indexes fell into what's known as a "correctn."

several ideas have been cited about what's behind the fa, including worries over inflation ngd whether the economy could, ironically, be heap too quickly. some also have suggested the markets shot up too high of late with what has been the second longest bull run in history. that's the focus tonight for economics correspondent, paul solman, part of his weekly ouries, "making sense." >> reporter: okay,e heard explanations of this week's stock market jitrs: rising interest rates, which induce investors to sell stocks and buy suddenly-more-attractive bonds;b a bursticoin bubble; baby boomers hitting 70 and finally obliged to start cashing out their 401k's and pay taxesn them. but how about the explanation that stock prices were and still are historically out of whack? stock prices of u.s. companies have recently reached their second-highest level since 1888, according to nobel laureate

robert shiller's "cape," or c-a- p-e, an acronym for "cyclically- adjusted price/earnings ratio". cnce a share of stock is, in theory, a share ofpany's profits, a high p.e. or price/eaings ratio means a high stock price, relative to profits. using the s&p 500 index, an average of 500 majorompanies, shiller's cape has had three dramatic peaks: the roarin' ¡20s; dot.com boom, and last week. and even though the index dropped almost ten percent at it's still above the ratio in october of 1929. so on a day like today you may be wondering: how low could the market go? well, fit peak on shiller's chart came in 1929 promptly followed by the crash of '29 and the s&p inx bottomed out in march of 1933, having dropped by more than 80 percent.la

a sidrop 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/earnings ratio over the entire 129 years? about half of what it closed at today. but before you panic, the highest shiller peak ever was about 40% above the current ratio. that was during the first dinternet boom, which las quite awhile. exuberance, whether "irrational" or not, could still have qte a ways to go. a repeat performance of the dot com boom wou imply an s&p index approaching 4000, a dow nearing 35,000. now a warning about predictions: as i once heard the famousic econprofessor john kenneth galbraith say: "there are two kinds of economists; those who don't know the future, and those

who don't know they don't know." and as another famous economist, paul samuelson once sahe stock market has correctly forecast nine of the last five recessions." look, optimists have a seemingly strong case, with data to back l economies appear to be doing just fine, with a u.s. unemployment rate at barely four percent, wages finally ring, business so good that companies may be borrowi to invest again at last. and the s&p, even after this week's cascade, is still up more than 12% over the past 12 months; the dow, still up about 19%. but the pessimists point 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. , you find this unsatisfyind of like president harry truman's

famous lament ecat "all my omists say 'on one hand...', then 'but on the other'..."? well, whatlse is there but truman's answer: "give me a one- armed economist" for the pbs newshour, this economics espondent 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 nazi germany. and a brief but spectacular take from one of the hosts of the hit comedy podcast "two dope queens." but first, to syria. the war there will soon mark its seventh, bloody anniversary. and, as nick schifrin reports, a conflict known for its complexity and brutaliha is breakingstly, dangerous new ground.

>> reporter: even after seven years, the fog othe syrian war is as thick as fver. there isighting in syria on at least three fronts, and the syrian people main the primary rget. etr a fourth straight day, syrian and russianand artillery pummeled the last .significant rebel holdou the targets are in idlib province and the damascus suburb eastn ghouta, where in the last week, rescue workers and activists reported nearly 200 deaths. the relentless bombardment reduced entire nghborhoods, and their hospitals and their schools, to rubble. ceven in this war, the u.allsbo thesmbings "extreme." and it says it's investigating whether some of the bombs haveen be filled with chlorine. among the victims of the violence-- 400,000 residents who remain trapped. many need medical atntion and food, and the u.n. says the syrian regime is preventing aid deliveries. meanwhile on the u.s.' front

line in northern syria, american commanders vow to hold their ground on belf of kurdish and arab allies. manbij is the most important forward operating base for u.s. and local troops who cleared . rthern syria of isis. yesterday, top ummanders made a rare visit to inspect front lines. they say local kurdish and arab forces need to remain here to stabilize the area and prevent an isis return. major general jamie jerrard is the special operations commander in iraq and syria. >> we need to stay here until at political environment isle stnd our security here, our presence here provides that level of stabilization and brings security. >> reporter: but that presence is destablizing the u.s.it relationshiph nato ally turkey. turkey sees kurdish syrian fighters as a threat, attacked them in the northwest region of afrin. tuey's now threatening to target kurds, and americans, in manbij. this week turkish presidentce tayyip erdogan, a nato ally, demanded the u.s. withdraw.

>> ( translated ): go ahead and leave. you are to manbij.ot to come we will come to manbij to t deliver the laits true owners. >> reporter: and a third front in the eastern province deir el-zhour. yesterday the u.s. says it e unched air and artillery strikes against rian regime, to defend u.s. allies. it was the largest direct u.s. strike on syria since last april.wh the u.s. launched cruise missiles in response to a syrian regime chemical weapons attack. sibut today, the pentagon ed it wasn't trying to open up another front.>> e are not looking for a conflict with the regime. any action that takes away from our ongoing operations to defeat isis is a distraction. >> reporter: for 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 syria, 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 washingtonco he alsuthored the book "isis: inside the army of terror." thank you ry much. gayle tzemach lemmon, let me start with you. you just returned fromorthern syria. you saw the kurds consolidating some of their gains. howve detruckould it be for turkey to be talking about even invading? >> it's destructive and it's a distraction. it's destructive for the kurctdh perse in that here they have this democratic project they're working on. ran now they areeally sending civilians and obviously those in uniform to the front to def.d freed on the distraction side, for the u.s.-bacd forces who were fiting there, certainly they're fight is taking resources and people away from the fight against isis.if >> sn: so let's go to northern syria, hassan hassan. how serious is turkey about this . >> turkey is quite serious about

this. they have demonstrated they are usry serince 2016 when they shifted their priorities in syria from working very closely with russia and ira to basically redraw the political and military map in the north. and what they did in that period is another demonstration they are very serious.xp nobodyted turkey to go this far. they had -- i thi the americans expected that turkey was thinking of going there, but they didn't think they had the courage the appetite to go and fight in. >> schifrin: gayle, for a while we had mutual enemies. everyone was on the samtie page fi isis. it doesn't seem like that is the case. has that exacerbat some of the problems in northern syria? >> very much so. the fight against isis was a unifying force where all sides could freeze their fights with one another and focus on e isis fight. that is over. i mean, i talked to syrians whon

said, liif you think this war is ending, it's just now ramping up to its next phase, where parties who were warring before the isis fight will go bck the fighting e anoth because it's really now about the end game and who has what territory going intotever the end of this war looks like. >> schifrin: hassan hassan, just ramping up. that's horrifying to think about that. we have this other strike in which the u.s. said they were acting in self-defense. is this the came where the regime and its allies are beng more aggressive or is it the u.s.abeing more aggressive? >> i think the syrian regime has been considered more provocation. they have done it before.th united states struck back, downing a syrian plane i think a year ago, and after that the deacon politics zones agreed between the russians anicd

ams held for a while. now we see this incident in dare zoar against the syrian democratic forces on the other side of the river. it's not a secret thhe syrian regime doesn't like the americans in syria. this is a mesge 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 e also talking about now, separately in th east, some of the last hold-outs for the rebels are just ev worse than some of the ones we've seen in the past, right? >> syriis the war that's constituent wished the power of adjectives to describe s hell. when you read what is happening right now, more than one million syrians fl from other parts of syria that were racked by war. people feel like the war is following them and taking away their children, their parents, their loved es with its horrors. and in eas stern gutah, peopy

this is the worst fighting we've seen in the last couple days in the east seven. >> schifrin: that's horrifying. hassan hsan, what is the assad regime after. we've hoively seen a lot of violence in syria over the years. these are seval of the hold-outs. what's their aim? >> the clear aim of bashar al assad, they want the capture all of syria. they don't have the resources and the lemitimacy in soe areas to do that, but every now and then they go aft cer aertain area to kind of unroot or uproot any alternatives that are being built up in some of these areas. 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 tzemach

lemmon, relentless bombing campaigns, are you optimistic at all about the future of sya after your last few trips there? >> the one thing that gives yous optimismeople are pushing forward regardless. we interviewed a woman last summer. she left raqa eight and a half months pregnant. she fled to a camp right outside raqqa, 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 lasth trip, and's doing so well, which is such an exception in this story of this war. she's working for an ngo.g she's supportr family. she has a very clean, a very warm home for her children thatn is i i.d.p. camp but also feels very cozy when you're there. so she's pushing forward, putting her kids in school. and that strength a that resilience is what ges you some hope about the real awful tragedy of this war. >> schifrin: hassan hassan,

quickly, resilience, hope, but you also see more violence in their future? >> i do. i think justin -- just twoe months agole thought ear --ri was headed toward more civility with different countries working together. we had momentum ward isis. we have turkey, russia, and iran working together.d but now nly, everything is unraveling in different parts of syriu that tells w fragile these things are. >> matt: absolutely. haan 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, and as 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 themselves.

and john yang is here with a preview. >> judy, the opening ceremonies are less than 12 hours away and competition has begun. we spoke earlier with chrtine brennan, sports column fist for "usa today." she was at the olympic venue ing pyang, south korea. we began by asking her what it is like there. >> we're talking more about thet cold weathn we are about north korea being a few miles away. i know that might sound strange, but i've been here almost a week, and it really is a sense that it's theolympics, it's sports, it's gam es. the athletes are here, and maybe, maybe we can focujust on sports and not on the politics. we'll see. we know most olymp games someli cs comes up. but the way south korea is running these game, the efficiency, everything has been rstished for a while, but fi appearances it's running well.

>> yang: christine, there willv be le coverage on u.s. television tonight. who are somef the u.s. men to keep an eye on? >> nathan 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's the only one who hasn't lost. and so he goes into these games with a real sense that he could man the olympic gold medal. then again that is his slippery sheet of ice and it's a quarter inch blade of steel thd to land alose quads he's the quad king. he's the first man ever to landa fidruple jumps in a long program to that last year u.s.s national2017 did it again at the u.s. nationals in 2018 and there's going to be a lot of essure on nathan shannon. he's a really smart young man. we've had several conversations and heven 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 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

the judges looking at the artistry as well as of course all thjumping and everything else that they're doing athletically and nathan chan was >> yang: you've been recording on a controversy involving adam rippon and vice presmike pence. tell us about that. >> we interviewed adam, who is one of the fst openly guy athletes to compete in the winter olympic games for the united state i talked to him about many things, including mike pence being the delegation leader for the u.s. at the opening ceremonies. adam said, there goemy chance to see mike pence who has funded guy conversion thet rapy. i'm ying it. he was critical of pence and president trump and he has already said, as has lindsey vonn, the skier, that they will not go to the white house to celebrate. pence's office denied that pence ever did want to fund guy conversion therapy, although there is interesting wording onm his web site fhe year 2000 during a congressional campaign.

anyway, weut 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 the last couple weeks, and my reporting from various sources includes t 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 skaters? >> the bg names frm the last few years, gracie gold, ashy wagner, they're not here. it's a new crop except for one big name. and that's mariah nagasu married 24-years-old eight years ago. she made the olympic team and nished fourth in vancouv then didn't make it in 2014 and now she's back. what a great story. there's a woman in women's figure skating. think about that.

but maria nagasu is a wonderful story about perseverance and coming back from disappointmt 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. she barely misses a jump in practice and almost never misses a jump in competition that has her strong suit. it's not the artistry of say someone like ashley wagner or gracie gold or even murai nagasu.ll so wee how she does. but at the top it's the russians nddvedev and alina they give up the medd and zeghey will be there 1 2tyr 2 1. i'm prure we can say that the russians control women's fihere skating right now but >> yang: now in december, the international olympic committee banned russia from taking a team to the games because of the dopim scandal, but will soe russian athletes still be competing? >> it looks like about 169 russians will be here. and that is not a complete 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

d court of arbitration hearings that will go right up 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 russians outright, no russians here no russians here state support a state sponsored doping. the worst doping we have seen since theast germans of a generation or two ago. but i th at any positives a couple of things. one is there is no russian flag going to be raised for a medal ceremonies no russian anthem at all it will be the olympic dam g as well as the olympic fd then also no russian flag coming into the opening ceremony and maybe the best of aln if you're looking to punish the russians which 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 many. >> certainly lindsey vonn comina , going to be barreling down the mountain once again. she's now in her mid-3 to try win another downhill gold medal. her compatriot on the slopes, mckayla schifrin, who was of the newcomers and stars of the sochi games four years ago.s we's back and she is going to be in several races and could win several gold medals. watch those two kind of the old guard and then the passing of t the torch new guard shifrin that's going to just be and then you know i think also when you look at sports like mce hockey t'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 while. 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.th and k 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 equality foromen and equapay for women.

they were really ahead of the game back in the spring of last. year they were boycotting the world championships for better pay and more equal opportunities for compared to the men's i hockey team for the united states. and they did get a better contract..s so thewomen are going to be facing the canadians. i am as sure as i can be that they will be pldying for the ngal. canada u.s. it's go be must see tv. the u.s. has lost the last couple and they so want to beat the canadians to win that go's medal in womce hockey. and one other story a footnote for women's ice hockey of course the korean team unified as wewa h the koreans come into the opening ceremony as a unified team. the two dozen or so north koreans with t south koreans you will also see that the women's ice hockey team actually has three or four north korean players who the coach sara murray from canada has to integrate can be fascinating to see how that works. >> yang: christine brennan of "usa today," thanks for joining us. >> thanks very mh.

>> woodruff: one postscript: 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 meet 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 mission by the u.k. to prevent war with germany from even jeffrey brown speaks to an author who tells that tale in the latest book on the newshour bookshelf. >> brown: september 1938,s germany threat invade check clockback britain fears being drawn into war just 20 years after the end ofst fir word war. diplomats scurry between european capitals to negotiate, assessing each other's strengths and weknesses. it's the real-life setting for the new historical novel

"munich," the latest from robert harris, welknown for his imaginative takes on ancient and modern history. welcome to you. >> hi, jeff. >> brown: you have written non-fiction and fiction about this particular moment. what is it that galnizes you still? >> i think it's an incredibly dramatic sory, four days in september 1948, when the world came very close to war, the mother-in-law -- moral compromises that had to be made, the controversy that still surrounds it, the sheer drama ol chamn and hitler meeting. i wanted to write a novel for 30 wnyears. >> brso these character, it's hugh legat and paul von hartmann. >> the background of 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 completely made-up figure, 27-year-old high-flying foreign offe plomat who is working treat and flies with jaro channel ber, and the germany guy owes a lot to adam van trot. he was killed in 1944, but i dr a lot on the character of vonn trot for his upon trail. he was kind of a nay sant embryo resistance to 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. >> if. is that what you see yourself doing? >> i thought at first of doi this as a what if? pat if there had been no munich agreement, becaut 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 al. and chamberlain's a much different character to hitler.f i thought dwhag if, and showing we might well have lost the adr if wet had munich, but it became toon cjectural, so i decided to put as much of the actual truth and facts in.o so ie people come away with a different impression of the munich agreement. irk also a different impression of neville chamberlain. in history he's the great appeaser. if your book he comes off better. >> well, yeah, he certainly was the great appeaser, but he was a dynamic, driving figure. if you look at it, heot hitler on the back foot, because hitler wanted to inve echoslovakia and begin the war in 1938. and to the end of hise, life was lamenting that chamberlain had cheated him out of the w. chamberlain was hugely popular in munich. he got louder cheers than hitler. this drove hitler mad. but he realized s german

people weren't ready for war. chamberlain appealed behind hitler's back to the people. he postponed the war, and britain rearmed money more quickly, and fought on a better issue, poland, much better to t fight at than the taking of germans back into gemany. >> brown: when you're writing this, we know teding. 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. one of the most successful postwar story is "the day of the jackal." it doesn't stop it being i did a novel called "pompeii." we all know pompeii wades royed. people are waiting for the shoe to drop in a way is often a urce of greater drama when you don't know what's going to happ t. >> brown: degree you're looking at different periods of

hstory, what does something have toave for you to want to tackle it? >> i think it ha 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 whe we use these loose terms about appeasement and munich, actualli we'rusing them and there might not have been the great churchill victory speeches in 1940 if we hadn't hade nville chamberlain patiently trying the buy time and to make sure where we did fightwe fought on a big issue, and not something people would probably have given up onn if it we a war in '38. if i can twist the history and show something new that i like. >> brown: what about our own mo ant? do you sything here in ten or 20 years you might want the tackle? >> the rowbl is it's all so bizarre, you can't do it in fiction. it's putting thriller writers out of business. i find it again and again witha

modern rty, it's so outlandish, there's nothing your imagination can come up witthh 's more bizarre. that's why i reach into the past. er i was going the write something about mamerica or britain, i might take a roman emperor or something like that. irk that's one approach. >> nero. >> brown: the new novel is "munich." robert harris, thank you very much. >> pleasure. thank you. o woodruff: next, we turn another installment of our weekly brief but spectacular series where we ask people to scribe their passions. tonight, we hear from comedian phoebe robinson. she co-hosts the podcast "2 dope queens" from wnyc studios. her hbo special of the same name, airs this friday. >> i'm from cleveland, ohio, the i was the only black girl in my

grade. and i was justy.ike really do i wasn't cool. like i didn't go to high school parties. awould later find out abo these parties where people were making out and i was legit at home watchinbethe west wing g like, "i think i'm like donna." recently i looked back at a clip of me doing standup at gotham inmedy club and i had this tiny baby fro and still as flat chested as i am now but i was smaller, i was like a size two, now i'm ub10. what up digits. 4 t it's kind of cool to see myself from like aar 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.iz we just re there aren't a lot of people, the upright citizens brigade that talk like us, that necessarily have the same like pop culture references as uec i don't everl like someone

mentning like living single martin or you know the black cinderella movie with brandy and whitney houston as like a joke reference. when the podcastirst came out get messages from white guys,, not to profit it was from white guys and they would always comment on the way that we talk and be like, "your show would be so great, but you should stop saying the word like," or youof all these sorthings where it was just like, do you like hit up jerry seinfeld and are you like, "you sound th 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 guy 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 the outgoi message on my phone, so >> she's not home right not so you know w do when the beep goes off. beep! >> i think people who listen to the podcast we're kind of like, "oh this is what stand up is."

it's not just what i'm being presented with like a guy in asu jacket in front of a red curtain like there are people who are going to make jokes about like having trans familys membd it's really going to be smart and intelligent and not just like punching down andoi people are to talk about the female experience in a way leat's interesting and cool and different and pean identify it with whether or not they're a woman. being in a male domina in,stry, particularly a whi that was making me feel like maybe i'm not funny. i was really like, saybe until li months ago, i was like seriously considering like, quitting stand up. 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 ly reigure out that, you are good enough. just because you're not like other people du's mean that bad. it means that you're different and that's great. i'm phoebe robinson, this is my brief but spectacular take on being a dope queen. >> woodruff: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief.

oodruff: a quick news update, the government is preparing for a shutdown if congress cannot approve a funding bill by tonight's midnight deadline. you can visit our web site for the very latest updates on the budget bate throughout the night. that is the news hour for t d that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening wanh mark shielddavid brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you. so >> major funding for the pbsas newshoureen provided by: >> babbel. a language app thaifteaches realconversations 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.

>> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support of these institution >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by c station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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