ca tioning sponsored by newshourroductions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: >> the question is addressed to counsel for the presiden as a matter of law, does it maer if there was a quid pro quo? >> woodruff: questions of impeachment.hm senators ask the prosecution and the defense to explain theirin casehe trial of president trump. then, outbreak. passenger flights to china ares cancelledericans evacuate. what we know, and what remains unknown, about the coronavirus. plus, australia burning. the silent tragedy of the wildfires. a continent watches in anguish as hundreds of millions of animals die. >> we've all had a little bit ol a cry about animals, especially the oneshat come in when straightaway you just know that

that'it, there's just nothing you can possibly do to helpib them. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> fidelity investments. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> amise lines.ruer can >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving livesin throughntion, in the u.s. and developing countries.

on the web at lemels.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthurnd ftion. committed to building a more just, verdant and peacefulwo ld. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: th > program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it is question time in the united states senate. the senators, acting as jurs in president trump's trial, began interrogating the lawyers on both sides today. amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> nawaz: after days of carefully scriptedrguments... >> president trump has abused thpoof h oe, mt be

removed from that office. >> you're being asked to remove a duly-elected president. >> nawaz: ...day eig of the impeachment trial of president p donald trump moved proceedings a intoess predictable stage. house managers and mr. trump's t leam today began to fieldfi questions-- up t16 hours-worth over two days-- from those 100ov senators who've so far sat quietly and listened. >> nawaz: setors submitted written questions using these fill-in cards, read aloud by chief justice john roberts,a ernating between republicans and democrats. looming large over today's session, the battle over trialat atnesses, including former national securiisor john bolton, who reportedly confirms in his upcoming book that presint trump did link u.s. aid to ukraine to an investigation into a possiblepo tical rival, former vice president joe biden, and his son wnter. bolton has said ld testify, if subpoenaed. the very first question, jointly submitted by republican senators

mncollins, murkowski, and , sought guidance for senators weighing their votes. >> if president trump had more than one motive for his alled conduct, how should the senatemo conside than one motive in its assessment of article i? >> nawaz: counsel for the >> once you get imixed-bin: motive situation, if there is both some personal mo but also a legitite public 'tterest motive, it ca possibly be an offense. >> nawazother questions, likese this from democrat ed markey, sought to clary the record. >> so that the record is accurate, did house impeachment investigators ask mr. bolton to testify? l >> nawad house manager, adam schiff: >> the answer is yes, of course we askedohn bolton to testify in the house, and he refused. nawaz: like much of trial, today's session unfolded largely along partisan lines.ic repus asked questions of the presidens legal team, and democrats asked questions of the democratic house managers. republican senator ted cruz

inquired about quid pro quo.qu >> as a matter of law, does it matter if there was a quid pro quo? >> if a president does something which he belves will help him get elected, in theublicin erest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.z: >> naemocrats returned again and again to the undecideo issue of witnesses. this question, from senatorsc chucmer. >> is there a way to render an informed verdict without hearing from these witnesses and seeing documentary evidence? >> there is no way to have a fair trial without witnesses, >> nawaz: the president, at a white house remony, did some lobbying of his own. >> i wanted to just i could, mention senators, and maybe i'm being just nice to them becauset i want their vote.

>> nawaz: down pennsylvania avenue, meanwhile, hundreds gathered at the capitol to prost the president, and as the senate to allow more evidence. >> if trials mean there a no witnesses, if trials mean there's no evidence, we are all in extreme trouble. >> nawaz: recent polls reflect n similar sentacross the country. in a quinnipiac poll this week, 75% of those polled sayse witnesses should testify in mr. trump'smpeachment trial. that includes 49% of republicans, 95% of mocrats, and 75% of independents.th insidcapitol, more pressure, but in more appetizing form-- a local bakery deliverinl cakes ttors with messages like "this is histo 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 nehour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: and our lisa w desjardins and yache alcindor

are at the capitol today, and so, yamiche, to you, first.o as we know, this is the first day of questions. whatinare we leafrom the kinds of questions that these is it adding up to something that we have a better understanding of this cas? >> after watching several hours of senators' questio what, we know is that senators are really sending questions to their party's side.s so if you're a democrat, most of your questions werto the house managers. if you're a republican, house o the questions were house's team.s what they've been asking are really questions that allow them to rebu and alsoepeat a lot of their opening statements. on the republican sideem we s questions like, "why was huntern being paid by burisma?" we saw questions like, "why should theresident have to turn over this?" and "is there anything wrong with ther president vague relationship and having foreign policy cluded in this-- i the aid?" so that's on therepublican side. on the democratic side we saw

questions that were leading, that were like-- ecusethey were more like, "please repeat some of the falsehoods tt the prnident's lawyers have b talking about.ab what democrats and republicans were trying to do was really have both sides make the argument that this is why the president should or should not be removed. lisa, of course, has been keeping a spreadsheet, so she'll probably get into more detailai about what exact questionse but this wasly a lot of senators repeating the points we heard early on. >> woodruf, so, l what about that.t you have beenue told us earlier you were keeping spreadsheet. give us more details. what kinds of questions were they asking? what does that tell us. >> this is a one, of my produceu as w go rotating in and out oft the chamber and tracking all of this.us judy, let's look at the first three hours of the questions today. in thaton time, setors asked 38 questions. those questions had one sort of largest category. that was witnessesnd evidence, which, of course, is the biggest biggest decision senators have to make soon.ak there was another very large

categy. that was motives. there were 13te questions about motives. seven of those questions were aut president trump's motives,es six of those questions about democrats' motives.y, so,cr jas part of this, we'rere seeing both sides question each other's intent, and whether they're sincere that the president himsel had corrupt motives or not and whether democrats have proper motives.iv another thing about questions, judy, i want to raise. i have a good source who told me, in fact, the preside's house advisers-- mark meadows,do jim jordan, the group who sort of led the efforts in the house with him-- have been consultingu with republic senators in groups on what these questions should be. they have beenld strategizing ag trying to form knd of a litigation strategy, full. now, separately, i spo to mark meadows, and i asked him, "do, you think senators have enough questions for tw days ofhis?"i and he said, "yes, i do." >> woodruff: interesting.er sve lisa, g us a sense-- you know, you mentioned witnesses. where art we wit this witness decision, the decision ofo

whether they're going to ben called, whether they'rehe are going to be document? >> theret are j a few indecided senators and they will determine whether witnesses are call nw ort.. and attendant we want to look especially at two of those senators. senator rob portman o ofo, and, also, senator lamar alexander of tennessee. they have not announced a position yet. and behind closed doors, theyrs are seen as setors who thuld go eou way. now, on the other hand, we can also repo s that itms some other senators are making decisions in want presidens favor. that include senator pat toomeyy of pennsylvania, who was undecided, we understandst yesterday, and today has told myself and others that he's skeptical about the to call witnesses. judy, this just comes down to we think there are two to three votes already of the four needed to call witnesses. and that's why c these two senators, portman, and alexander, are so critical. if either one ofhem was "yes" that could change whether witnesses happen or not. >> woodruff: and th brings

me back to you, yamiche, because so much discussion about whethee john bolton, the former national security adviser could be callee a witness. even lev parnas, the associateoc of rudy giuliani. back onhiat?hite house pushing >> there have been so many developments around john bolton and whether or not he's goi to testifyitate today. what weda learned today is the white house on january 23, five da before "the new york times"m reported that john bolton said in h manuscript that the president directly tied that aid democrats, five earlier thes of white house sent a lettere to john bolton that said this, "thp manuscriptars to containn significant amount of classified information, including top-secret level."to it went on to say, "the manuscript may not be publishedi or otherwise disclosed without descreegz dlooegz ofis classified information." and tonight, johnas bolton's lawyer put out a statement saying that he also responded to that. he said that he wrote back to the white house saying not believe there's any classified information in this manuscript. he'ski also the point he

hasn't gotten a response back.k. i should say reallykl qu this is notqu the only witnesst going around. lev parnas wasg an associate of rudy giuliani. he was walking aroundul the capitol today, sayi to be able to testify. so he physically came here.et he couldn't in because he'ss on a g.p.s. monitoring system ndicted on's been federal charges.rg what he told me is president and he also said he has multiple recordings of the president. apart from john bolton, there was a witness walking around the capitol today. there were a lot of developments tonight, judy. >>ni woodruff: there certainly are. lisa desjardins, and yamiche alcindor, we thank you both. >> woodruff: and for moreei analysis of dat of the senate impeachment trial, i am joined by: victoria nourse. she was special counsel to thehe senate judiciary committee in the early '90s, and served as vice president joe biden's chiej counsel. and, jamil jaffer. he served as chief counsel and senr advisor to the senate foreign relations committee, well as senior counseto the house intelligence committee ani

associate white house counsel to president george w. bush. hello to both the of you. we appreciate your being here. mil jaffer, let me begin with you. overall, listening to thesee questions today, what does it tell buhow close are gettingge to some resolution? >>lu well, judy, i think wel gely are where we began, which is it looks like the president is going to be acquitted. the democrats have just n been able to get number of votes thed from moderate republicans,ub and maybe even be losing votes among democrath respect to conviction of the president o both charges, not just the obstruction of congress charge,a but also the abuse offfice charge. >> woodru: how do you se on.rall, nour odeh, what's going >> i see greater movementvi towards h witnesss. we don't have any commitments. if you were one ofmi the last nators 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

colleague people are outur there on twit expert media.rt h.w. bush justice department are saying we need witnesses. republicans for tf rule law are saying we need witnesses. this is not going to bet lost on senators, given the historic context of this trial. >> woodruff: the maintr t witness,s discussion, is bolton, president trump's former national security advisor. we just heard yamiche describecr the back-andeorth, theer from the white house officialal responding to john bolton's attorney. and then the attorney writing a back saying, "there's really nothing classifiedll to worry about. here." i mean among the senators, you worked with the senate when tough decision like this havee had to made. how do you see that coming down? >> yeah, you know, it's a hard situation because what they're prumably talking about is

conversations between tt president an president of ukraine. the white house does take the view that conversations between heads of state, the content of those conversations, are often thout to be classified. if wefi look at even the releasd transcript, right are, classified. there may be-- and the discussions around that, respect to a foreign country, oftentimes the discussions are classified. so the question whether the information is classified orot is interesting. but, of course, if folks wanted providedook could be in classified form to the senate. the challenge there for the white house, ofe course, they believe th those conversations are protected by the executive privilege. by giving that information to the senate,rm they'd be waiving the privilege, a then you're opening the door to the testimony that viktor afscme just talking about.ng >> woodruff: victoria, are you picking up from t questionse and answers today and the rest of what you're learning from tuke people around this matter,e whether there's a strong bringing a witness on like john bolton? >> well, i think that the house

managers are trying to impaleal t claim of executive privilege. there has been a fair amount o legal eagle legalisms about this. there is a good argumenthat in fact the privilege has been waived already by the president. and if that's true, then why not lease it?? i also think-- >> woodruff: meaning that hei said, you know-- >> he said,oh, yeah, john bolton, this is false. i had-- it's just." fal that doesn't waive it for the entire book.o but the other thingoh is, bolton is a pro. he's been around here since i i was a baby lawyer for iran contra. and hen knowt's not legal to release that information. >>le woodruff: what else goes gz into making thdecision that e senators have to make as they decide how to vote?e? we talk about the politics that plays into this, the extreme pressure republican senators certainly are getting from the whiar house, from the republican

majority. what else goes into making that? decis >> look, i think thet senators, when they ultimately vote on the articles of impeachment, are going to want to able to sayy they had a full airing of thee nooshz play,ight, whether that's through witnesses, or testimony or documentary evidence orcu simply what the house managers have pkesented. i thvery senator,er regardless whereof they ultimately fall on the question of conviction or exoneration, want to be able to say we had a fair and fulsome process.ce and that's going to waelg heavily in the minds of moderats republichether to introduce further evidence. nodding.uff:id victor >> i agree withyo that. this is safeth public issue that campaign trail-- "why didn't you allow witnesses?"ne we have protests. three-quarters of the american public think something is just a basic right in american trials. it's going to beard to get over that concept. so they have to calculate whether m it'sre important to get the witness or to let this go on. because it is going go on. that's the thing they don't quite understand. this is allit going to come out.

thook's going to come out eventually, in may-- or march, whatever. >> woodruff: one other thing ii want to ask you both about quickl and that is a statement by alan dershowitz, a lawyer ont the president's side, in so many words saying even if the president did what is alleged he did, even he scheduled the u president aine to do this, and there were some political motives involved,t's all right because he also believed it was in the best interest of the united o states. so saying thateven if there were several motives, we can't-- we can't ho him accountable for it. >> well, you know, what's interesting about that argument at alan dershowitz laid out is that there are no standards for an impeachment tria. rig what is the law as applied here? he'se? invented, in one way, his view of what the law is. and, you know, and other members of the trial team have ne that on both sides of the aisle, established what they think the burden of proof and the rule of law oug be. but there is no rule here. and if the senate thinks, like the house did, that this conduct was inappropriate for the president, abuse of hisey offic,

an certainly convict and certainly remove the president. just doesn't look like they hae otes to do that today. >> woodruff: what about this question ofbo motive? >> well, i don't really think it's a question of motive.of i thinkwe know he asked for a favor. it says "a favor." it's on the document. and, therefore, i find professor dershowitz's view particularlywi impalatable because it's ju not in american democratic history to be able to investigate your politicalon onts. that's what autocratic regimes do. >> woodruff: well, it's interesting because there are a number of arguments beingat mad. one of them, and it's getting a lot of attention this afternoon and this evening. thank you both.h. and we ask you to please continue to tune in as our special live coverage of the impeachment trial >> woodruff: and we ask you to please continue to tune in as our special live coverage of the impeachment trial continues tonight, and tn again when it resumes tomorrow at 1:00 p.m..m eastern-- check your local listings for that-- and line on our website or youtube.

>> woodruff: in thday's other news, a chartered plane landed in southern california, with viral outbreak in china.from tht 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.es 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 ceremonyre excluded top democrats. mr. trump used the moment to proclaim the so-called u.s.m.c.a. will bolster growth and kp jobs in the u.s. >> the u.s.m.c.a. is the largest, fairest, most balanced and modern trade agreement ever achieved. there's never been anything like it. other countries are now looking at it, but they can't be an' rder like that because,

believe it or not, that's by far the biggest border in the world. in terms of economy, in terms of people, there's nothing even >> woodruff: the u.s.m.c.a. includes tougher rules on labor and automotive content than then olth american free trade agreement. otherwise, it leaves exting trade largely unchanged. it may be some months before th agreementplemented. in israel today, the ruling cabinet delad voting onca annexing parts of the west bank, saying they need more time toed make arrangements. a thexation would be part of the mideast peace plan announced by predent trump. meanwhile, palestinians turned out in the west bank and jerusalem to protest the plan. that led to clashes with israeli trps firing tear gas. ofrian troops captured on the largest rebel-held towns in the country's northwest. it is located in idlib provincet and controls a highway that connects damascus to alepp

syrian forces, backed by russial air as, have been battling to retake idlib. the president of neighboring turkey, recep tayyip erdogan, warned the russians today to stop the bombing. the european parliament has a overwhelmingroved britain's departure from the tropean union.an today's vote was last major step before brexit officially happens, on friday. some lawmakers were moved to tears as they said goodbye. but, the parliament's brexit coordinator said the split ca no longer be avoided. >> today's vote is not a vote in favor or against brexit. it's a vote for an orderly brexit against a wild-- against a hard brexit. i will be very honest with you. if we could stop brexit byt bevoting no today, i woulhe first to recommend it. >> woodruff: the pro-brexit leader, nigel farage, wavedfa and he told the gag,farewell,

"we love europe-- we just hate the european union." separately, the european union rolled out security guidelinesfo todanext-generation mobile networks. it did not ban chinese telecom giant huaw, despite u.s. warnings that china uses the company technology for espionage. at the same time, huawei denied a german newspaper report that the berlin government has evidence suppting the u.s. claim. back in this country, boeing says that it lost money last year, for the first time sinceth 997. the company reported today that it ran $636 million in the red, caused mainly by the grounding of the 737-max. the feral reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged toda fed chair jerome powell said the growth and hiring.stering faster >> the unemployment rate hasc been near haltury lows for

well more than a year and the pace of job gains remains solid. participation in the labor force by people in their primworking years, ages 25 to 54, is at its highest level in more than a dede. >> woodruff: powell also said could slow the global economy,d 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 28,734. the ndaq rose five points, an the s&p 500 slipped two. still to come on the newshour: the infection spreadser ans 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.

>> woodruff: chinese officials have confirmed over 6,000 cases of the coronavirus, and it is clear that the pathogen is rgwhere near contained.. the world healthization will tomorrow determine whethero to declare this a global health emergency.m willangham has the latest. >> brangham: as this coronavirus continueto spread at breakneck speedcross china, the global aviation industry is starting to isolate the country. at least nine major airlines are limiting or stopping flights to including british airways, united, american and lufthansa.e thnited states and many other nations are warning t citizens to avoid any nonessential travel to the country. dr. trish perl is chief of

infectious diseases at theni rsity of texas, southwestern medical center. >> this kinof dynamism i haves certainly not witnessed in my career. so, i would say thatt is really very, very dramatic. >> brangham: chinese als are still struggling with the pace of the this outbreak. hospitals here in wuhan, the t epicenter city, have been overrun and understaffed for over a week now. >> now, even thehinese health h authorities admit that this is,e is of contagiousness, is much stronger than we thought. >> brangham: yanzhong huang is a public health rearcher at the council on foreign relations. >> so scientists are saying thas i the cases is going to continue to increase >> brangham: to stop people leaving affected areas, the government has shut down an unprecedented number of railways and roads, effectively locking down more than 35 million people. but, cases have now appeared in over 30 different chineseav

provinces, across a huge swathhu of the country. public health expts say theof icial 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 care, not doing well, who will ultimately will die. so that's one thinghat we're >> brangham: dr. perl and others also say the speed and efficiency of this virus' spread means some of the ctainment efforts might have come too late.al >> ovwhat 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 sponse 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:n top of that, shortages of proctive gear and diagnostic kits make treatingma and tracking the virus espially hard: >> so everywhere, we have seen

these shortages, including shanghai, where people, the's video clips showing that peoplet are actually fg for the facial masks in a store. >> brangham: as the lockdown has grown, anger is growing as well. protestors in hong kong set fire to a public housing complex, furious that a proposed quarantine site was going to beu near their homes. 100 official caseide ofer than china. it's in at least eight other australia, france, germany, canada and the u.s. the u.s. has just aul of h cases, and no known deaths. just for perspective, last year the flu vis is estimated to have taken the lives of more than 30,000 america. dr. robert redfield, the head of the centers for disee control and prevention, tried to tampev down fears over this new virus. >> right now, there is no spread

of this virus in our communities here at home. this is why our current assessment is that the immediath health risk o new virus to the general public is low in our nation. in the coming days and weeks, we are likely to see more confirmed cases here and around the world, including the possibility of some person-to-person spread. >> brangham: those 200 americanr whoevacuated from wuhan ve been screened three times already. they'll now spend three days in quarantine, where they'lbe watched for signs of the virus. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. od >> ff: u.s. tensions with iran peaked earlier this month when the u.s. killed a powerful iranian general, and iran

reponded by firing missil into bases in iraq, with hundreds of u.s. troops on site. night, but the pentagon now says that 50 service mbers suffered traumaticrain injuries.ti why did it take so long to announce that number? and what makes brain injuries sn difficult to diagnose and treat? here's nick schifrin. >> schifrin: three wes ago tonight, american service members braced for impact. at 11:00 p.m., the first of five barrages of balli missiles hit the al asad airbase in iraq. this was the termath: containers that had been bedrooms, incinerated. ere remains of a building drone operators were still working. soldiers who havbeen through a lot of combat called it the biggest attack they'd seen. seeant first class larry jackson. >> in my 16 years in the army, i've never seeone of that magnitude coming from an opposition force.in f >> schiwe now know many of them suffered traumatic brain injuries, which can include anything from mild concussions, to serious injuries that affect a person's sightbalance, and

cognition. to talk about this, i'm joined by retired brigadier general stephen xenakis, a psychiatris who previously advised the chairman of the joint chiefs on the physid psychological effects of blast concussion. dr. xenakis, welcome back to the newshour. these service members were exposed to largexplosions when these iranian missiles hit that base. explain the challenge ofg treatrain injuries that you can't see.ee >> well, there'sca no signi black-and-white diagnostic test. and we have to use just clinical judgment all the time to be able to determine how much exposure there was and howo bad the exposure was and what the imctt is having on the soldiers. and you haveso to monitor them r some period of time. these are serious. ande i'm-- these ary erious injuries. this has been the signature injry of the fighting in and afghanistan, and there's been hundreds of thousands o soldiers and service members who

it. been dispoaze exposed to and it gets very important for us to identify them and get them intoon treatment as s as we can. >> you mentioned no diagnostic test that can definitely determine the kind of brain injury. au mentioned you have to monitor. that's because what?r. the symptoms can ta days or weks to come out, right?t? >> >> they can take a while toto emerge. the impact occurs, the service members. ty'll have a headache. maybe they'll losead their hearing. they'll have ringing in the ears. they'll feel dizzy, they'll feel confused, and some will feel a bette then a day or twoso later they'll start feeling very bad andll ha rerecurren symptoms. >> and the pentagon has been questioned, "why did it take so long?" that is theso reason of these symptoms can take a while

to emerge. >> right, and you don't want to right at that point say,ey " 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 youn' see but they can be extremely seriousedium and long term. >> absolutely. i have had patientsbs who have had-- feel soad, that they'veey tried to kill themselves.ad, it's so disganized them. i had one that committed murder. and imu have o hers thate so these are debilitating.imes.i >> it is something that the miliry, i know, has taken very seriously, and you know that i remem back in 2011, i did a story in afghanistan, and th ilitary talk then about how they were trying to change the culture. i mean, how far has military culture come, or notme cfrome, the days where it was, you know,, hey, look, soldier, you've got a your arms and legs. go back to the front lines."

how mu t hast culture changed or not? >> i think it has. and i think that peopleze recogthat it's a problem, just like they do n in football. and they know this is one of the very serious injuries you can have. but, you know, service members, you know,ce want to be out ther. they want to do their job. they want to fulfill their duties. they want to be with their othe soldiersd airmen and so forth. so it's a very tough thing to do. and it's a call to say,un", i think we've got to take y off the field right now."." >> and it's not just a call, righ at one point, the military decided this had to be mandatory. there was a diagnosc test established so that if certain soldiers and marines or airmen were closeo enough a bomb blas they were actually forced to leavere the front lines. >>es yeah,e set in place a set of procedures that if you were 25 meters or so, sometimes 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 has to rest after it's been exposed to this kind of impact. >> has the militaryone far enough? and one question about culture is also dagnosis.gn to properly diagnosis a tramatic brain injury, yout have to havea baseline. is the military doing enough to get these baselines for sevice members so it can later diagnose possible brain injury? >> i think there's a lotn of wk we could do, and we should be doing it. and i think we shouldet the we should be trac people.. we should know that they're going to have long-term problems. and i think we need to develop better tests. t >> immediately after the attack a few weeks ago, president trump and military ficials 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, the president ump was asked about these injuries, and said this: >> i heard that they had

headachs. i don't consider them veryi serious injuries, relative tour other is i've seen. i've seen what iran has done with their roadside bombs to our troops. i've seen people with no legs,s, and with no arms.le i've seen pehat were y,rihoribl borlyreinju in fact, in many cases put those bombs, put there by soleimani, who's no longerith us-- i consider that to be really bad injuries. no, i do not consider th to be bad injuries. no. >> "i do not consideinthat to be baries." veterans groups have criticized the commander in chief.ef does that language downplay the severity of these injuries? >> i think io aesan,i i think it really downplaysnp the impact t tats can have in meas members lives, servi members' lives for many years. so they know that they've been injured. they know that it really will by

a problem, many of them, for the rest o their lives as they try and get into civilian life and with their families.m ugh therenk even t are other injuries that are more visible, like amputations, this istaus, and we should respect that. >> and it is important for the mitary to do that institutionally, but also forfo all of society to reaze that not all injuries are visible. >> well,ib and that's kind of tl cge with mental health, right. we don't see the problem as visibly as we do if you've had some kind of otherlsi popleca fngca o depression,y anxiety, all sor problems. >> dr. stephen xenakis, thank you very much. >> than for having me. >> woodruff: stay with us. cing up on the newshour: a memoir of trauma and

the latest pick for the "now read this" book ub, "heart berries." australia's bushfires have devastated the country's wildlife and their habitats. experts say the lives of some species, whose populations re already at vulnerable levels, may hang in the balance. science correspondt miles o'brien has this report from down under on efforts to reue animals. it is part of our coverage on o the "leading 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 outf veterinary school in august, caitlin mcfadden is enduring a taxing trial by fire. >> oh, i know, i know. >> rep guy is an australian possum, aorle tr:i marsupial related to kangaroo

who has earned the name hissyea pants. he's got good reason to make all the fuss. his paws are burnt and bloody after a fast-moving fire rippedh ugh his home in the conjola national park in southeastern australia. >> the blood and the horrible looking of the paws is actually a good thing, because it means that there's new cellrowth, essentially. >> reporter: so, it's hling? >> healthy tissues. >> reporter: we're seeing'r healing? >> yeah, we're seeing healing, yeah. >> reporter: hissy is one of about 20 animalinjured in this season's record fires that have made their way here to the ilton veterinary clinic. >> i know we've all had a littl bit of cry about animals, especially the ones that come in when straightaway you just know that that's it, there's just nothing you can possibly do tou help them.us >> reporter: aalia's epic fire season has taken aal devastating toll on animals. >> we just pulled him out of the fire. >> rerter: one scientist

estates perhaps a billion could be dead, but no one really knows for sure. sally sherwen is director of wildlife conservation and science at zoos victoria. >> so, a lot of these species that live in these habitats thah have already been a critically low numbers as a result of other fragmented populations.e and they were already at very low, vulnable levels, and one eve like this does have the potential to completely wipe them ou >> 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 precipitoinon decl mostly due to lost habitat. >> they're not doing great. they are protected, but this ummer has been a disaster. we may have loss between 10% anr 20% of taining species. >> reporter: megan davidson is20 c.e.o. of a conservation group called wildlife victoria.

flying foxes are particularly sensitive to heat. record-setting temperatures this summer in the midst of a three-a drought prompted a hugeht die-off of these animals, even before the worst of the fires.th >> an uniginable amount of forest has been burned. we're waiting to see hat thatto means for the svival of the species in the next few months. ra reporter: flying foxes are pollinators thatl great distances, much farther than honey bees, meaning ey play a critical role in rejuvenating blackened forests. in some ways, fire scarred forests boue back quickly. but it is more complex, and much ower, than i thought. >> we assume that the bush bounceback. we see the green returning to the forest. but some of thcritic assets that the 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 ch.red forests anytime soon their homes are gone, and not easily replaced. >> these are the kinds of c hollows that acial as den sites or as refuges for native wildlife in australia, b we don't have anything like a woodpecker that can create a hollow. >> reporter: without woodpeckers, tree limbs areer hollowed out only with fungus and termites. and here, most of the trees are hardwood eucalyptus. >> so just to grow to that sizet of a log, u're looking at probably at least 100 years, then it falls off the tree and the termites and the fungi have itto do their bit hollowinto out, and you might be looking at another 50 or 100 years. >> reporter: a new generation of trees will also have a hard tims takingroot. acacia trees bear tough armored seeds that are dependent onep fire. that is hard as it can be. >> what it requires to germinat is for the seedcoat to be

broken, and that only happensr typically aftere. >> rorter: but the climate emergency is making bushfires more frequent. not enough time for the trees to mature enough to produce seeds. this is different. re intense and more frequent.e, and all of those attributes to fire are crucially important in terms of what the fauna had c evolved e with. we've changed the dials and we can't expect them to simplypl adapt. thats. not how evolution work >> reporter: in the meantime, a small army of committed volunteers is doing what it cant to helpned and injuredim s.im 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." literally actually -- yeah, itid brought me to tears to see

koalas all burned up. >> reporter: so now he is helping find animals in need here usng his one-of-a-kind drone. this kangaroo appears to bein nuburnt paws, but by the time vets with tranquilizer gun, got thhey could not find the animal. hopefully, good news. in several other cases, doug thron's drone, able to tecte, the heat signatures of animals, has led to speedy rescues.ue >> the most important part of the infrared drone is it saves s huge amount of time, and it also allows accessibility, where a human couldn't really walk intor aft hurricane or a fire. that's the most important part as possible, because oftentimes, they're going to die very quickly if somebody doesn't save them. >> reporter: somebody like lona king, a passionate animal lover in bairnsdalevictoria. she is nursing back health an

11-mon-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 depent and brought into the vet to be checked out and theyno except for that tiny burn, he's fine. >> reporter: lorna is a wella regarded, licensed animarescue expert. the fires have kept her on the run. all kinds of wildlife are crawling out of the forest looking for food and shelter. the day we met her, she was responding to a nerv homeowner with a snake in his garden. >> right below us, it that's right keeps going in and out. >> here he comes, it's only his head agin. it's all right. >> reporter: shmade quick work of it. >> it's okay, buddy's okay, it's okay. it's a niceittle red belly ack. e.will kill you in a minut >>eeporter: it's just one m 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 and i said, will we ever get it back? and he said "yes, but it will take a long time." because it's just-- you know,ta it'just ruined, everything' gone, everything. >> reporter: at least rivers will likely rvive, and find his way back to some unburned bush. 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 southeastern australia. oo >>uff: next, jeffrey brown speaks with the author of the january selection fornown read this" book club with the "new york times," and announces the conversation is part of "canvas," our ongoing series on arts a culture.

>> brown: our book club pickck for january w a memoir by a young woman writing her way out of pain. it tls of growing up on the "seabird island indian resertion" in british columbia, of traumas and trials, of a breakdown and, perhaps, a breakthrough, throughery act of writing. it's titled "heart berries," and author terese marieot joins us now from lafayette, indiana. terese, anks for doing this, and thanks for being part of our book club. i just described, in my way, your book. >> thank you. >> brown: i just described in my way your book. i wonder how you describe it. >> yeah, i grew up on the seabird island band, which is an indian reserve in british columbia, canada, and weed experien abject poverty. and my mother was an activist and also poet, and my father was an artist and very abusive.

and it was a long journey going om that to where i am now as a professor with atr tenurek job, you know.no i couldn't deal with pretending anymore that i wasn't unscathe, you know. so the book is a lot about thot. >> brown:ne of our readers, tina hitchcock of derry, neampshire, she says,s, "how mindful of audience were you as you were writing?" >> i guessti i knew the more singular the story, the more is would ring true for people. if they could see themall details of my life and if i could be individual in my account tf tiink people wouldul see me more clearly. the better you articula your tsh the more is connec. >> brown: people wondered about the processnop here. "writing in real time it reads like a journal, was it rewritten, and was there a lot of editing later on? how did it work? >> i had to come up with a thesis which was a novel, you know, connected short sties,

really. and my protagonist was an indigeno woman, and sh was very articulate, very stng and willful, and at the end of every story, there would be, like, a murky ending where there would be some type of darkness, you know, som history of pain that was never really identified.nt and then eventually i just cutcu out all the contrivance. >> andtr realized why don't i jt write what i was writing in myj rnal? and why don't i fine tune thatat to make an art? p brown: lisaot of san antonio, she asked for any insight aboutow people readers, can perhaps access their deeper feelings, especially to bring them out as you were able to through writing. >>wa i had tried to present normal, even in grade school. like, i tried to act like nothing was going on in my home. and i got so good at that, a i th just found myself breaking down because it wasn't

working. like, diving deep into your history is really pinful, but i think it could be better than trying to cover it up, you know. i think you understand yourself better the y more try to think about your lifenk as a story. >>y. brown: diane beckma of north carolina asked about a particular word that you used., she aske perps you can putt mor broadds how w like "squaw" were used.. >> my first encounterth the squaw trope was watching "petere pan." andou see the little indian girl, and that's the on representation you get as aa child. and there something aboutut that, that is just ingrained in you. so for me, squaw was, like, such a loadedh word represented savage, that represented hownd women,enous women haven been degraded down to this

caricature, or this, like, trope. sometimes, when i feel at my worst, i feel like i inhabitab that word.d. i feel like that's all that people saw sometes. when i would tell them that i'm from an indian reserve or i'm indigenous, they would seehe cliche, or what little they knew about indigenous people. and it 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. t brown: youo know, ink for manynk people, the real powr here is hearing an untold or under-told story. >> i thinkr- a topic like the violence iigenous womenface,e, or the way we're mrginalized, i think those sisters coming through, and we have native women writing books that are very meaningful, and i think

it's so important that we tell our own stories. you know, i think that coond of control can give sme new tex to what people have been seeingg about us. and i thk it's so important. i see it more and more, but it's also because i'mustnteringri this round and meeting other native women writers, you know,n that i'm experiencing what feels like an revelathat we cann speak our own stories. sos-it d it makes me really proud. >> brown: all right, we'll continue our conversation anan have it all online and on our "now read this" facebook page.ge for now, terese marie mailhot, thank you forie joining us. >> thank you. >> brown: andubefore we gour pick for february. it's calledfe "american prison," and iys subtitle it all, "a reporter's undercover journey into the business ofco punishment." shaneof baueres ts inside the world of a private prison and the for-profit corrections system. we hope you'llre read along with us, get involved with many other

engaged readers and members around the country and join us on our facebook page and here on the newshour for "now read this," our book club partnership with the "new york times." >> wdruff: and on the newsho online, you'll find more from our january "now read this" author terese marie mailhot, including an annotated page from eart berries" in which she talks about coming to terms with her father's life, and death. all that and more is on our o website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for now. continue watching our ongoing c specierage of the impeachment trial this evening, rrand again starting to atar 1:00 p.m. eastern. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshourthank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> before we talk about your investments-- what's new? >> well, audrey's expe..

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