captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruf on the newshour tonight: >> the question is addressed to counsel for the president. as a matter of law, does it matter if there was a quid pro ioo? >> woodruff: que of impeachment. senators ask the prosecution and the defense to explain their cases in the tal of president trump. then, outbreak. passenger flights to china are cancelled as americans evacuate. what we know, and what remains unknown, about the coronavirus. the silent tragedy of the wildfires. a continent watches in anguish as hundreds of millions of animals di >> we've all had a little bit of icry about animals, especially the ones that cowhen straightaway you just know that

that's it, there's just nothing you can possibly do to help them. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> majorunding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> fidelity investments. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> american cruise lines. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelsofoundation. committed to improving lives

through invention, in the u.s. c and developintries. 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.orn >> and with thing support of these institutions: >> this program was made g.ssible by the corporation for public broadcast and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: iis question time in the united states senate. the senators, acting as jurors in president trump's trial, began interrogating the lawyers on both sides today. amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> nawaz: after days of carefully scpted arguments... >> president trump has abused

the power his office, must be removed from that ofce. >> you're being asked to remove a duly-elected president. >> nawaz: ...day eight of the impeachment trial of president donald trump moved proceedings into a less predictable stage. house managers and mr. trump's oday began to field -wquestions-- up to 16 houth over two days-- from those 100 senators who've so far sat quietly and listened. >> nawaz: senators submitted written questions using these fi-in cards, read aloud by chief justice john robertsin alternbetween republicans and democrats. looming large over today's session, the battle over trialse tn including former national security advisor john bolton, who reportedly confirms in his upcoming book that president trump did link u.s. aid to ukraine to an investigation into a possible political rival, former vice president joe biden, and his son hunter. bolton has said he would testify, if subpoenaed. the very first question, jointly

submitted by republican senators collins, murkowski, and romney, sought guidance for senators weighing their ves.t >> if presidump had more than one motive for hialleged conduct, how should the senate ivconsider more than one min its assessment of article i? >> nawaz: counsel for the president, patrick philbin: >> once you get into a mix- motive situation, if there is both some personal motive but also a legitimate public interest motive, it can't possibly be an offense. >> nawaz: other questions, like this from democrat ed markey, sought to clarify the record. >>o that the record is accurate, did house impehment investigators ask mr. bolton to testify? >> nawaz: le house manager, adam schiff: >> the answer is yes, of courseo we asked johon to testify in the house, and he refused. >> nawaz: like much of trial, today's session unfolded largely along partisan lines. republicans asked questions of the president's legal team, and democrats asked questions of the democratic house managers.

republican senator ted cruz inquired about quid pro quo.s >>matter of law, does it matter if there was a quid pro quo? >> if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment. >> nawaz: democrats returned again and again to the undecided issue of witnesses. this question, from senator chuck schumer. >> is there a way to render an informed verdict without hearing eefrom these witnesses andg documentary evidence? >> there is no way to have a fair trial without witnesses, >> nawaz: the president, at a ite house ceremony, d some lobbying of his own. >> i wanted to just, if i could, mention senators, and maybe i'm being just nicto them because

i want their vote. >> nawaz: down pennsylvania avenue, meanwhile, hundreds gathered at the capitol to protest the president, and ask the senate to allow more evidence. >> if trials mean there are no witnesses, itrials mean there's no evidence, we are all in extreme trouble. >> nawaz: recent polls reflect a milar sentiment across the country. in a quinnipiac poll this week, 75% of those polled say witnesses should testify inp' mr. trimpeachment trial. that includes 49% of 9 republican of democrats, , d 75% of independents. inside the capitre pressure, but in more appetizing form-- a local bakery deliverins cakes ators with messages like "this is history in the baking," and "don't dessert democracy... let bolton testify." before that is decided, senators will continue their question and answer period tomorrow. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. desjardins and yamlcindor

are at the capitol today, and with me now. soyamiche, to you, first as we know, this is the first day of questions. what are we learning from the kinds of questions that these senators were posing? is it adding up to something that we have a better understanding of this case? >> after watching several hours of senors' questions what, we know is that senators are really sending questions to theirs partide. so if you're a democrat, most of your questions were to the house managers. if you're a republican, house of the questions were to the white house's team. at they've been asing are really questions that allow them to rebut and also repeat a lot of their opening statements. on the republican sie we saw questions like, "why was hunter biden being paid by burisma?" we saw questions like, "why should the president have to turn over this?" ded "is there anything wrong with the pre vague relationship and having foreign policy included in this-- n the aid?" so that's on the republican

side.c on the democrade we saw questions that were leading, that were like-- excuse me, they were more like, "please repeat some of the lsehoods that the president's lawyers have been talking about. what democrats and republicans were trying to do was really b hah sides make the argument that this is why the president should or should not be remove lisa, of course, has been keeping a spreadsheet, so probably get into more detail about what exact questions. senatorsepeating the points we heard early on. >> woodruff: so, lea, what out that. you have beenue told us earlier you were keeping a spreadsheet. give us more details. what kinds of questions were they asking? what does that tell us. >> this is a one, of mce pro as we go rotating in and out of the chamber and tracking all of this. judy, let's just look at the first three hours of the questions today. in tt time, seators asked 38 questions. those questions had one sort ofg largest cay. that was witnesses and evidence, which, of course, is the biggest topic in the news and the biggest deision senators have to make soon. there was another very large

category. that was motives. there were 13 questions about motives. seven of those que were about president trump's motives, six of those questions about democrats' motives. so, judy, as part of this, we're seeing both sides question each other's intent, and whether'r thsincere that the president himself had corrupt motives or not and whether democrats have proper motives. another thing ueout qstions, judy, i want to raise. i have a good source who told me, in fact, the president's house advisers-- mak meadows, rm jordan, the goup who sort of led the efforts in the house with him-- have bn consulting with republican senators in groups on what these questions should be. they have beenstrategizing and trying to form kind of a litigation strategy, full.ra now, sely, i spoke to mark meadows, and i asked him, "do you think senators have enough questions for two days of this?" esd he said, "yes, i do." >> woodruff: intng. so, lisa, give us a sense-- you know, you mentioned witnesses. where are we with this witness

decision, the decision of whether they're going to be called, whether they're there are going to be dcument? there are just a few indecided senators and they will determine whether witnesses are and attendawant to look especially at two of those senars. senator rob portman of ohio, and, also, senator lamar alexander of ten hssee. the not announced a position yet. and behind closed doors, they are seen atos sena who could go either way. now, on the other hand, we can also report that it seems some other senators are making decisions in want esident's favor. that include senator pat toomey of pennsylvania, who was undecided, derstand yesterday, and today has told myself and others thathe's skeptical about the ne to call witnesses. judy, this just comes down to wr think thertwo to three votes already of the four needed and that's why ttwo senators, portman, and alexander, are so critical. if ether one them was a "yes" that could change whether witnesses happen ort. >> woodruff: and that brings

me back to you, yamiche, because so much discussion about whether john bton, the former national security adviser couldlled as a witness. even lev parnas, the associate of rudy giuliani. w is the white house puing back on that? >> there have been so many developments around john boltonr and whetheot he's going to testifyitate today. what we learned today is the white house on january 23, five days before "the new york times" reported that john bolton sa in his manuscript that the president directly tied that aid to ukraine to investigations of democrats, five days earlier the white house sent a letter to john bolton that said this, "the manuscript appears tocontain gnificant amount of classified information, including yop-secret level." it went on to s, "the manuscript may not be published or otherwise diclosed without descreegz dlooegz of this classified information." d tonight, john bolton's lawyer put out a statement saying that he also responded to that. he said that he wrote bace k to ite house saying they do not believe there's any classified information in thisma script. he's also making the point he

hasn't gotten a response back. i should say really quickly. this is not the only itness going around. lev parnas was an associate of rudy giuliani. capitol today, saying he wants to be able to testify. so he physically came here. he couldn't get in because he's because he's been indicted on federal charges. what he told me is presideou trump knew all of this. and he also said he has multiple recordings of the president. heart from john bolton, was a witness walking around the capitol today. there were a lot of developments tonight, judy. >> woodruff: there certainly are. lisa desjardins, and yamiche alcindor, we ank you both. >> woodruff: and for more analysis of day eighhe senate impeachment trial, i am joined by: victoria nourse. hee was speciacounsel to senate judiciary committee in the early '90s, and served as vice president joe biden's chief counsel. and, jamil jaffer. he served as chief counsel and tesenior advisor to the se foreign relations committee, as well as senior counsel to the

house intelligence comttee and associate white house counsel to president george w. bush. hello to both the of you. we appreciate your being here. jamil jaffer, let me begin wih you. overall, listening to these questis today, what does it tell buhow close we are gettg to soe resolution? >> well, judy, i think we largely are where we began, which is it looks like the president is going to be acquitted. the democrats have just not been able to get number of votes they need from moderate republicans, and maybe even belosing votes oong democrats, with respect to convictithe president on both charges, not just the obstruction of congress charge, but also theuse of office charge. >> woodruff: how do you see overall, nour odeh, what's going on. >> i see greater movement towards having witnesss. we don't have any commitments. if you were one of the last senators who wanted to have witnesses you wouldn't be telling people at this point. why? you would want to avoid the

media scrutiny and criticism of your colleagues. people are out there on twit expert media. my former boss at the george h.w. bush justice department are republicans for the rule of law are saying we need witnesses. this is not going to be lost on senators, given the historic context of this trial. >> woodruf the main witness,sh, the discussion, is about, jamil jaffer, is john bolton, prident trump's former national security advisor. we just heard yamiche describe the back-and-forth, the letter from the white house official responding to john bolton's entorney. and he attorney writing back and saying, "there's really nothing classified to worry about. here." where does that dispute fall? i mean among the senators, you worked with the senate when tough decision like this have had to be made. mhow do you see that g down? >> yeah, you know, it's a hard situation because what y'e presumably talking about is

conversations between the president and the president of ukraine. the white house does take the view thatwconversations een heads of state, the content of those conversations, areoften thought to be classified. if we look at even the released transcript, right ar, classified. so there may be-- and the discussions around that, strategy they might adopt with respect to a foreign country, oftentimes the discussions are classified. information is cled or note is interesting. but, of course, if folks wanted tothe book could be provided in classified form to the senate. the challenge there for the white house,f course, is they believe that those conversations are protected by the executive privilege. by giving that information to the senate, they'd be waiving the privilege, and then you'reg opene door to the testimony that viktor afscme just talking about. >> woodruff: victoria, are you picking up from the questions andan answers todad the rest of what you're learning from tuke people around this matter, whether there's a strong argument being built for brinng a witness on like john bolton?

>> well, i think that the house nagers are tring to impale the claim of executive prs ilege. there en a fair amount of thgal eagle legalisms about this. e is a good argument that in fact the privilege haseen waived already by the president. and if that's true, then why not release it? i also think-- >> woodruff: meaning that he said, you know-- >> he said, "oh, yeahhn, bolton, this is false. i had-- it'sjust fae." that doesn't waive it for the entire book. but the oher thing is, john bolton is a pro. he's been around here since i was a baby lawyer for iran contra. an knows it's not legal to release that information. >> woodruff: what else goes gz into making the decision that the senators have to make a ds thide how to vote? we talk about the politics that plays into ths, the extreme pressure republican senatorset certainly areng from the

white house, from the republican mae rity. what ees into making that decision? >> look, i think te senators, when they ultimately vote on the articl of impeachment, are going to want to be able to say they had a full airing of the nooshz play, right, whetherou that's t witnesses, or testimony or documentary evidence or simply what the house managers have presented. i think every senator, regardless whereof they ultimately fall on the questionv of ction or exoneration, want to be able to say we had a ir and fulsome process. and that's going to waelg heavily in the minds of moderate republicans whether to introduce further evence. >> woodruff: victoria you're nodding. >> i agree with that. this is safe public issue thatl they w hint on the campaign trail-- "why didn't you we have protests. three-quarters of the american public think something is just a basic right in american trials. it's going to be hard to get over that concept. so they have to calculate whether it's more important to get the witness or to let this go because it is going to go on. that's the thing they don't

quite understand. is is all going to come out. the book's going to cme out eventually, in may-- or march, otatever. >> woodruff: oner thing i want to ask you both about quickly, and that is a statement by ann dershowitz, a lawyer the president's side, in so many words saying even if the president did what is alleged he did, even he scheduled the president of ukraine to do this, and there were somlitical motives involved, it's all right in the best interest of the united states. so saying that even if there were several motives, we can't-- we can't hold him accountable for it. >> well, you know, what's rginteresting about that ment that alan dershowitz laid out is that there are no standards for an impeachment trial, right. what is the law as applied re? he's invented, in one way, his view of what the law is. and, you know, and other members of the trial team have done that on both sides ofhe aisle, established what they think the burden of proof and the rule of law ought to be. but there is no rule here. and if the sene thinks, like the house did, that this conduct was inappropriate for the

president, abuse of his office, they can certainly convict and certainly remove the president. st doesn't look like they have the votes too that today. >> woodruff: what about this question ol,motive? >> wi don't really think it's a question of motive. i think we know he asked for a favor. it says "a favore it's on ocument. and, therefore, i find professor dershowitz view particularly impalatable because it's just not in american democratic atstory to be able to investige your political opponents. that's what autocratic regimes do. >> woo well, it's interesting because there are a number of arguments being made. that's one of them, and it'sge ing a lot of attention this afternoon and this evening. thank you both. d ask you t please continue to tune in as our special live coverage of the impeachment tral >> woodruff: and we ask you to please continue to tuns our special live coverage of the impeachment trial continues tonight, andhen again when it resumes tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. eastern-- check your local listings for that-- and online

on our website or yo >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a chartered plane landed in southern california, with 201 americans evacuated from thi l outbreak in china. they were screened during a stop in alaska and will be screened again. in china, officials reported nearly 6,000 cases and 132 deaths so far. we will have a detailed report after the news summary. president trump has signed the new north american trade agreement involving the u.s., canada and mexico. the white house ceremonyex uded top democrats. mr. trump used the moment to oclaim the so-lled u.s.m.c.a. will bolster growth and keep jobs in the u.s. >> the u.s.m.c.a. is the largest, fairest, most balancedo anrn trade agreement ever achieved. there's never been anything like it. loother countries are noing at it, but they can't be a

border like that because,ev beit or not, that's by far the biggest border in the world. in terms of economy, in terms of people, there's nothing even close. >> woodruff: t u.s.m.c.a. includes tougher rules on labor and automotive content than the old north american fade agreement. otherwise, it leaves existing trade largely unchand. it may be some months before the in israel today, the ruling cabinet delayed voting on annexing parts of the west bank, saying they need more time to make arrangements. the annexation would be part of the mideast peace plan announcep by president t meanwhile, palestinians turned out in the west bank and jerusalem to protest the plan. that led to clhes with israeli troops firing tear gas. syrian troops captured one of the largest rebel-held towns in the country's northwest. it is cated in idlib province, and controls a highway that connects damascus to aleppo.

syrian forces, backed by russiai assaults, have been battling to retake idlib. the president of neighboring turkey, recep tayyed erdogan, wahe russians today to stop the bombing. the european parliament has overwhelmingly approved britain' european union.the today's vote was the last major step before brexit officiay happens, on friday. some lawmakers were moved tos te they said goodbye. but, the parliament's brexit coordinator said thegeplit can no lbe avoided. >>oday's vote is not a vote in favor or against brexit. it's a vote for an order exit against a wild-- against a hard brexit. i will be very honest with you. if we could stop brexit by voting no today, i would be the first to recommend it. >> woodruff: the pro-brexit leader, nigel farage, waved

the british flag in farewell, and he told the gathering, "we love europe-- we just te the european union." separately, the european union rolled outecurity guidelines today r next-generation mobile networks. it did not ban chinese telecom giant huawei, despite u.s. warnings that china uses the company's technology for espionage. at the same time, huawei denied the berlin government has that evidence supporting the u.s. claim. back in this country, boeing year, for the first time since 1997. the company reported today that it ran $636 million in the red,l caused mby the grounding of the 737-max. the federal reserve ts benchmark interest rate unchanged today. fed chair jerome powell raid the curren is fostering faster growth and hiring. >> the umployment rate has been near half-century lows for

well more than a year and the pace of job gains remains solid. participation in t labor force by people in their pri working years, ages 25 to 54, is at its highest level in more than a decade. >> woodruf powell also said the viral outbreak in china could slow t global economy, but that it is too soon to tell by how much. and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 11 points to close at 2834. the nasdaq rose ve points, and the s&p 500 slipped two. still to come on the newshour: the infection spreads as americans evacuate, and china struggles against the coronavirus. weeks after iran's attack on a military base, a picture of traumatic brain injury becomes clear. australia grapples with the staggering loss of animal life in the historic wildfires. and, much more. ne

>> woodruff: c officials have confirmed over 6,00cases of the coronavirus, and it isth clea the pathogen is nowhere near contained. the world health organization will tomorrow determine whether to declare thia global hlth emergenc william brangham has the latest. >> brangham: as this coronavirus continues to spread at breakneck speed across china, global aviation industry is starting to isolate the country. at least ninmajor airlines are ng or stopping flights t and from mainland china, including british airways, united, american and lufthansa. the ited states and many oth nations are warning thr citizens to avoid any nonessential travel to the untry.

dr. trish perl is chief of infectious diseases at the university of tes, southwestern medical center. >> this kind of dynamism i have certainly not witnessed in my career. so, i would say that it is really very, very dramatic. >> brangham: chinese officials are still struggling with the pace of the this outbreak. hospitals here in wuhan, the epicenter city, have been errun and understaffed for over a week now. >> now, even the chinese health authorities admit that ts is, in terms of contagiousness, is much stronger thane thought. >> brangham: yanzhong huang is a public health researcher at the council on foreign relations. >> so scientists are saying that is that the cases is going to contin to increase >> brangham: to stop people leaving affect areas, the government has shut n unprecedented number of railways and roads, effectively locking down more than 35 million people. but, cases have now appeed

in over 30 diffent chinese provces, across a huge swath of the country. public health experts say the offici death toll will most certainly rise. >> the fact that we have... how many deaths we have today may not reflect the people who are still in ce, not doing well, who will ultimately will die. p that's one thing that we're >> brangham: dl and others also say the speed and efficiency of this virus' spread meansome of the containment efforts might have come too late. >> overall what they're doing is reasonable, as best i can tell. i mean, i think you have to understand that we're getting bits and pieces of what that response is. but i do wonder if a lot of this response actually happened in a way after the cat was out of the bag. >> brangham: on top of that,s shortageof protective gear and diagnostic kits make treating and tracking the virus especially hard:>> so everywhern

these shortages, including shanghai, where people, there's video clips showing that people facial masks in a store. >> brangham: as the lockdown has grown, anger igrowing as well. protestors in hong kong set fire to a public housing complex, furious that a proposed toquarantine site was goine put near their homes. globally, there are fewer than 100 official cases outside of china. it's in at least eight other asian nations, as well as australia, france, germany, canada and the u.s. the u.s. has just a handful of cases, and no known deaths. just for perspective, last year the flu virus is estimated to have taken the lives of more than 30,000 americans. dr. robert redfield, the head of the centers for disease control and prevention, tried to tamp down fears over this new virus. >> right now, there is nspread

of this virus inur communities here at home. this is why our currt assessment is that the immediate health risk of thinew virus topu the generaic is low in our nation. in the coming ys and weeks, we are likely to see more confirmed cases here and around the world, including the possibility ofto some person-erson spread. >> brangham: those 200 americans who were evacuated from wuhan have been screened three times already. they'll now spend three days in quarantine, where ey'll be watched for signs of the virus. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: u.s. tensions with iran peaked earlier this month whenhe u.s. killed a powerfu

iranian general, and iran responded by firg missiles into bases in iraq, with hundreds of u.s. troops on site. no americans were killed thaten night, but thegon now says that 50 service members suffered traumatic brain injuries. why did it take so long to announce that number? and what makes brain injuries so difficult to diagnose and treat? here's nick schifrin. >> schifrin: three weeks ago tonight, american rvice members braced for impact. s 11:00 p.m., the first of five barra ballistic missiles hit the al asad airbase in iraq. this was the aftermath: containers that had been bedrooms, incinerated. the remains of a building where drone operators were still working. soldiers who have been through a lot combat called it the biggest attack they'd seen. sergeant first class larry jackson.6 >> in myars in the army, i've never seen one of that magnitude coming from an opposition force. >> schifrin: we now know many of them suffered traumaain injuries, which can include anything from mild concussions, to serious injuries that affect

a person's sight, balae, and cognition. to talk about this, i'm joined by retir brigadier gener stephen xenakis, a psychiatrist, who previously advised the chairman of the joint chiefsn the physical and psychological effects of blast concussion. dr. xenakis, welcome back to the newshour. these service members were exposed to large explosions whes iranian missiles hit that base. explain the challenge of treating brain injuries that you can't see. >> well, there's no significant black-and-white diagnostic test. and we havtoe se just clinical judgment all the time to be able to determine how much exposure thae was and how bd the exposure was and what the impact is having on the soldiers. and you have to monitor them for somed of time. these are serious. and i'm-- these are very serious injuries. this has been the signature injury of the fighting in iraq and afghanistan, and the been hundreds of thousands of

soldiers and service members who have been dispoaze exposed to i. and it gets very important for us to identify them and get them into treatment as soons we can. >> you mentioned no diagnostic test that can definitely determine the kind of brin injury. and you mentioned you have to monitor. th's because what? e symptoms can take days or weeks to come out, right? >> >> they can take a while toer . the impact occurs, the service members. they'll have a headache. ybe thy'll lose their hearing. they'll have ringing in the ears. they'll fezyl dizthey'll feel confused, and some will feel better, and then a day or two later thell start feelingery bad and they'll have rerecurrent symptoms. >> and the pentagon has been questioned, "why did it take so long?" that is the reason, some of ese symptoms can take while

to emerge. >> right, and you don't want to right at that point say, "hey, you're badly injured." >> you mentioned this a couple of times, but i think it's important to put a point on it. these are injuries that you can't see but they can be extremely serious medium and long term.bs >>utely. i have had patients who have had-- feel so bad, that they've trlvd to kill them. and i've had patients who feel so bad, and it's so disorganized them. i had one that committed murder. and i have others that have committed very terrible crimes. so these e debilitating. >> it is something that the military, i know, has taken very seriously, and you know thatmo than most. i remember back in 2011, i did r in afghanistan, and the military talk then about how they were trying to change the culture. i mean, how far has military culture come, or not come, from the daysere it was, you know,, hey, look, soldier, you've got all your arms andle .

go back to the front lines." how much has that culture changed ot? >> i think it has. and i think that people recognize that it's a problem, just like ey now in football. and they know this is one of thi very seriojuries you can have. but, you know, service members, you kn, want to bout there. they want to do their job. they want to fulfill their duties. they want to be with their other soldiers and airmen and so forth. so it's a very tough thing to do. and it's a hard call to say,un", i think weve got to takyou off the field right now." >> and it's not just a call, right? at one point, the military decided this had to be mandatory. there was a diagnostic test established so that irtain soldiers and marines or airmen were close enough to a bomb blast, they were actually forced to leave the front lines. of procedures that if you were 25 meters or so, sometes a little bit more, we were going to take you offline for 24 hours at least, maybe a little bit

longer. because we also know that your brain s to rest after it's been exposed to this kind of impact. >> has the military gone far enough? anquestion about culture is also diagnosis.o to perly diagnosis a tramatic brain injury, you have to have a hebaseline. ismilitary doing enough to get these baselines for its service members sotet can diagnose possible brain injury? >> i think there's a lot of work d we could do, we should be doing it. and i think we should get the assessments right up front. ne should be tracking people. we should k that they're going to have long-term and i think we ne develop better tests. >> immediately after the attack a few weks president trump and military officials said that there were no casualties. a week ago, when the number of these tramatic brain injury victims was at least publicly about 30 or so,de the pre trump was asked about these injuries, and said this:

>> i heard that they hadad hes. i don't consider them very serious injuries, relative to other injuries ie seen. i've seen wh iran has done with their roadside bombs to our troops. i've seen people with no legs, and with no arms. i've seen people that were horribly, horribly injured in that area, in that war. in fact, in many cases put those bombs, put there by soleimani, who's no longer with us-- i consider that to be really badju es. no, i do not consider that to be no. injuries. >> "i do not consider that to be bad injuries." veterans groups have crithcized commander in chief. does that language downplay the severity of these injuries? >> i think i does, and i think it has. and i think it really downplays the impact that this can have in meas members lives, service members' lives for many years. so they know thatve they' been injured. they know that it really will be

a problem, many thof them, foe rest of their lives as they try and get into civilian life and with their families. and i think even though there are other injuries that are more visible, like amputations, this is serious, and we shou respect that. >> and it is important for the military to do that institutionally, but also for all of society to realize that not all injuries are visible. >> well, and th's kind of the challenge with mental health, right. we don't see the problem as visibly as we do if you've had some kind of other phical trauma. and we've got a lot of people out there that are really suffering because of depression, xiety, all sorts of problems. >> dr. stephen xenakis, thank you very much. >> thanks for havi. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: a memoir of trauma and

transformation. the latest pick for the "now read this" book club, "hrt berries." australia's bushfires have devastated the country's wildlife and their habitats. experts say the lives of some species, whose populations were may hang in the bable levels, science correspondent miles omo'brien has this report down und animals.rts to rescue it is part of our coverage on the eading edge" of science and technology, and it was produced in collaboration with the weather app, my radar. and a warning: viewers may find some images disturbing. >> reporter: fresh out of veterinary school in august, caitlin mcfadden is enduri a taxing trial by fire. >> oh, i know, i know. >> reporter: this little guy is an australian possum, a

marsupial related to kangaroos, who has earned the namhissy pants. he's got good reason to make all the fuss. his paws are burnt and bloody after a fast-moving fire ripped through his home in the conjola national park in southeastern australia. >> the blood and the hrible looking of the paws is actuallyo thing, because it means that there's new cell growth, essentially. >> reporter: so, it's healing? >> healthy tissues. >> reporter: we're seeing healing?ea >> we're seeing healing, yeah. >> reporter: hissy is one of about 20 animals injured in this season's record firedethat have heir way here to the milton veterinary clinic. a i know we've all had a little bit of a cry abomals, especially the ones that come in when straightaway you just know that that's it, there's just notoing you can possibly do help them. >> reporr: australia's epic fire season has taken a devastating to on animals. >> we just pulled him out of the fire.

reporter: one scientist estimates perhaps a billion could be dead, but no one really knows for sure. sally sherwen is director of wilife conservation and science at zoos victoria. >> so, a lot of these species that live in these habitats that have already been a critically low numbers as a result of other threats in the landscape and fragmented populations. they were already at very w, vulnerable levels, and one event like this does have the potential to completely wipe them out. >> reporter: it is bad news for a species hanging on for dear life. these are grey-headed flying foxes, one of the world's largest bat species. they are threatened, their numbers on a precipitous decline, mostly due to lost habitat. >> they're not doing great. they are protected, but this summer has been a disaster. we may have loss between 10% an the remaining species. >> reporter: megan davidson is c.e.o. of a conservation group

called wildlife victoria. flying foxes are particularlyto sensitiveat. reco-setting temperatures th summer in the midst of a three- year drought prompted a hugese die-off of thenimals, even before the worst of the fires. >> an unaginable amount of forest has been burned. we're waing to see what that means r the survival of the species in the next few months. >> reporter: flying foxes are pollinators that travel great distances, much faher than honey bees, meaning they play a critical role in rejuvenating ackened forests. in some ways, fire scaed forests bounce bacquickly. but it is more complex, and much slower, than i thought. >> we assume that the bush bounces back. we see the green returning to the forest. but some of the critical assetst he animals need will take centuries to come back. >> reporter: fire ecologist mike clarke is a professor of zoology with la trobe university in melbourne. he showed me why many species

won't be returning to the charred forests anytime soon. their homes are gone, and not easily replaced. >> these are the kinds of hollows that are crucial as den sites or as refuges for native wildlife in australia, but we don't have anything like a woodpecker that can create a hollow. >> reporter: without woodpeckers, tree limbs are hollowed out only with fungus and termites. and here, most of the trees are hardwood eucalyptus.ow >> so just to o that size of a log, you're looking at then it falls off the tree and ave termites and the fungi to do their bihollowing it out, and you might be looking at r 50 or 100 years. >> reporter: a new generation of trees will also have a hard time taking root. acacia trees bear tough armored seeds that are dependent on fire. that is hard as it can be.

>> what it requires to germinate is for the seedcoat to be broken, and that only happens typically after fire. >> reporter: but the climate emergency is making bushfires more frequent. not enoughime for the trees to mature enough to produce seeds. >> this is different. fires have been more extensive, more intense and more frequent. and all of those attributes to fire are crucially important in terms of what the fauna had evolved to cope with. we've changed the dials and we can't expect them to simply adapt. that's not how evolution works. >> reporter: in the meantime, a small army of committed volunteers is doing what it can to help orphaned and injured animals. doug thron is a california-based professional drone pilot and environmentalist. >> i kept seeing the feed coming up on the news of the burned-up koalas. and i was like, "i'm going to australia." b i'm suause, yeah, just did literally actually -- yeah, itme

brougho tears to see koalas all burned up. helping find animals in need here using his one-of-a-kind drone. this kangaroo appears to be nursing burnt paws, but by the time vets wi tranquilizer guns got there, they could not find the animal. hopefully, good news.ev inal other cases, doug thron's drone, able to detect the heat signatures of animals, has led to speedy rescues. >> the most important part of the infrared drone is it saves a huge amount of time, and it also allows accessibility, where a human couldn't really walknto after a hurricane or a fire. that's the most important part p getting to animals as quick sible, because oftentimes, they're going to die very quickly if somebody doesn't save the >> reporter: somebody like lorna king, a passionate animal lover in bairnsdale, victoria. she is nursing back to health an

11-month-old koala named rivers. >> he was just wandering alone on his own, no mother in sight. so, he was picked up by the rangers from the departmenand thoughinto the vet to be checked out an said no except for that tiny burn, he's fine. a reporter: lorna is a well regarded, licensmal rescue expert. the fires have kept her on the run. all kinds of wildlife are crawling out of the bu forest looking for food and shelter. nee day we met her, she was responding to a rvous homeowner with a snake in hi garden. >> right below us, it that's right keeps going in and out. >> here he comes, it's only his head again. it's all right. >> reporter: she made quick work of it. >> it's okay, buddy, it's okay, it's okay. it's a nice little red belly black. will kill you in a minute. >> reporter: it's just one more reminder of the scope of this

disaster. >> i said to a friend of mine the other day, you know, how can we correct all this? you know, i was feeling despair said, will we ever get it back? and he said "yes, but it will take a long time." because it's just-- you know, it's just ruined, everything's gone, everything. r orter: at least rivers will likely survive, and find his way back to some unburned sh. in the meantime, he was content to spend a little time in my lap. a sweet reminder of what is so precious, and in such peril, here. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in southeasternli au >> wdruff: next, jeffrey bro speaksith the author of the january selection fo"now read this" book club with th "new york times," and announces next month's selection. the conversation is part of "canvas," our ongoing series on

arts and culture. >> brown: r book club pick for january was a memoir by a young woman writing her way out of pain. "seabird island ing up on the reservation" in british columbia, of traumas and tris, of a breakdown and, perhaps, a breakthrough, through the very act of writing. it's titled "heart berries," and author terese marie mailho joins us now from lafayette, indiana. terese, thanks for doing this, and thanks for being part of our book club. i just described, in my way, your book. >> thank you. >> browni just described in my way your book. wonder how you describe it. >> yeah, i grew upn the e abird island band, which is an indian rese british columbia, canada, and we experienced abject poverty.my anmother was an activist analso a poet, and father was an artist and very abusive.

and it was a long journey going from that to where i am now as a professor with a tenured-track job, you know. i couldn't deal with pretending anymore that i wasn't unscathe, you know. so the book is a lot about that. >> brown: so one of our readers, tina hitchcock of derry, new hampshire, she says, "how mindful of audience were you as you were writing?" >> i gus i knew the more singular the story, theore is would ring true for people. if they could see the small details of my fe and if i could be individual in my account of ti think people would see me more clearly. the better you articulate your stsh the more is connects. >> brown: people wondered about the process here. "writing in real time it reads like a journal, or was rewritten, and was there a lot of editing later on? how did it work? t >> i h come up with a thesis which was a novel, you

know, connected short stories, really. and my protagonist was an indigenous woman, and she was very articulate, very strong and willful, and at the enevery story, there would be, like, a murky ending where there would be some type of darkness, you know, some history ofha pain was never really identified. and then eveintuall just cut out all the contrivance. >> and realized why don'ts jut write what i was writing in my journal? and why don't i fie tune that to make an art? >> brown: lisa pinot osan antonio, she asked for any insight about how peoreple, ers, can perhaps access their deeper feelings, especiallyo bri them out as you were able to through writing. >> i had always tried to present rmal, even in grade school. like, i tried to act like nothing was gog on in my home. and i got so good at that, and then i just found myself

breaking down because it wasn't working. like, diving deep into your history is really painful, but i ink it could be bettean trying to cover it up, you know. better the more you try to think about your life as a story. >> brown: diane beckman ofh norolina asked about a particular word that you used. she asked, perhaps you can put more broadly how words like "squaw" were used. >> my first encounter with the squaw trope was watching "peter pan." and you see the little indian, gid that's the only representation you get as a child. and there's something about that, that is just ingined in you. so for me, squaw was, like, such a loaded word that represented savage, that represented how omen, indigenous women have been degraddown to this

caricature, or this, like, trope. sometimes, when i feel at my worst, ifeel like i inhabit i feel like that's all that people saw sometimes. when i would tell them that i'm from an indian reserve or i'm indigenous, they would see the clt he, or whalittle they knew about indigenous people. anit was such a hurtful term they had to really consider that language and make it part of the thesis question in one of the parts of the book. >> brown: you know, i think for manyeople, the real power here is hearing an untold or under-told intory. >> i ta topic like the violence indigenous women face,t e way we're marginalized, i think those sisters coming through, and we have native women writing books that arefu

very meani and i think it's so important that we tell our own stories. you know, i think that coond of control can give some new text to whateo le have been seeing about us. and i think it's so important. i see it more and more, but it's also because i'm just entering this rund an meeting other native women writers, you know, that i'm experiencing what feels like a revelation that we can speak our own stories. so it does-- it makes me really proud. >> brown: all right, we'll continue our conversation and have it all e lnd on our "now read this" facebook page. for now, terese thrie mailhot, k you for joining us. >> thank you. >> brown: and before we gour pick for february. it's called "american prison," and its subtitle says it all, "a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment." world of a private prison andhe the for-profit crrections system. we hope you'll read along with

engaged readers and membersother around the country and join us the newshour for "now readere on this," our book club partnership with the "new york times." >> woodrf: and on the newshour online, you'll find more from our january "now read this" author terese marie mailhot, including an annotated page from "heart berries" in which she talks about coming to termwith her father's life, and death. all that and more is on our website, www.pbs.org/newour. and that's the newshour for now. continue watching our ongoing special coverage of the and again starting tomorrow at, 1:00 p.m. eastern. i'm judy woodruff.l for us at the pbs newshour, thank you, andu we'll see on. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> before we talk abur

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♪ . hello, everyone, and welcome here's what's coming up. >> our plan is 80 pagesnd is the most detailed proposal ever put forward by far. >> president trump finally unveils his middle east peace plan amid hisme senate impeach trial. i talk to jared kushner, the president's trusted adviser, son-in-law and architect of this plan. then we speak to both jordanian and american negotiators in previous peace deals. plus - >> donald trump has been very, very good for the business of journalism. >> ada leg american broadcaster, ted cop hikoppel ts about the state of