captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight, confronting racism-- the controversy around virginia governor ralph northam's yearbook photo sparks outrage, exposing the painful legacy of blackface in america. then, a divided kingdom-- i sit down with scottish first minister nicola sturgeon ahead of the looming deadline for britain to leave the european union. plus, money, deception and a young putin. a new play unpacks a critical power grab after the collapse of the soviet union. >> i think it's incredibly relevant because i think it's about powerful men who want the things that they want and sometimes they want good things and sometimes they want bad things and sometimes their ethics-they're willing to bend their ethics to get them regardless.

>> nawaz: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or

online. more information on babbel.com. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.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.

>> nawaz: the governor of virginia is still in office tonight, but his capital is in chaos. democrat ralph northam has faced a firestorm of criticism since friday, when his medical school yearbook surfaced showing one person in a k.k.k. hood, and another in blackface. northam first apologized, then denied he's in the photo, but said he has appeared in blackface on another occasion. we'll have a report on all of this, after the news summary. the president of iraq, barham salih, slammed president trump today for suggesting u.s. troops will stay in iraq to monitor iran. in a cbs interview, mr. trump said: "i want to be looking a little bit at iran because iran is a real problem." in baghdad today, salih said iraq had not been consulted, and that u.s. troops are there only to fight extremist groups. >> ( translated ): they are here for a specific mission combating

terrorism, isis and they have no other definition or defined mission beyond helping iraqi forces in the fight against terrorism. >> nawaz: salih also said iraq's constitution forbids using the country as a base to threaten other nations. leaders from at least 10 european nations today recognized opposition leader juan guiado as interim president of venezuela. they said nicolas maduro's election was fraudulent, and demanded he surrender his office. in caracas, guiado hailed the european countries' decision to join the u.s. and others in backing him. >> ( translated ): february 4th from now on will be remembered as the day the world recognized the sacrifice and the struggle for liberty in venezuela. now february 4th is absolutely about civic-mindedness, non- violence, and about recognizing every venezuelan who never stopped believing. >> nawaz: maduro rejected the european statements.

el salvador has elected a 37- year-old reformer and former mayor of san salvador as its next president. nayib bukele ran as a third party candidate and easily won on sunday. he promised to clean up corruption and stamp out gang violence. those problems have led thousands of salvadorans to leave their country. about one million now live in the u.s. pope francis today appealed to religious leaders of all faiths to reject violence. he spoke in abu dhabi, on the first-ever papal visit to the arabian peninsula, the birthplace of islam. francis met with leaders of the united arab emirates, and visited the grand mosque. and, he told an inter-faith gathering: "god is with those who seek peace." >> ( translated ): together, brothers in the one human family desired by god, let us commit ourselves against the logic of armed power, against the monetization of relations, the armaments of borders, the raising of walls, the gagging of the poor.

>> nawaz: francis will finish his trip tomorrow with a papal mass that's expected to draw some 135,000 people. back in this country, blizzard and avalanche warnings are up across parts of california and nevada. the sierra nevada range got eight feet of snow over the weekend, with more expected through tuesday night. that weekend storm also triggered flash floods and mudslides across southern california, from hillsides burned bare by wildfires. president trump has formally nominated david bernhardt to be secretary of the interior. he's now the acting secretary. bernhardt has lobbying ties to u.s. energy companies, and had been a deputy to ryan zinke, who resigned as interior secretary in december, amid ethics investigations. and, on wall street, stocks gained on a broad front as several tech and industrial companies reported stronger earnings. the dow jones industrial average gained 175 points to close at 25,239. the nasdaq rose 83 points, and the s&p 500 added 18.

still to come on the newshour: the painful history of the racist behavior memorialized in virginia governor ralph northam's yearbook. a conversation with scottish first minister nicola sturgeon about leaving the european union. amy walter and tamara keith look ahead to the state of the union, plus much more. >> nawaz: as we reported earlier, shifting explanations from virginia's governor in response to a racist photo uncovered in his medical school year book. yamiche alcindor reports on the pressure governor ralph northam faces. >> we demand your resignation. >> alcindor: a governor under fire. and a state reeling. this morning, outside virginia governor ralph northam's official residence, one sign carried a message he heard all weekend: resign. but, northam has refused to step

down. instead, at the virginia statehouse today, he met with his staff. that didn't stop the republican house speaker from adding his voice to a chorus of people demanding that northam turn his resignation. >> regardless of the veracity of the photograph, the governor's lost the confidence of the people and cannot effectively govern. >> alcindor: the photograph appears on northam's page on his medical school yearbook from 1984. it shows two people looking at the camera, one in blackface wearing a hat, bow tie and plaid pants; the other in a ku klux klan robe. friday evening, northam said that he was indeed in the photo, and he apologized. >> that photo and the racist and offensive attitudes it represents does not reflect that person i am today or the way that i have conducted myself as a soldier, a doctor, and a public servant. i am deeply sorry. >> alcindor: but less than 24 hours later, he reversed course. >> i tell the truth, i'm telling the truth today.

that was not my picture in the photo. >> alcindor: during a saturday press conference, he said he was positive he was not in the picture. he also refused to resign. the governor did admit that he wore blackface on different occasion in 1984. in san antonio at a dance, he said he "darkened" his face with black shoe polish to look like michael jackson. throughout the weekend, the governor faced mounting pressure from all sides to step down. those calling for him to leave office include virginia's republican and democratic parties, the commonwealth's democratic house and senate caucuses, its attorney general, plus the state's two democratic senators, mark warner and tim kaine and democratic national committee chair tom perez. at least five democratic presidential candidates also called for northam to step down. on sunday, n.a.a.c.p. president derrick johnson also said he should resign. >> whether he actively participated or passively was present. he did not up until this point

acknowledged that this took place, objected to that behavior or stated that you know i was brought up in a different upbringing and i was a part of a southern culture that embraced this racist, vile behavior and i'm a changed man now. >> alcindor: next in line to replace northam is the current lieutenant governor, a 39-year- old african-american lawyer. last month, in the virginia senate, fairfax protested the celebration of robert e. lee's birthday. but, fairfax also faces potential trouble. a woman alleges he sexually assaulted her. fairfax said today the claim is a "uncorroborated smear." to discuss how governor northam fits into a larger conversation about race in america, i'm joined by mark anthony neal. he's a professor of african and african american studies at duke university and the author of several books including "new black man." also joining me is vann newkirk. he writes about politics and policy for the atlantic. now, thank you both for joining me. i want to first talk to you a little bit about black face. this has been something used to

mock and dehumanize african-americans for decades. let's look at this. ♪ (applause) mark, first to you. for people who don't understand, why is that so offensive? >> it's a caricature of black life. before the preelectronic area, before television, radio and even film, black face minstrel she's was one of the most famous forms of entertainment in the early 20th century and it was about dehumanizing black folks. >> black face seems to be the line folks have crossed and said this is why we're not going to have people talk about or joke about black face. why do you think that line is there? >> i think like, mark said, given the fact, the history that it was a staple of exclusionary and racist regime of media, it's

one we all know well to be racist. so, i think when people go and act out and continually do it, it's kind of the easiest one to spot and root out. and i think people react so vehemently about it because there's no real defense of it as any type of legitimate art. it is completely racist and we know it to be so. >> congressman steve king, mark, still has a job after questioning whether or not the term white supremacy should be offensive. donald trump has been called a racist by the naacp. why doing those men keep their jobs and there's swift and widespread condemnation of governor northam? >> eth about the optics. when you think about the president or congressman king, you think go back and forth about how these people were misinterpreted, but when you see the optics of black face, there's no way to get around it. for the most part, it hasn't been in the public sphere since

the mid 1950s. it's largely gone underground. because of social media, now, it's so much easier to go back and track where it's been underground and have it bubble up in public in ways we haven't seen before and it's a reminder of a racist past folks don't want to absolutely deal with even though it resonates so powerfully in the moment. >> van, he's talking about optics. do you think it's optics or deeper? >> i think it's mostly optics. it's the fact it's so easy to spot and it's such an easy line to not cross, that definitely plays into it, but also i think there's a large larger issue at play here, which is the fact that there, of course, if we're talking about the possibility of making some people who disenfranchise black people or throw them in prison, if it comes to the point where we can talk about them leaving office, that's a conversation we should have. but the prohibition, the taboo against certain easy to spot

actions of bigotry, those, i think, play a function in making it so you can actually police those more subtle things. if you get rid of the prohibition on the really red line, easy bigotry, then you can almost do nothing about anything else. >> and, vann, you wrote about governor northam's policies. he campaigned on $15 minimum wage, he talked about medicare or single-pay health care for all, free community college. do you think people can or should separate his policies from his rhetoric and this photo of him and can other people do that? can other people say i did once appear in black face but now i have policies that are going to help black people is this. >> so i used to live in virginia and i talked to lots of people, black voters there, especially, and i think, number one, the sense is black voters are nothing if not pric pragmatic, ? they're strategic and they're thinking about this from the game theory scenario, and the

fact people behind him in a lot of succession are democrats and people who will put forth the same policy is definitely the sort of ease of calling for him to be ousted. i do think especially in virginia where symbols are so much a part of conversation, where the symbols of the con fed confederacy dominate the state and they were part of charlottesville and the tedly rallies, going you can take the symbolism away from the larger policy agenda. the fact they're looking for a governor, a leader who is going to stand up against people who are saying this is the cradle of confederacy and pushing a neoconfederate agenda, how do you have the moral authority now to do those things if you are revealed to be kind of of the same cloth? i think that matters. >> what do you make of that, mark? >> i think that's dead on. i think we have to hold people accountable regardless of what side of the aisle they're on. i think it also reflects on the

way, for african-american voters, and knowing the longer history of racism in the medical history, even if it wasn't the governor, right, there are also two people in medical school who are someone's doctors these days who have held or hold these views, i think you have to make hard decisions about what kind of folks you want to represent, and i think the fact there's a successor in line who is african-american makes it easier to put that pressure on at this point in time. >> mark is talking about healthcare policy, you were in healthcare policy before you got on the journalism band, what do you think about people who are see the year books and say th's this could be my doctor, and you cup that with disparity about african-american women are three and four more times to die in childbirth, what do you make of that? >> most of my physicians are older white men, so you are talking to people in this age

group, going to schools like, this who likely have year book photos like this and i imagine year book photos, you have year book photos where people are dressing as klan, there are attitudes and behaviors that go well beyond that. so you're talking about these people going and making decisions where it's life and death sometimes, yes, but where it's subtle, where you have to understand the nuances of black pain and how people express and deal with pain differently, where you have to be able to walk the line between telling a patient, a woman in a difficult labor what to do and listening to her. and i guarantee, you know, i've worked in cultural and health competency and litters i literae are small things lots of people miss and i guarantee you lots of people who have bigoted and racist backgrounds miss that matter. these are razor thin margins when a woman is coming in and

she's closing to having a hemorrhage when she's in labor, these things matter. >> mark, what do you make to have the pain people feel when they see the yearbook photo? >> it's a reminder black folks have been and are still dehumanized in the american imagination. it's a reminder of america's racist past, obviously for older generations of african-americans but also young folks who thought at this point in time that we would be well beyond conversations about black face. it is absurd we are talking about blackface in 2019 as a governor referencing win ago moon walk contest back in 1984. >> thank you t to you both for answering me vann newkirk of "the atlantic" and mark anthony neal of duke university. thank you.

>> nawaz: at the end of march, the united kingdom is supposed to leave the european union, nearly three years after british voters approved brexit, but in scotland most of the electorate voted against leaving. enter scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon. she's trying to chart a course for scotland in circumstances she cannot entirely control. today she brought her case to washington. with just seven weeks left until the united kingdom is due to leave the european union, scottish first minister nicola sturgeon is raising the alarm. she spoke today at georgetown university in washington. >> the u.k. is not remotely prepared to leave the e.u. in 53 days time. that's been obvious for a while now. so the u.k. government should ask the e.u. to agree to put back the planned date for brexit. >> nawaz: sturgeon is one of brexit's harshest critics, and recently joined those calling for a second brexit referendum. >> i think the only credible

option for the u.k. now is to put this back to the electorate. the government parliament has failed and we can't go on hoping for the unicorn to appear out of nowhere. >> nawaz: in the first referendum, over 60% of scots voted to remain in the e.u. that followed a 2014 vote in which scots voted against scottish independence, partly due to benefits from britain's membership in the e.u. but in washington, d.c. today, sturgeon said scottish voices have since been "sidelined" and "ignored." >> order, order! >> nawaz: for now, the brexit process is in chaos. the deal british prime minister theresa may negotiated with the e.u. was rejected by parliament. may returns to brussels next week in a bid to re-negotiate. but time is running out. and every day the clock ticks closer to britain "crashing out," leaving the e.u. with no transition period, and no deal. that possibility has the united kingdom, including scotland, bracing for what comes next. i sat down with first minister sturgeon earlier today.

first minister, thank you so much for making the time to speak with us. >> you're welcome. >> nawaz: you've said today the u.k. is not remotely prepared to leave the e.u. on march 29 in. the absence of a deal, what is your priority? do you want to see an extension of that deadline or would you like to see another referendum on if or how to leave the e.u.? >> what has to happen now, regardless of what else happens, in my view, is that there should be a request for an extension and, actually, i think that should happen whether there is a deal or not. probably the u.k. doesn't have time, though, to do all the legislative steps it needs to do in order to prepare for leaving the e.u. because it's taking so long to get to a deal and it hasn't even got upto that stage yet. increasingly, i think an extension is required, regardless of what then happens after that. >> do you think there's any chance that by the deadline any kind of deal is reached? >> there's a chance a deal will be reached by the deadline but it's certainly possible that

there will be a deal that is a question of whether the u.k. can make the practical steps to put that in place to allow brexit to allow on the 28th of march. but if there's not a deal and looks like the u.k. could leave without a deal, that would be catastrophic and in those circumstances certainly asking for an extension, should be infinitely preferable to a new deal with brexit. >> nawaz: catastrophic, what do you think the ramifications would be for scotland if the u.k. were to crash out of the e.u. without a deal, what would happen? >> much of the u.k., not just scotland but much of how the u.k. trades is dependent on the european regulations. the ability of u.k. planes to fly across countries is dependent on rules and regulations, issues of medicines, supplies. so almost every aspect of life, it would be very difficult for us to get goods to market, it would be difficult for us in the

short term to import goods. that's why there are lots of concerns in the u.k. about potential food and medicine shortages if there is no deal and lots of contingency planning has been done to mitigate against that and all of that enforces the view it would be an abdication of responsibility to allow that situation to transpire. >> nawaz: you mention contingencies. in the recent weeks, scottish parliament has been rushing through dozens of pieces to have legislation to try to protect scottish interests in the case that there isn't a deal by the deadline. >> right. >> nawaz: tell me a little bit about what the interests are you're trying to protect and to what degree those protect scottish interests. how far do those go? >> if there is no deal, then the day after we leave, almost the minute after we leave, almost the rules and regulation that govern how we trade and interact with the european union cease to have effect. a lot of work has been done to replace european laws with

domestic laws, there's a lot of con things where planning underway to mitigate the worst impacts of that, but it's not going to be impossible to completely mitigate tim pacts of that which is why no deal should simply not be allowed to happen. >> nawaz: some folks say the longer the uncertainty around brexit goes on, it benefits you to some degree as someone who says you're willing to call for another independence referendum by scotland had in 2014, the majority voted against independence. what makes you think the result would be different than 2014? >> the premise of your question that somehow it is in my interest to be chaos and uncertainty in the u.k., it's really not because if that chaos and uncertainty harms the u.k., by definition it harms people in scotland as well, and i don't want to see that happen. but to your question as why should there be another independent referendum in scotland, well, if you think back to 2014, when we had the

independence referendum, the campaign argued against independence. the premise of the argument was hat the u.k. was a partnership of equal nations, that we all had an equal say. there is also an argument in that referendum if scotland became independent we would get thrown out of the european union and have to apply for new memberships. fast forward four years, scotland's voice is unheard, we voted not to leave the u.k. and we're being forced out anyway. that happened because we're not independent, we don't have the ability to take our own independence and make our voices heard. so circumstances have changed since 2014. when the time is right for scott land to look again at the we of independence, it would be the right time to do it. >> nawaz: when would be the right time? >> we have to allow the process currently in process to reach conclusion. the conclusion remains cob seen.

then take a conclusion based on what's in scotland's best interest. i'm not going to say what i think the best timing would be right now. >> nawaz: you've said before, minister, scottish interests have been ignored in the brexit process, you've said your parliament powers have been eroded. why not call for a referendum if you think scottish interests are suffering? >> the scottish have a right to have as much information as possible about what if scotland chooses to be independent what our relationship will be with the rest of the u.k. and europe. some of the answers to those questions inevitably depend on the brexit outcome to some extent and, therefore, i think it's in the interest of allowing an informed decision to be taken about independence that we allow some of that clarity to emerge. brexit is a good example of what happens when people take, in some respects, an uninformed decision about a big change, and

when people, as i believe they will in due course, opt for scotland to be an independent country, that should be on the basis of a genuinely informed decision about all the implications and consequences. >> nawaz: while you're here in the u.s., i do want to ask you about the american president donald trump, you have been a critic of his policies before and called some of his previous comments abhorrent. i think in your remarks, you quoted former president obama, but did not reference president trump. i know you're not meeting with him on this trip. are there any plans to meet with him and what is the message that you would hope to deliver? >> well, first of all, i would never rule out a meeting with president trump. the fact that we disagree -- and i think we disagree on lots of things and, you know, i take a very different view on many things to president trump -- shouldn't get in the way of the fact that i'm first minister, he's president, the interests of our countries mean that sometimes we would have to talk and meet so i certainly would not take a position of ruling that out. i think he's probably a bit

preoccupied with the state of the union address tomorrow night for me to meet him on this trip. he has somebody who has business interests in scotland, his mother was scottish, so i'm sure we'll see him in scotland again over the next period. but my message is the ties between scotland and the united states are longstanding and very strong and they're very important to scotland and, you know, regardless of the personality of the president or the first minister at any given time, it's strengthening and deeing the economic and social and cultural and family links we should concentrate on and not allow political disagreements between two leaders to get in the way of that. >> nawaz: first minister of scotland nicola sturgeon. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> nawaz: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: quarterback tom brady leads the new england patriots to yet

another super bowl win. what is it that keeps them on top? a new play tells the story of vladimir putin's early rise to power. and writer dani shapiro shares her honest opinion on discovering the truth behind family secrets. but first, lisa desjardins takes a closer look at the political turmoil inside virginia's state capitol, and has a preview of tomorrow's state of the union. >> desjardins: as calls for virginia's governor to resign grow louder, and back in washington, a second government shutdown on the horizon raises the stakes for president trump's state of the union. to discuss all this, i'm joined by our politics monday duo. amy walter of the cook political report and tamara keith of npr. all right, let's just jump right into this difficult story. tam, let's start with the embattled democratic governor of virginia. what do these calls for resignations tell us politically, especially about democrats? >> democrats have taken a position of they have a zero tolerance policy. they have a zero tolerance

policy on racism and things that are overtly racist. they also have a zero tolerance policy in that they showed about a year ago when we were talking about all of this #metoo stuff, including with al franken, the democratic leaders made a choice, we are going to be the party that says we wasn't tolerate this and this leads to moments we're in like now. >> desjardins: long term, short term, what's happening now? >> democrats are unified, there's no division at least within the virginia political establishment of anything other than northam should go and resign, and that happened pretty quickly. some were waiting until the press conference he held on saturday, but for the most part they have been incredibly united. the next question is sort of what the long-term implications are, and i think we are at a moment now, we're talking about it socially about this sort of

reckoning that we're no right now with issues of instructionstual racism and sexism and now we have a political reckoning going on and the thing with reckoning is oftentimes it doesn't look very fair or equitable and it doesn't always work out in the way in which a lot of people expect it to, and, at many moments, there are times when, you know, there are folks who are going to say, well, wait a minute, you held one standard here for this person and held another standard there, and i think that's all going to be the case. and, so, just in the long term thinking past the northam issues, this is going to come up time and time again. the issue of blackface continues to come up. this isn't just something that happened in 1984. there was a candidate -- not a candidate -- a secretary of state in florida resigned for a blackface photo from 2005. on college campuses, you hear a story every year about a party or halloween costume that

included blackface. this is a time to have that discussion from a social standpoint. politically, though, it is going to be messy and the only other way to get to the other side of this is for it to be messy. >> desjardins: governor northam reportedly said he does not want to be seen as a life-long racist and one reason he's resistant to resigning. tam, wondering, the term "racist" is a very dividing term in itself. some reporters and president trump responded angrily when he's been called a racist, even when his opponents insist that's true. can you take us through the politics of the term "racist" right now? i know that's a very gig big question but what does that do? >> well, issues of race were central to the campaign for governor in 2017. virginia has been going through a wrenching conversation about race, about history of racism, about what happened in charlottesville, and for this to

happen in this state at this moment is really particularly difficult, or it really just puts salt in what was an open wound in the state of virginia. >> d. j. could there be political blowback from those who say this man should be heard? >> anything is possible. certainly there was blowback as related to al franken being pushed out of the senate, brett kavanaugh. it's not clear whether this is in the same realm as those things, and northam, that press conference, i don't think anyone could look at that press conference and say that went well. the press conference northam had. what this really points to that amy is talking about is our bliks are not really set up for dealing with difficult things, things that -- where it's tough, where there's not a good answer. typically, when the going gets tough, people resign, and then there are never any sort of

metrics that are laid out or rules of the road. it becomes whatever that moment is, and then the politics sort of roll over. and, so, as a country, we have not built a capacity for knowing what the right answer is. >> i want to talk about, also, lower. we have the lieutenant governor. >> desjardins: the right. we were talking long-term thinking. the immediate resignation would be for lieutenant justin fairfax to be governor, who today it came out there were allegations of sexual assault from 2004. fairfax has adamantly denied those, saying this was a consensual relationship. >> and the accusations are anonymous now. >> we don't know the woman's name. "the washington post" does. seems other news organizations does know her name. she has not responded or come forward. so that's the reality there. the other short-term political consequence leer is if northam

decides to stay, then he is hobbled by the fact his entire democratic establishment has come out and said we're not behind you. there's a republican majority in the house and the senate already. it's a one-term governorship, so you're already a lame duck before, h heck, the first five minutes of your governorship, and there are legislative elections in 2019. a bunch of democrats hoping to tip what is a very close house and senate to democratic control, obviously, would not like to be running with an embattled governor on top of the ticket. >> desjardins: someone else who's an executive in office, president trump. big speech tomorrow, the state of the union. tam, state of the union, he's signaled and even told reporters that he wants to have a unifying maybe conciliatory tone. what does that mean? does that work?

briefly. >> the white house before his big addresses, there have been only been two other addresses to a joint session of congress in this presidency. before both of them, they previewed a conciliatory tone, then the speech happened and the takeway was not that it was conciliatory. the takeway was typically he read from the teleprompter, he read the words in front of him, maybe his tone was different than at a rally but the words were not necessarily all the way through, let's make peace, let's work together. lots of presidents go into the state of the union and say they want to work with the other party. typically, it doesn't quite work out that way, and this is a particularly precarious moment. >> with the government shutdown still. >> amid potential shutdowns, aim yrk what does he need to do tomorrow? >> it's not only democrats with which he has disagreements, it's republicans he's also going to have to sell on his foreign policy. there has been a tremendous

amount of consternation among republicans in the senate about his decision to withdraw from afghanistan and syria, withdraw troops, so the president will have to convince democrats to go along with him on the wall, and if you watched the interview he had with margaret brennan of cbs this weekend, this does not look like a man who is interested in finding compromise with nancy pelosi, not on that topic. on syria and afghanistan, again, does not look like a person who is willing to do compromise with his own party. >> desjardins: happy to have your with coverage of the state of the union. can listen to you on npr, tam. tamera keith, amy walter, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. you're welcome, lisa. >> nawaz: the new england patriots long dynasty kept rolling along last night. it may not have been their most elegant super bowl win but love them or hate them, the

patriots' combination of bill belichik and tom brady remain the dominant force of this n.f.l. era. john yang looks at the secrets of their success. >> yang: it was not one for the ages. far from the high-scoring showdown many had predicted between the oldest super bowl coach-quarterback duo-- the patriots bill belichick and tom brady-- and the youngest-- the rams sean mcvay and jason goff. both offenses struggled. it was the lowest-scoring super bowl ever. >> tom brady picked off on the first series. >> yang: brady's first pass of the night was intercepted. the defenses dominated most of the game. >> goff is brought to his knees. brady throws it over the middle >> yang: and neither team scored a touchdown for the first three quarters. it was well into the fourth quarter, with the score tied at three, before new england's offense and brady finally came

alive, setting up the night's first and only touchdown. >> yang: putting the patriots ahead for good 10 to 3. >> yang: it was the title number six for both brady, the most for any n.f.l. player, and for belichick, the most for any head coach. all of the wins were hard fought battles. >> none of us felt good about where we were but we just kept grinding away and things got better. >> yang: rams coach sean mcvay acknowledged belichick's supremacy. >> they did a great job. it was a great game plan and no other way to say it, but i got outcoached tonight. >> yang: for more on the patriots dominance of the n.f.l., "washington post" sports columnist sally jenkins joins us from atlanta, where she covered the game last night. sally, thanks so much for joining us. so the last 18 seasons, the patriots have appeared in the super bowl nine times, they've won six times. last week before the game, you said the patriots' franchise was

a snarling, unclable monster. how -- unkillable monster. how do they do it? >> bill belichick has an ensee cloughpedic knowledge of the history of football, formations he can pull out of his back pocket as he did last night that absolutely embarrassed a young, brill quaint team. the most interesting thing that the patriots did in the post-season is they destroyed the two hottest young offensive teams in the league. >> yang: the rams last night. and the kansas city chiefs with quarterback patrick ma shown who is the 23-year-old m.v.p. of the entire league. he made the teams look like teenagers. >> yang: bill belichick is very secretive but you gave us a glimpse of what he does in practice and you talked about his attention to detail and his

correcting things, always getting things right. talk a little bit more about that. >> if you talk to former players, people who have actually been in that building and you have to scour with any detail about what they do, but you can tbradly sort of scrape together a little bit of a picture of what goes on inside that building and their practice field, and their attention to detail is so fine that one thing they practice is literally how to sprint back to the official and hand him the football between plays during the two-minute offense at the end of the game because they don't want to waste even a half a second. so they actually drill and repeat and drill and repeat how to get the football back to the referee. so many teams you will see a player just toss the ball casually to the official, and it might drop on the ground and sort of roll around for a half a second. the patriots don't do that. that's how extreme their attention to detail really is young ho.>> yang: how much of te patriots success is belichick,

how much the tom brady the quarterback and how much is the combination of bill belichick and tom brady? >> well, that's a very mysterious question and it's difficult to answer. either one of them is like that game of jenga where if you pull out the wrong stick the entire tower collapses. it's a very intriguing question without tom brady whether bill belichick would be the architect he is because brady makes the right decision and that's hard to find among n.f.l. q.b.s. his supreme knowledge of the game almost matches bill checks. if you take bill check away, look how many quat great quarterback quarterbacks like tony romo play football but never get to the super bowl. so it really is the perfect storm, the fact that tom brady wound up on that team. but it's also, i think, ultimately, a test manet to bill belichick's knowledge --

testament to bill belichick's knowledge of drafting good, unsung players. without that knowledge, tom brady is never on that time in the first place. so you might come down on the side of belichick is the most essential personality in that franchise. >> yang: tom brady last night became the oldest quarterback to appear in much less win a sfnlt are there any -- win a super bowl, are there signs he or the team are done yet? >> none. this is the scary thing and i've done this a long time now, a team usually suffers from exhaustion with winning. there's a heavy price to pay with winning. people don't talk about it much but it's exhausting. the demands on your time go way, way up, the distractions go way, way up. success can sometimes corrupt and ruin a work ethic. gelsys take hold in the locker room, your salary structures get

messed up. none of that happened. the inner discipline inside that organization is truly remarkable. they never sacrifice their salary structure to hold on to a star player. they never do that. they never credit one player unduly to the point it becomes a problem in the locker room. they have been almost religious on that subject. if you ask bill belichick why he doesn't give tom brady more credit verbally, which has been an issue at times, he will tell you there are 52 other twice on that team i value just as much. that's an interesting aspect of the organization that's seldom remarked on but i think is the heart of the team. >> yang: sally jenkins giving us insight into the juggernaut that is the new england patriots. thank you very much, sally. >> thank you for having me. >> nawaz: greed, manipulation, duplicity.

the building blocks of a new play in the nation's capital. those are themes that come up a lot these days, but in this case, the setting is russia more than 20 years ago. jeffrey brown takes us there. >> brown: vladimir putin: a firm grip on power in russia, his government implicated in meddling in u.s. politics. and now appearing in fictional form at the arena stage theater in washington, dc. >> the powerful, the great within russia picked me, a small pablum bureaucrat of limited intellect capacity. >> brown: the play "kleptocracy," set in the 1990s and early 2000s, is based on real events: putin's surprising rise to power, from k.g.b. apparatchik to prime minister and president. >> corruption is spreading in this country.

>> brown: and his face-off against mikhail khodorkovsky, the real-life oligarch who, as head of the enormous yukos oil company, became the richest man in russia and a political nemesis. >> i saw what i thought was maybe the greatest lost opportunity in modern history. >> brown: for playwright kenneth lin, the story centers on a moment when the future of russia, and u.s./russian relations, could have gone in a very different direction. >> privatization was about to happen in russia. mikahil khodorkovsy, he really came very close to selling his russian oil company to an american oil company. if he was successful in doing this, the united states, the west and eurasia would have been combined, would have been joining forces in an economic and diplomatic and political endeavor that really would have

completely changed the world. >> so chevron-you'll sell yukos to chevron. fantastic. >> chevron. >> brown: it's a tale of two ambitious and flawed men. khodorkovsky attained his riches and built an empire through a rigged auction and sometimes thuggish means, before later turning to reformist politics, putin, in the play, is ruthless, and in real life many of his political enemies have ended up dead. but here, he's also a bit of a card, and at times, speaks directly to the audience. >> well, he rose to become the owner of yukos oil and the richest man in the history of russia by employing more cunning, corruption and deceit. those are incontrovertible facts for those of us in the audience who like our incontrovertible facts. >> it's gotten stranger and

stranger and he is moving closer and closer to the foreground of our political discussions here. >> brown: christopher geary plays putin. >> the truth isn't always what is readily visible. he is based on a very famous person but he is also a theatrical creation of ken's mind and he has colors of shakespearian kings, and petulant children and deeply wounded souls and that's just so much fun to play. >> brown: playwright lin was a writer for the over-the-top drama about american politics, "house of cards." was that good preparation for looking at russian politics? >> for every episode of house of cards, you had to ideally find

equally powerful, equally resolute characters and they had to act against each other to win out. and certainly what you have here is a play where enormous stakes are on the table and they need to play the game at the highest level to come out on top. >> brown: max woertendyke plays khodorkovsky. >> if an audience expects to come see the play and be able to draw very clear parallels, like this play is actually about trumpian america, i think it's less clear. but i think it's incredibly relevant because it's about powerful men who want the things they want and sometimes they want good things and sometimes they want bad things and sometimes they're willing to bend their ethics to get them regardless. >> brown: khodorkovsky spent 10

years in prison on tax evasion and other charges he and allies say were politically motivated. in 2013 he was released and agreed to leave the country. today he lives in switzerland and promotes civil society reform against putin. as the russia investigation motors on in washington, "kleptocracy" continues its premiere run through february 24. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the arena stage theater. >> nawaz: genetic testing has become increasingly popular. for about the same cost as a nice dinner, you can now find out where your ancestors came from, or get answers to medical questions. it's easy and for many people it's done on a lark, with no

real expectation of a surprise. dani shapiro experienced a much different outcome. tonight, she shares her humble opinion on why family secrets should no longer be kept. >> on a winter night three years ago, my husband told me he had decided to take a d.n.a. test. he was curious, that's all. he asked me if i wanted him to order me one too. i wasn't curious, i knew exactly where i came from, but i said: sure, why not? it seemed like no big deal. prices had come way down. families everywhere were giving each other d.n.a. kits as holiday gifts. when my results came back, they revealed that my late beloved father had not been my biological father. in rapid succession, using nothing more than facebook and google searches, i learned that i had been conceived in an institute in philadelphia, and that my biological father had been a sperm donor. within 36 hours of making this

discovery, i found that sperm donor, who had been a young medical student at the time. he was now a retired 78-year-old doctor, a medical ethicist. he was more than a little bit surprised to hear from me. a secret was scrupulously kept from me for 54 years. secrets defined the world of infertility and reproductive medicine at the time, something that persists to this day. couples were told to have sex before and after the procedure so that they'd never really be sure who the father was. and to then to go home and forget it ever happened. to never breathe a word, not to family, not to friends. the child would never know. and what we don't know, doesn't hurt us. except that i believe that what we don't know absolutely does hurt us. i grew up with a powerful sense that something wasn't quite right. things didn't add up. i didn't add up. i looked very different from my family, but that was only a small part of it. there were ways in which i

simply was different. but i didn't know why, so i did what children do. i felt there must be something wrong with me. that feeling of wrongness permeated my life, even as i was able to thrive as a writer, marry, and have a child of my own. there was always a subtle disconnect, as if the wires were crossed. i wrote book after book, trying to understand why this was. we're living in a time when family secrets are tumbling out at a stunning rate. easy, popular d.n.a. testing along with the internet makes it nearly inevitable that secrets involving family and identity won't make it to the grave. and that's a good thing. because no matter how high up on a shelf a secret is kept, it's still there. just because it isn't spoken doesn't mean it doesn't exist. quite the opposite. it's all the more powerful and dangerous for having been hidden.

>> nawaz: join us tomorrow for live coverage of president trump's state of the union address and the democratic response. on-air and online we will have analysis and fact checking. plus, you'll want to listen to a special state of the union episode of our podcast. it will have the kind of smart analysis, insights and conversation you won't get anywhere else. look out for the episode in our podcast feeds, or listen on our website when it's released wednesday morning at pbs.org/newshour/podcasts. you can find all of our state of the union coverage at pbs.org/newshour, too. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. 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, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online.

more information on babbel.com. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," julia shows bridget how to make flat hand-pulled noodles, adam reveals his top pick for meat cleavers, and dan makes julia the ultimate chinese-style barbecued spareribs. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen."