captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: >> the president was the key pler in the scheme. everyone was in the loop. he directed the actions of his team. >> woodruff: opening arguments in the impeachment trial of president trump. the democrats begin present their days-long case for removing the president from office. then, "outbreak." as its death toll rises, the conavirus begins to read bend china. what you need to know after the first confirmed casen the u.s. >> there seems to be evidence suggesting that the virus is increasing its virulence. we are actually in the initial >> woodruff: plus-- "hacked."

the crown prince of saudi and the troubling connection to slain journalist jamal khashoggi. ghl that and more, on tonit's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:♪ ♪ el >> fidy investments. >> bnsf railwa >> consumemecellular. >>rican cruise lines. >> suptrrting social reneurs and theiron solutito the world's most skollfoundation.or- >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.o >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for blic broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the prosecution has begun.t impehmnagers from the united states house of representatives opened theiref presentatione the u.s. senate today. they have three days to make their arguments for wh president trump should be removed from office. nick sifrin begins our verage of this day of the trial. >> please be seated. >> schifrin: in the senate chamber the founders described

as dignified and indendent, democrats laid out their case to convict and throw prest trumout of office. lead house manager adam schiff: >> abusing the power of his office to seek help from abroad, to improve his reeleion prospects at home. >> schifrin: democrats accuse president trump of abusing his power by pressuring ukraine to announce investigation the 2016 election, and demratic presidential candidate joe biden, by withlding $400 million in military aid that ukraine needs in its conflict with russia. >> the effect of his scheme was to undermine our free and fair elections, and put our national security at risk. >> schifrin: and democrats accuse president trump of obstructing congress by refusing to hand over documents and blocking senior officials from teifying. >> in obstructing the investigation into his own

wrongdoing, the president has shown that he believes that he is above the law, and scornful >> schifrin: today was for the president's osecutors, so the response fell to the president himself, 4,000 miles away, at the davos world economic forum.s gled out schiff, and described his impeachment as "beneficial." >> these are corrupt people,th some o, and some of them game.ust playing the political but if you look at the poll highest they've evn.bers are the if you look at the funding numbers, if you look at what the money raised by the republican party is, just set a record. nobody's ever done this before. it's because of the impeachment hoax. >> schifrin: today, democrats laid out their narrative,ti highli three key days. on july 24, special counsel and read his primaclusion:tified >> the investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired with the russian government in its election interference activities. >> schifrin: the next day,

july 25, president trump called ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. schiff quoted president trump's investigations.to launch >> president trump said, "i would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot." >> schifrin: and the next day, july 26, president trump called e.u. ambassador gord sondland, asking whether ukraine would undertake the investigations. >> in many ways, those three this story.y tell so much of this course of conduct alone should astound all of us who value the sanctity of our elections. >> schifrin: schiff urged nators next week to vote to interview witnesses, and allow documents that were kept from emuse investigators. >> you will see and so will the american people, if you allow it. if, in the name of a fair trial, you willchemand it. >>rin: today, president trump suggested he could support witnesse but had reservations,

especially about senior national security officials, such as john bolton.nal security advisor >> i would rather interview bolton. i would rather interview a lot of people. the problem with john is that it's a national security problem. he knows what i think about leaders. and what happens if he reveals what i think about a certain leader, and it's not very positive? and then i have to deal on behalf of the country. it's going to be very rd, it's going to make the job very hard. >> schifrin: the impeachment trial's jurors are the senate's 100 members. it would take two-thirds of them, 67, to convict and remove the president from office.ey annot speak inside the trial, so they visited microphones outside. key ally to president trump, south carolina republican lindsey graham: >> when it comes to replacing this psident nine months-plus from the election, you've got an

uphill battle with me, because i retly do believe that the b person-- group of people to pick presidents are the voters, not a bunch of partisan poans. >> schifrin: senators decided to restrict the camera angles, but artist bill hennessy sketched scenes of the chamber-turned- courtroom, and lawmakers-turned- a senator catching winks. chief justice john roberts, one a few participants allowe computer screen. and a spittoonuswhose lack of is more bipartisan than the trial. >> i send anmendment to the desk to subpoena certain documents and records from the white house >> schifrin: yesterday, beginning at 2:00 p.m... >> i send an amendment to the desk to allow adequate time for written responses to any motions by the parnd i ask that it be read. >> schifrin: ...until past 1:00 a.m., 11 times, senate minority leader chuck schumer tried to amend the trial rules set by mcconnell. >> i send an amendment to the t deissue a subpoena to john robert bolton, and i ask that it be read. >> schifrin: each one...

>> the amendment is taed. >> schifrin: ...rejected on a party line vote. >> the amendment is tabled. >> schifrin: only one republican, susan collins of maine, sided with democrats, once, and voted to lengthen the me both sis had to file motions, but that amendment also failed. >> if there'one thing we learned from the series of votes on the senate floor, it's that leader mcconnell and senate republicans don'want a fair trial that considers all the >> schifrin: the day began with chaplain barry black reading a prayer appealing to civility. >> help them remember that patriots reside on both sides o, the aihat words have consequences, and that how assomething is said, can b important as what is said. >> schifrin: democrats are expected to continue their case for two days, after which president trump's lawyers can take up to three days for their case.

for e pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: now to our white house correspondent,amiche alcindor, and congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins, who again was in the room today. hello to both of you. so, lisa, you've had a chance t look at thnators. it's an angle we can't see, watching from the studio, watching a television screen. how are they taking all this in? yong night last night, big da toda how much are they paying attention? >> well, for the first two hours today, judy, thd ey diem to be paying very careful attention with the exception of just aha ful of senators. and you could fea sense ofious, gravity in the room about the articles of impeachment that wasn't there yesterday for much that was the first two hours. but, judy, i think you can tell many of these senators are going on jusa few hours of sleep, y probably not for the onime during this trial and, after a few hours, you could tell that the attentiolevels were dissipating, and you could als s

teators themselves were leaving the chamber in larger numbers. at different tim our team took various counts and roughly between a fifthnd a fourth of the senate was absent for much of today, different people, esfferent tim many times they're going into the ante chamber or cloak rooms nearby. they can do it for a quick personal break but some areta ng longer. notably bernie sanders has been walking on and off the floor a lot, senator rand paul as well, but they're not the only ones. to a point in this, jason crow, one of the house managers, was trying to get the attention of the senat and, at one point, stopped his presentation and said to senator leader mcconnell, mr. leader, let's mtake a 1inute break, i see members are moving around in the chamber, maybe we shouke a break, really talking about the fact that they weren't paying aa closention. mcconnell responded he wanted to but it is something notable here on day two. >> woodruff: we noticed thatn lateis afternoon.

so, yamiche, we heard a little of the president's comments about this impeachment trial today. what more are you picking up from the white house, from the people around the president about how they see this? >> well, despite being thousands of miles away and f traveliom switzerland to washington, d.c. tonight, the president was pa ang very clottention to this historic impeachment trial, this historic trial on whether he should be removed from office. the trial started when the president lashed out at democrats, calling srepresentative nadler eaze bag, saying representative schiff is a con job and said he wanted to see a longepe hment trial with witnesses including john bolton. the president has been saying all of this is reatilly al security issues and that the president is still the target of an unfair triof. althat was echoed by the president's own legal team. here's what jay se, a lawyer on the president's impeachment team had to say about how today went.

>> he seems like he has a lot of information, so proceed with your case. i mean, the more they s 2.5 hour events at a time, it undercuts their whole argument. we will chlenge aggressively the case they are putting forward based on what we'ree hearing, andso have an affirmative case that we're going to make asell. >> even as they're going to be continuing to listen to democrats make their case, you already are have the president's lawyer saying they're going to aggressive when it's their turn. >> woodruff: lisa,e are now into this trial, but we dill ators don't know if the se are going to vote to call witnesses. what are you hearinabout that? a ittle news on that today, judy, senate democratic leaderhu chuck r said he would take off the table a deal for a democratic witness like john bolton exchange for hunter biden as a potential republican witness. senator schumer said they ontly willk about fact witnesses to the president's alleged charges, they do noelieve hunter biden is that kind of republicans want to call hunter

biden, they need to get 51 votes on their own to do it. this doesn't mean a deal is anypletely off the table, kind of deal, but that specific deal is off the table, at least for now. >> and yamiche, i'm going bac and forth because there is so much to ask both of you. we know the democrats were criticizing the president today not turning over any documents, not cooting. the president brought this up ymself. what a hearing, again, from folks in the white house about how they plan to push back? >> the president, in fact, was bragging about the very thi that democrats say got him impeached and that is that he does not want to be turning over any sort of dcuments to democrats. he said, look, we have all the materials, they don't have any. he was sayg he was happy with his defense team to cover that. now, of course, democra are saying that's the president bragging about what they say is obstructing congress.i the other we notice is the president set a record today when it came to tg ett what the white house is saying that they're going to be

proactive and being on social media. esiden what the pr tweeted, retweeting the republican national committee today. he said how weak is the democrats' impeachment case against president trump? and schiff is re-litigati russia and mueller. the president's legal team is saying this is the ghost of the mueller investigate haunting president trump, making the case to find something, anything,ng they argue, to try to take the president down. what we see no pw is theresident really echoing that and doubling down and lashing out at democrats both online and, of course, in that senate trial. >> woodruff: andlisa, final question for you before i come back to yamiche. hang over all this is the question of whether any senator's mind is truly open enough to ntan arguhat could change his or her mind. how do you sense thal,t? >> we're trying to read the faces of the senators, and i'll say to talk at about yamiche is brig up, both sides mentioned the mueller report, and when you lk at seators, that is something that really does not make them more alert.

they seem to be tuning kt tal of the mueller report on either side. but there were some moments today, especially sound bytes to ve the presidenhimself, when he spoke, judy, when they payed the sound byte of the predent asking russia to look into clinton's missing 30,000 e-mails, which the president's team said was a jock but which democrats take seriously, you could televery senator was paying close attention to that, including republicans, the idea of the republicans asking russia for help, whether rhetorical or not, was something youould tell really was gripping the senate in that moment. >> woodruff: finally, yamwehe, re in the phase of the trial where the president's legal team has to sit there andisten to, in essence, 24 hours of arguments from the house managers, the democrats, how are they usinghis tito get rey when it becomes their term? >> they're l tstening close how the democrats are making their case. as lisa just noted, they're really paying attention to the afact that the democrae planning to use the president's own words against him. i remember being on the white w

house lan the president said, look, not only should ukraine look into the bidens but so should china. now the white house legal team is getting ready to make thete cod argument that the president was only joking and democrats are taking his wor and really tryst twisting them to mean words he didn't mean. but it was important china tried to trail with documentsbout the bidens after those words. nt's about china making the case that the presias being light hearted and he wasn't trying to violate the constitution in some of te statements he made. >> woodruff: yamiche alindor at the white house, lisa desjardins at the capitol, we thank you both. now, the senate trial is supposed to have a certain sense of decorum. but at times, the f this true. trial has been heated and harsh. late last night, chief justice roberts felt that broke down, and rebuked lawmakers. first, congressman jerry nadler

accused republican senators of voting for aover-up for the presiden one of the president's lawyers, pat cipollone, responded by saying nadler should be embarrassed, and called foe democrats s a "farce." that all prompted this response by chief justice roberts: >> i think it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the house managids and the prt's counsel, in equal terms, to member that they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body. one reason it haearned that title is because its members avoid speaking in a manner and using language that is not conducive to civil discourse. >> woodruff: to examine the role of chief justice roberts in thim impet trial-- while he is still carrying out his main job, presiding over the supreme court-- we turn to marcia coyle who was in the supreme court for arguments today.

maia, this ibia man with two jobs right now. you've covered the court, you've written a ok about the roberts court. what did you make of his h speaking out a did very late last night? >> well, i think, judy, the chief justice has really two major obstacles here, or challenges here. he has to, as presiding officer, maintain decorum in a hyperpartisan environment and also keep himself above the fray for the sake of his ow reputation and the reputation of the supreme court, and i think morning did early thi was show that he's quite willing to step in, in order toaintain erat decorum, and he did it in quintessential r' style. he was firm, he was even-handed, and he used a bit of history. >> woodruff: he did. a nugget f tom 1905 aboe impeachment of a federal judge and an objection to the use of the word "petty foggery" in order to sort of soften thebu with a little bit of

humor. >> woodruff: which sent us rushing to looking it up in th dictionary or google or whatever.hi so it's som that matters to him. >> oh, very much, so and it's also how he runs the court during org arguments. he doesn't have a heavy hand, you don't hear banging of the gavel, but just with a short word, a little bit of humor, he can rein in what is a very hot bench. >> woodruff: so, meanwhile, it wa oreported he did show time this morning for this important -- all the casimes are rtant, but a noteworthy case that the justices heard this morning hang to do essentially with public moneys going -- being used in reusigschools. tell us a little bit about this case. >> tks is very much lie many of the cases that seem to be coming to the courtecentl where you have religious organization or, in this case, parents of students who attend religious schools, that areng chalg state-funded programs that exclude them.

the montana supreme court hearing validated a state tax credit program that ultimately resulted in sholarships to private schools, including religious schools, but the montana supreme court said we have what's called a no-aid clause, an amendment in our constitution that says no pulic funds for any kind of religious purpose. so it struck down the entrae prog the parents here challenge that, they claim montana supreme court got it wrong, that this atuallyd violated their free exercise rights under the federal constitution. it see a though several justices, ginsburg, sot kagan felt where is the harm here now, the program is gone, all the parents e in the same boat, whereas justices gorsuch alito also seemed to feel, well, as the paratents argued ou can't use the remedy of striking down in the program ithe reason for that remedy was

religious discrimination. >> woodruff: you were telling us earlier it looks as if the chief justice's questions seem to be looking for a more narrow decision. >> he does look for play in the joints, so to speak, and he really only asks, i think, two or three qunsesturing the entire argument. i think he may well be decisiver the appeared very closely divided on thione. >> woodruff: so two very eimportant roles at the s time. >> yes. >> woodruff: thank you very much, marcia coyle. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: and n b i am joined barr, former republican congressman from georgiawho was a house impeachment manager inhe clinton trial. congressman barr joins me from atlanta. thank you very much for being with us. so as someone who was part of the last impeachment trial we saw in washington 21 years ago, how do you compare the presentation, the house managers are making this time against president trump with what you

and your team were doing in 1999? >> thank you for having me. the roles or the purposes for thrse manaow and what we were faced with in 1999 are very different. in 1999, our job was mh more limited and precise and clear because president clinton had icles harged in two art impeachment, if you will recall, of violations with specific criminal laws, obstruction of justice and perjury. now, the job of the impeachment managers is far broader and perhaps a lot more problematic because they are trying to defend articles of impeachment that do not allege any crime, so it's a much vag ar standard,nd i thk is more difficult to exrsain both to the senand to the american public. >> woodruff: and that's part of what is beingiscussed.

what do you make, though, of their presentation so far? they had hours to present -- they were talking about the the rules yesterday,ut, in that conversation, certainly, they talked about the merits of the casegainst theesident. we heard that, certainly, for a number of hours tday, from and schiff who's the lead somenethig and rom the other managers. >> while i don't agree with their arguments, i have to say that the managers haveeen very adept at using the time allotted to them for the purpose, yesterday, for example, to defend or advocate for acertain rule or rules, they have been very adept atxpanding tht opening and arguing not only the merits of the articles of impeachmentemselves but introducing extraneous evidence that is not or should not be part of the record, that is

post-impeachment evidence, even thoughe he senate rr the impeachment trial here appears, to me, to not allow that evidence, the managers have been very successful in getti all sorts o additional evidence in -- for example, relatinto this fellow lev parnas. associate of rudyuliani, and that's information that's comout since the house -- come out since the house investigation and, frankly, since the vote on impeachment took place in the house. so are you saying thats the way they are presenting the case that you think is effective? is it effective enough, do youa think, to cnge minds? remains to be seen, but i think they -- the house managers -- are very sma and clver at doing two things, one, sort of going over the senators themselves and arguing their ngcase and repeatedly userms that are designed to, you know, sort of inlame voters, corrupt

motives, corruption, so forth, evil president, but there areal , i think, very careful, i think, that they recognize that in the short term their audience is two, three, maybe four senators and their constituents in te states that they represent to convince them or pressure them to open up this case to allow additional --r allow witnesses and additional evidence. i think that that's very much in the forefront of what the managers are trying to do here, to sway ose few republican senators topen this tri up themselves.the articles woodruff: interesting. and i want to ask you about the white house defense, the much of what we'ard fromause so the president, from the people around him has been this is all ha hoax,ere's nothing to see here, it's not w evorth wasting our time on. is that going to be sufficient for the president's legal team

to come back and basically dismiss the whole thing without going down point by point what the managers have alleged? >> i do agree with the white house posiothat the articles are fatally flawed on their face because they allege no crime whatsoever, much less a high crime or high misdemeanor, so to speak. but one thing i thinkhe president's lawyers need to keep in mind, and maybe they will, is they need to do more than simply present lawyerly arguments to other lawyers and to keep in mind thatt what really be will sway people here in a broader sense is very effective, demonstrative evidence, for example, and the house managers, i think, again have been very effective in using demonstrative evidence to buttress their case>

oodruff: former representative bob barr, former house manager ithe clnton impeachment trial. thankso much for joining us. >> my pleasure. j >> woodruff: aning me now, our in-studio analysts, who have of the trial all dive coverage they are: martin paone was the democratic senate secretary for 13 years, includg duri president clinton's impeachment trl. elizabeth chryst was theen republicane secretary during president clinton's trial. victoria nourse was specialco sel to the senate judiciary committee in the early '90s. and, john hart worked for congressman tocoburn, republican of oklahoma, also during the clinton impeachment. >> woodruff: and you can you hello, again, to all of you. i want to pick up on something that we just heard, marty paone, we just heard from former congressman barr, and that ise wh may disagree with the argument the managers are making, he thinks they are being effective in the way they are framing the case. s

how do y that? >> i agree with him. i think, so far, what we've seen, theve done a rally good job of weaving in their opinion of the founding -- theiron recitaf the papers quoting hamilton, madison, fralin, the founng fathers, and tey weave that in with the evidence they had from the witnesses that they ready got to testify and theta reon of the charges, and i p>>a whut that? how do you see the approach that the democrats are taking? >> they seem to be very methodical. it is a difficult role. they seem to be very methodical, and i agree wi former congressman barr, they are being n introducing new names or a little bit of new information, and that could spark somebody's interest, especially the senators that maybe haven't heard it or want to hear more, and that begs the question could they possibly vote for evidence or witnesses

down the road. i think that they kep weaving in sort of rehashing of mueller, i think that might lose some of the members. they tended to do that sort of later in the day, so that didn' seem to be the smartest move as far as i was concerned. >> woodruff: anidt mean to interrupt you but we hea lisa desjardins metioning, as much as you could tell from that didn't seem to engender a lot of interest. >> they weren't rolling eyes, but you got the imession if they knew they weren't being looked at, they might do a ttle eye roll or something like that. >> woodruff: as someone who knows the constution, teaches constitution law, victoria nourse, i mean, it is a challenging job these managers have. they have been given 24 hours over the course of three days, and, as we said, theenators are a captive audience, they've got to sit there and listen. some of them are taking notes. do you get the sen of a cae that's being -- an effective

case being built? >> ihink i was vey impressed with the seriousness and methodical nature of the argument. you know, we heard the chief justice admonishi folks late in the evening, but, today, we saw some of the demeanor was very much like in a trial ere a trial lawyer would present a case. mr. schiff presented the overall case and then individual managers thereafter f as the law, we're going to see more legal arguments about the constitution coming up quk because mr. barr suggested that you need a crime, many of my colleagues in the academy would say you don'teed a crime and a crime against an election would suffice. more will be coming up. >> woodruff: that a president and he should be judged on that basis rather than what's in the criminal code. >> right, because that's a low bar. you certainly don't want your oesident to vite the criminal law and that there are crimes against the public trust and agnst democracy that

should be the subject of impeachment. >> woodruff: i want to come back to john hart tohis question, we were talking about this earlier today, but in terms of how the american people, w are paying attention -- i mean, it's the senators who the democrats need to persuade, but in terms of people watching and to the extent anybody pays attention public opinion, is this -- are these arguments that yothink are capturing people's t?tention, imagination, or wha >> well, i think some of them that are happening off the senate floor are, and, so, judy, we have to remember that we'reng starrom a point where they're 20 votes short of meanging the out >> woodruff: they need 67. they need 67 votes. the vos yesterday, there are 11. 47 votes would support impeachment ght now if you follow the logic of the previous votes. what that says is the public hae to bry animated and have to the outcome change.ange to see g ndsey graham did an effective jb articulate republican

side which is the consent of the govern is the foundational constitutional principle at stake here is the bar for impeachment of a higcrime misdemeanor have to be -- has to be so high it hs to nullify the consent of the governed who elected donald trump a president and who want him to be on the ballot coming up in just a few months now, and, so, i think it's a very, very steep mountain, and i don't think the public has been stirred sufficient by what we've seen so far. i think the presentations have constitutional arguments arethe very, very important, that they'll flush out, but i do't see a game changer yet. >> woodruff: the lic opinion polls show a division of the american people, it's gone up and down a little bit. marty pay i don't knowy, as you listen to thimes, is there ing in the democratic argument that you're familiar with that you believe they should be stressi more or less? and the captive audience we've talked about, what more cano

build the case that they need to build? >> i tnk, one, it will be interesting to see if somebody touches on the timing of when the whistleblower report or the whistleblower information was how that lined th when they and finally did release the aid and, you know, was it being released because, okay, it was time to release it, or was it being released because you knew this informatiowas going to come out? and i haven't heard any of themo atic house managers tie that up, but it's early, this is only the first day. >> woodruff: you heard some reference today of that from adam schiff, but you're right, i think they're going into more detail abo the exact timeline. that in terms of what the managers need to do here? players like lev parnas.ce ne >> woodruff: a giuliani

associate. >> yes, the average tv watcher will wonder who that gentlemen is and how he plays into ito, we've two more days of this, so that might be something we see in theys next couple of d >> woodruff: we have the hours tonight, they're supposed to go victoria nourse, don't have to go the full 24 hours. they are given up t 24 spread out over three days. theyay decide it works againstbe them toing on and on and on. >> i agree. we've already had a trial bere e trial and all of e objectio and the motions to go for other evidence, we've had the preview of a trial and now the retition of the trial, so, at some point, they're going to same things over and over again d they may decide it's not worth it to do that. there is always a point at which senators really are arting, as your correspondent said, they're starting to mill out and they're getting tired and there's always

a point ithe impeachment, andrew johnson, they got tired, too, that they will get tired and want tings to goes close and going over and over again your case can actually annoy people. >> woodruff: and finally, john hart, i mean, we are covering this trial, iu kno minute detail, but we're also hearing from te senators on t outside. we're hearing from the president who is slamming, you knw, everything ant the trial because he thinks it's the wrong thing to do. are we -- you know, how do we -- i basically want toask you, how does the media make sure that we get it right as we cover this? >> well, i think humility on all sides. i think asking the other side what they really tink, what is at stake here, and i think, you know, it's important, again, going back to what lindsey graham said is what's at stake iso the american ple have the right to elect the presideno and in order trcome the bar you have to prove something very

heinous. it has to be a high crime and misdemeanor, something very serious, and not just a mad motive with his crawl with the ukrainians. republicans would not say this call is perfect iyou did private poll but they would not eachable imp there's not nearly the support needed to do that. >> woodruff: but democrats feel very strgly in the other direction. they're saying to ask a foreign leadero proevide assistan getting a president reelect is a pretty egregious -- that's the case, that's the case. all right, only day two and we've got more to, go we're going to be together again this evening for several hours of live coverage and analysis and you can join our onoing coverage of the senate trial for the remainder of the evening, check your local listics for that and onine on our web site or youtube, and agin tomorrow thursday when the trial resumes at 1:00 eastern p.m.

>> woodruff: in the day's other new threats of tarnmp issued imported european cars, before departing the world anonomic forum in switzerl u.s. officia met with world leaders and c.e.o.s at the conference in davos. afterward, the president warned europe to agree to liberalized tre. >> they have tra barriers were you can't trade. they have tariffs all over the place. they make it impossible., they aankly, more difficult to do business with than china. >> woodruff: separately, france announced that it will delay imposing a new tax on big tech companies, and the u.s. will hold off imposing retaliatory sanctis. in china, the death toll rose to at least 17 people from a new respiratory illness thatpis y spreading. chinese officials said more than 540 cases of the flu-like

coronavirus have been confirmed. that is more than double the total from a day earlier. we'll get much more, after the news summary. high winds and sweltering temperatures have returned in australia, and the fire danger there is surging again. people in the eastern suburbs of canberra, the capital, were briefly forced to evacuate today after a fire flared near the airport.me while, a huge dust storm engulfed several outback towns s in nth wales state, painting the skies orange, and adding to smoke fouling e skies. the president of iran atsisted today is country is still committed to the 2015 nuclear deal. just last week, hasshani declared that iran would no longer abide by limitsn enriching uranium. today, in tehran, he said the nuclear deal-- officially, the "joint comprehensive plan of action"-- is not dea he disavowed interest in a nuclear arsenal. >> ( translated ): we are t

seeking nuclear weapons. even if the j.c.p.o.a. collapses we won't seek nuclear weapons. s if teguard agreement is destroyed, we won't seek nuclear weapons. >>oodruff: rouhani also sa the u.s. made a mistake pulling out of the nuclear agreement. back in this country, democratic presidential candidate tulsi gabbard has filed a defamation lawsuit against hillary clinton, the party's 2016 nominee.es it cfter clintonuggested was "the favorite of thewoman russians." a spokeman for clinton said that gabbard's claims are ridiculous. a landmark legal moment for the "me too" movement played out today th opening statements in harvey weinstein's rape and sexual assault trial. prosecutors in new york called the former movie producer a rapist.fe the e said that evidence shows any sexual encounters were consensual. the trial could last more than a month. on wall street today, the dow a jones industrirage lost

nine points to close at 29,186. the nasdaq rose 13 p and the s&p 500 added one point. and terry jones, of "monty python" fame, has died, after battling a rare form of dementia. jones played everything from a nude organist and a spanish inquisitor-- cardinal biggles-- the ravenous restaurant patron, "mr. creosote." he wrote and directed the films "monty python and the holy grail" and "life of brian." in that one, he played the mother of brian, who is mistaken for jesus. >> he is not the messiah! he is a very naughty boy. now go away! >> who are you? >> i'm his mother, that's who! >> woodruff: terry jones was 77 years old. still to come on the newshour: as the death toll for the coronavirus jumps in china, the infection reaches the shores of the u.s. an how the crown prince of saudi arabia allegedly hacked the cell phone of

amazon's c.e.o. >> woodruff: as we reporfid, chinese als are racing to contain a quickly spreadingow virus that hasilled at least 17 people, infected hundreds more, and spread to several other countries. william brangham has this update on the latest. >> brangham: in wuhan, china, the city of 11 million people at the center of the outbreak, imminent closure opublicd the transit and advised residents not to leave the city. this comes just as celrations of the chinese lunar new year are to begin, where normally, hundreds of millions of people travel from cities to the country-side. this outbreak of a new pneumonia-like coronavirus has

now sickened hundreds in china, and has spread to at least one declared case in the u.s.ith >> i think it's anything but under control for now. >> brangham: yanzhong huang is a public health researcher at the council on foreign relations,di ancts the center for global health studies at seton hall university. >> there seems to be evidence suggesting that the virus is increasing its virence and is spreading very rapidly in china, d also to other countrie so we are actually in the initial stages of a major outbreak. > brangham: airpor in many countries are now using thermal imaginto check passengers for possible fevers-- one of the symptoms of the virus.fi u.s. health als said five u.s. airports are conducting similar screening, and planare in place to route all inbound flights from the affected regrons in cha

h those hubs. this passenger arrived in san francisco from an affectan area in chinis happy with the screenings. >> i think they did a good job. this is a big thinsary because this is about our health, the community's health. >> brangham: in addition to the travel restrictions, a partial quarantine is now in eect in parts of wuhan. >> it's a very big city, and it's in central china. so consider that sort of china's chicago, in terms of the location, and also in terms ofe portance in china. >> schifrin: this shuttered live animal market in wuhan is one of the places where officials believe the virus first made the jump from animals to humans. >> if a virus moves from animal to human but can'tpread any further, than the risk of a larger outbreak is very low. >> brangham: tom inglesby ishe director of the johns hopkins center for health security. >> we've seen thny before, and ifferent kinds of infectious diseases where there is a jump, but then peon't

transmit the illness further. but the concern is, when a virus has the capability of spreading directly from person to person, obviously, that requires iofferent kinds of interve to try to control that virus. >> brangha chinese health ficials confirmed this week that this virus is now spreadinr from person ton. >> if the virus is gaining that capacity for efficient human-to- human transmission, it means that all those interactions maximize the chances of the virus infecting man beings. >> brangham: what makes this even more complicated is tt the symptoms of a coronavirus infection are very simil to the fl infected individuals report a high fever, persistent cough, and trouble breathing. so far, the people who've died tend to be elderly, some of whom also had other health

complications. the chinese government has fed sharp criticism for its slow reaction to previous outbreaks, including the sars epidemic 17 years ago, where 800 people died and over 8,000 people were sickened by a different coronavirus. this outbreak is believed toly have begun east month, but health officials there didn't reveal it publicly for three weeks. even so, tom inglesby believes the chinese response is improving. >> yesterday, the president of china strongly urged all those who were working on this outbreak to share information within china, and to share it internationally, and to share it with the world healtti organi. you didn't see that kind ofti political po back in 2002. >> brangham: public health officials say still just don't know how many cases are s out there-- and how seriey are-- to know if this is a mild coronavirus that won't take too many les, or something more virulent that could take a deeper toll. >> it's so new in the outbreak that we don't know whether we're

closer to the former or the latter. and we're going to need a lot more information to cide that. >> braham: for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. o >>uff: today, two unveiled an extraordinaryors charge: that the powerful crown prince of saudi arabiaer was possiblynay involved in the hacking of one of the world's chest men, and the owner of thewashington post." nick schifrin is back with that story. >> schifrin: judy, here's then. story the nvestigators lay out: mohammad bin salman metn prince "washington post" owner and aamazon founder jeff bezo started messaging bezos on the phone application whatsapp.an saent bezos an mp4 video that contained software, allowing bezos's phoned to be hacked.ju hours later, the phone started uploading all of bezos'a privat and messages.

five months later, saudi agentsh murdered "gton post" columnist jamal khashoggi. investigating, salce again sent bezos messages, this time about bezos' affair that hadn't yet gone public. bezos described it as "blackmail," and today, the u.n. dcribed it as salman's likely personal attempt to "influence, ifot silence," the "washington post." one of the investigators is the u.n. special rapporteu summary executions and extrajudicial killingss callamard, and she joins me now. lcome back to "newshour" thank you very much. why do you believe that mohammed bin salman would likely personal be involved in this? >> that's what the evidence is pointing to. the forensic investigation conducted by the fti conservancy firm and backed up by four independent cybersecurity

experts that wect con reached a similar conclusion. the likooelthat the hacking originated from the whatsappun acowned by mohammed bin salman is very high, and it is, in fact, t only hypothesis that could explain the hacking. our conclusion was reinforced to the very robust ocess undertook in order to check theb conclusi the foreign expert ond that led us today to release this informationnform the public but also to send a warning to and ensure that the wakeup call is being made, that we are working, confronting,c facing a tology that we are not controlling. >> reporter: i nt to get to that technology alittle bit later, but i do need to read you what the saudi government has said.as you've seen, the saudi official told us the kingeddum rejected your conclusions and that "saudarabia does not

conduct illicit activities, and here's what the saudi foreign minister had to say.t >> the idea the conference would pack jeff bezos' phone is absolutely silly, and my understanding of the u.n. rporta report, it's a statement based on a report by a private company independent agencyin its by an own conclusions that has no hard evidence to substantiate the >> reporter: so do you have imrd evidence to substantiate the cla >> absolutely. first of all, the fti conservancy firm is composed of some of the best experts. it was record because investigation into mosr. b phone is part of an ongoing f.b.i. investigation, therefore the work by am, and the team was vetted by the f.b.i. i've already described to you

ate process that we followed to conclusion of the d the i should add that because the fti review to have the phone was part of annvestigation, it was conducted under the most stretchent conditions, including with regard to the cin of evidence. i have no doubt that fti and our independent expert looked at all the options beforconclud that the hacking originated froh whatsapp account owned by the crown prince. about the context for this a little bit. you write that this is part of a broader crackdown launched by ste kingdom agats critics. we've interviewed people in this country who described somof that crackdown. but the kingdom says khashoggi's murder is done by rogue acts,

they're punishing these people and that won't happen again. do you acknowledge the saudi steps? >> no, i don't. when i write in the report that produced in june, the king of -- the killing of jamal khashoggi was a violation of international w, it's not a nestic matter. second international legal standards were violated, none of which have been taken care of rough the saudi investigaon. thirdly and most importantly, the sai vestigation completely failed to tackle the the killing of jamal khashoggi. they only focused on th hit men and even though they had originally charged some of the people that were higher up in the chain of y mmand, theded up not finding them guilty of anything. so all in all, e investigation and the prosecution by the sauoi auies failed to meet

international standards and certainly did not deliver justice. the killing of a journalist uncovers usually a web of corruption, a web of lies, an that can go all the way to the highest level of the government. is not unique to the case of jamal khashoggi, but it is a w factfound in many other killings. this webf corruptio of lies has not been untangled throughv the saudi estigation, and this is why i'm calling for., you kne allegation that we have released today, oner moe element demonstrating the centrality of the state of saudi arabia, the centrality of the crown prince of saudi arabia in the cadaign, an it is this campaign against dissident that ultimately resulted into the killing of jamal khashoggi.or >> rr: i only have about 45 seconds left, so i do want to get back to the technologyhat

you mentioned at the top. in your statement today, you call f a moratorium on the global sale and transfer of private surveillance technology, but it seems to mehat we've already crossed that rubicon. is there really anythinwe can do to try to rein in this kind of technolog >> well, we don't have a choice, we have to rein it in, in the t same way we haied and sometimes succeeded in reining in some of the weapons that were found to be unlawful and ilisgal. look, t technology is extremely difficult to trace, almost impossible to control. we have here an example of the richest man eath, with unlimited resources, and yet it took him several mnths to realize his phone was hacked, and it took three months work by top-notch expert to uncover the sorce of the hacking. so this technology is a danger to all. it's a danger to national

security and democratices prs in the united states. targetled jef bezos' first amendment rights and targeted a essential factor in the american so therefore, wee no choice, we need to control that technology. we must impose a moratorium. >> reporter: agnes callamard, u.n. special rapporteur, thank tu very much. nk you very much. >> woodruff: and that is the newshour for tonight. our special coverage of the impeachmentrial of president trump continues through the night on pbs, and our website and youtube. join us again tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. stern as our live coverage continues, and then right back here on the newshour for a bredown of the day's main moments. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming u >> today i'm proud to declare that the united states is in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the wor has never seen before. >> in davos, president trump boasts about his economy while in d.c. his impeachment trial begins. the noticeableosconomist jeph seed let us tells me why he thinks t president's figures don't add up. plus, the senate braces for another bitter partisan battle. i talk impeachment with constitutionalcholar noah feldman. >> what we need to do as a nation, it's an urgent time and we needership from the commander in chief. >> former national security official john carlin on cyber