captioning sponsored b newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the day after. president trump takes a victory lap, tearing into those who would have removed him from office. and spear nancy pelosi says he is "beneath the dignity of the white house." then, outbreak. as fatalities from the coronavirus continue to rise, we sit down with china's ambassador to the u.s. about containing the deadly illness. and, a vote of no confidence. after errors in iowa send the primary process reeling, the democratic party struggles to right its elections. plus, a syrianamily, a civil r, and an oscar nomination. speaking with the filmmakers

behind the documentary "for sama." >> i filmed just because i kw at i will be next-- killed or dead or injured. and i want to do my or this people. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> on a cruise witamerican cruise lines, you can experience mississippi river, the columbia american cruise lines fleet of small ships explore erican landmarks, local cultures and calm waterways. american cruise lines,roud sponsor of pbs newshour.

>>arnegie rporation of new rk. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security.e. at carneg. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions:du and indis. >> this program was made poible by the corporation for public broadcasting. pd by contributions to yo station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: the bitter feud between president trump and top democrat nancy pelos rplayed out l time before television cameras today. president trump claimed victory, one day after his acquittal in the senate impeachment trial. he celebrated the day among supporters at the white, and shot back at democrats for "corrupt" investigations. >> we went through hell, unfairly. did nothing wrong. did nothing wrong. i've done things wrong in my life. i will admit, not purposely. but, i've done things wrong. but, this is what thresult is... now, we have that gorgeous word. i never ought a word would sound so good."t it's calleal acquittal." now for over three.rough this

it was evil, it was corrupt, it kewas dirty cops, it was l and liars. and this should never ever happen to another president. ever. nancy pelosi is a horrib person. and she wanted to peach a long time ago. when she said, "i pray for the president, i pray for the president" she doesn'tayray. she may ut she pays for the opposite. >> woodruff: hours earlier, hoe speaker pelosi tore into mr. trump at a news conference she told reporters that she prays for him, and that despite the senate's verdict, his t impeachment house will stand forever. >> he's so off the track of our constitution, our values, our country, the air our children breathe, the water they drink, and the rest. he really needs our prayers. so, he can say whatever he wants, he can say whatever hes. wa but, i do pray for him, and i do so sincerely and without anguish.

he's impeached forever, no matter what he says,hatever carryines he wants t around. you're impeached forever. scar.e never getting rid of that and history will always recordth you were impeached for undermining the security of ourj couneopardizing the integritof our elections, and violating the constitution of the united states. ne year, we will have a ne president of the united states. that is an absolute imperative for our country. >> woodruff: we will talk to historians later in the program to examine this moment of political divide. in the day's other news, the nation chair of the democratic party is calling for a re- canvass of the iowa caucus results. tom perez said today the public must have confidence in the outcome, after tecical glitches marred the process. as of tonight, fmer south bend, indiana mayor pete buttigieg and vermont senator bernie sanders are in a virtual tie, with nearly all precincts reporting. t

we'll retuthis story, later in the program. china's coronavirus outbreak is still growing, with authorities reporting more than 30,000 cases, and more than 600 deaths. a hospital in wun says the dead now include a doctor who sounded the alarm in december and was criticized for it. in geneva, the world health organization said today it cannot tell when the virus will subside. >> there is a still a lot we don't know. we don't know the source of the outbreak. we don't know what its natural reservoir is and we don't properly understand it'ssm trsability or severity. to defeat this outbreak, we neea answers those questions. >> woodruff: we'll discuss all this with the chinese ambassador summary..s. after the news in the middle east, three moie palestinianstoday as violence surged in the wake of

president trump's peace plan. in the west bank, israrces shot and killed two palestinians during clashes in hebron. in jerusalem, curity footage captured an arab-israeli man firing at security fces, before he was killed. earlier, a palestinian ramd a car into israeli soldiers, injuring 12. australia is finally getting heavy rain to douse wildfires, but it comes at the cost of flooding. storm and flood erts went up today in new south wales and queensland states. the rain is expected to last several days. back in this country, a werful storm front brought flooding rain and tornadoes from the deet soh to the east, killing two people. in spartanburg, south carolina, uprooted trees blocked roads and damaged homes. the national weather service said a tornado may have touched down. the front also knocked out power to thousands and shut down schools. e u.s. justice department

sounded the alarm on china today. f.b.i. director christopher wray waed that beijing is working to steal u.s. technology by any mecessary. he spoke in washington, amid a related to chinese spying.ts >> the.b.i. has about a thousand investigations dinvolving china's attemp theft of u.s.-based technology. in a, 56 of our field office and spanning just about every industry a sector. they're not just targeting defense sector companies. the chinese have targed companies producing everything from proprietary rice and corn seeds to software for wind >> woodruff: also attorney general william barr warned that china could dominath next generation of telecommunications technology. he said the u.s. might have buy control of companies competing with chinese firms. the trump administration will

bar new york city residents from "trusted traveler" programs that speed passage through customs and airport security. today's announcement blames a officials from accessing motorn vehicle records. state officials say it's retaliation for the city's "sanctuary" law protecting migrants. the interior department today officially implemented plans to allow drilling and mining in parts of two national monuments in utah.it ollows president trump's move to downsize the graas staiescalante monument byt half, and ars ears by 85%. legal challenges wll thosegoing changes. and, on wall street, tor indexes hit new highs, as stocks the dow jones indu average gained about 89 points to close at 29,079. the nasdaq rose 63 points, and

the s&p 500 added 11. still to come on the newshour: china's ambassador to the u.s. on the deadly coronaviru democrats in disarray as we still don't know theinal results from the iowa caucuses. state of dision-- historians analyze a moment of peak partisanship. and much more. t >> woodrufre's no sign yet of the coronavirus oubtreak slowing down in china. more tha50 million people live in cities that have essentially been locked down to try to slow its spread. but the number of reported shot up throughout the week.ve and there are many questions about the way the chinese government has handled outbreak since the very

beginning. mass quarantine shelters havebe set up and there are reports tonight that infected peoplere being taken to designated centers. cui tiankai is china's ambassador to the united states. and he joins me now. mr. ambassor, welcome to the newshour. >> thank you. >> woodruff: i want to quote your president, prexi has said he called this epidemic a major te of china's system and capacity for governance. my question is can you say with confidence thaterou are any near controlling this outbreak? >> i think as a whole, the chinese nation is fighting this coronavirus no this is a tough fight. this is a big challenge of course, ut we have the confidence that we will eventually control the outbreak and win the battle, because we have very strong leadership under president xi jinping.

we have 1.4 billion people united and determined. and we have hundreds of thousands of doctors, medical workers, men and women in uniform and othe fighting at , e very front with such dedication and course, we are working so closely with other countries, with international organizations such as t world health organization. >> woodruff: at the same time we read, mr. ambassador, the hospitals in the affected areas are way over capu'acity. having to set up temporary shelters. is this an acknowlgment that this caster is moving faster -- ecis virus is moving faster than anyone there exd? >> you see, this is a new virus. it.t not long ago, nobody knew sois an entirely new type of challenge to everybody. and you see there are over a dozen peopleiving and working

there, and the province of hubei, of which wuhan is the capital city, the province has a population of around 60 million people, almost one-fifth of the u.s. population or thentire population of italy the province covers the area of the size of modern north daota. so you can imagine how difficult it could be to identify the virus, the new virus, deect the outbreak, and also mobilize the whole public health system and build to capacity. we are doing everything we can.f >> woo are the numbers that your government is producing every da numbers th the world can trust, the numbers of people who have been infected, the number of deaths? i'm asking because there are a real questiout this. >> now we are publishing up in

bers -- numbers every day. these numbers are the outme of very careful screening throughout the area. so, of course, there were still people who areed suspef infection, but not determined, not identified as truly affected by the virus. so that's why the numbersre changing every day. but we'rdoing our best to hae the numbers as accurate as possible. >> woodruff: at the same time, ithere is a chinesee premier who it's reported has ordered the authorities in wuhan to round up all the residents who were infected and to put them in isolation or in designated places. we are told that city investigators have bee to go into every home t check people's temperature. this sounds like soething that's not realistic. can this be done? >> according to our experts and according to institutions like w.h.o., so far the besyt wae

know how to stop the outbrea to stop the virus, is to cut off all possible channels of fection. the spread of the virus. so that is exactly what we are doing now. >> woodruff: but by the idea of going into individual, every single residence, it sounds like an enomrmous,ossible job. >> you see, everybody wants to go to the hospital to be sure whether they are affected, but there could be a huge crowd in the hospital. that's why we are goin to evry home, to serve the needs of the people. they need such determination, whether theyare affected or not. a>> woodruff: the reason k you, mr. ambassador, about whether the world can trust the numbers of your governnt is we know the initial report about the coronavirus, the doctor who issued his warn, his concern, he was criticized. he was detained. he was told tat he had made --

he had to sign a statement saying he had made false comments that severely disturbed the social order, an i'm quoting. three weeks later china declared a virus outbreak as a national emergency. how big a mistake was that? >> you see, as i said earlier, this i a new virus. nobody knew it beforehand. so at the initial stage, yougo have through a period of tests, a period of tryi to identify the new virus to know more about it, but this doctor was a very devoted doctor.uf >> woo there are reports now that he died. >> i'm really saddened by the news of his dea i think he is such a devot doctor. we are so grateful to him for whatever he has done in our voight effort ?oos but at a time when it was clear the government good news and this is bad news, there was ever a time for telling the truth in china,

is thisot the time? >> i think we are telling people the truth. that's whyou have such growing numbers every dy. of course, we also see that the number of people who e cured is aeady much larger than the cases of deaths. this is encouraging, t this is in the enough. we have to do more. we have to do much mor we. druff: will people be punished if theyo dn't -- if the news is not good, if they find the problem is bigger in some places than the government had realized? >> think the people will be encouraged to tell the truth, maybe at the initial stage such people are not fully understood and appedreciy everybody, this could happen anywhere, but our goal is to encourage people to tell the truth and confront the challenge. and people will only be punished if they fail to do that. >> woodruff: one other thing i want to ask you about,

mr. ambassador, so much to discuss clearly, trade relations and so much se between otwo countries, but that is the report that we mentioned earlie in the progro of the most senior u.s. law enforcement officials today, the attorney general, the head of the f.b.i. said that china's efforts to, in their words, eal american technology and trade secrets, especially by your tech giant huawei, constitute what they call thereatest long-term threat to american economic vitality. why shouldn't americans view >> that's a very good yes. i don't see any reason at all why they should be so worried, why they should have such suspicion without any grounds. have ben here for quite a while. i have heard such people putng all the blame, accusatio, groundless accusations on cha, but honestly i think these

accusations sound more like their own job description. >> woodruff: what do you mean? >> maybe that's something they are doing every day. >> woodruff: you mean they are jeopardizing american economic -- >> no, maybe they are tryg the steal things from other countries. you see, the bla they put, the accusations they put on companies like huawei are totally groundless. huawei is a privatelyowned company. but how can people be punished well in their research.oing very they are making themselves more this is the market. it's a good thing to be competite in the market. >> woodruff: well, i hope this is a convtion we can continue in the future. >> of course. any time. >> woodruff: china's ambassador to the united states, cui tiankai. thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: after the confusion following iowa's democratic presidential caucuses this pt monday, the candidates running for president are trying to find solid ground in the granite state of new hampshire. william brangham reports on the latest from iowa and the final sprint to win the first primary. >> we might want the decisions of the iowa caucus before the november election. >> brangham: in manchester, new hampshire today, vermont senator bernie sanders told reporters that despite iowa's delays, he's certain he's the winner >> what i want to do today threh days late is tk the people of iowa for the very strong victory they gave us at the iowa caucuses on monday night. >> brangham: sanders expressed frustration with the entire that regardless of who got more of iowa's delegates, he got more actual voters.

>> mr. buttigieg and i will end up with the same amount of tes, 11 now each, probab a little bit more. that's what will happen. it ain't gonna change. and what certainly is not gonna change is that in terms of the w popular vote, a decisive victory. >> brangham: former south bend, indiana mayor pete buttigieg is trying to ride the momentum from his strong showing in iowa. at a campaign event in merrimack, new hampshire today, he reminded supporters just how far his campaign has come. >> talking way down to these last few days that are bringing us to decision time and the importance of making sure that we are ready to win and makingr sure that we ready the leavedo once w >> brangham: buttigieg may have the slight edge in delegates, but sanders is the clear winner when it comes to raising money. the sanders campaign announced today that it pulled in a whopping $25 million last month. that's more than any other candidate raised in any fullr quar 2019. the buttigieg am reported today its raised near $3 million since the day after the iowa

caucus, which include more than 20,000 new donors to the campaign. other candidates, like former vice president joe biden, are acknowledging their struggles. we took a gut punch in iowa.>> rangham: at a cnn town hall in manchester last night, biden addressed his weak performance in iow t hesitatealso did to point out the weaknesses of his opponents, smming sanders for self-identifying as a , mocratic socialiast. >> senator sande a nominee for the party, every democrat in america up and down the ballot will have to carry the label himself.nders has chosen for >> brangham: biden also hit buttigieg on his lack of experience. >> for this party to nominate someone when's never held an office higher than mayor of a indiana, i do believe it's a risk. >> brangham: and at that same cnn town hall, billionaire activist tom steyer d out buttigieg's struggle to win over black voters. i can put together the kind of diverse coalition that we

need to have to beat trump and that's something, if you look at the people who are running for president, there are people who are struggling to do that, like >> brangham: massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, also coming off a disappointing showing in iowa, stressed party unity. >> and the only way we're going to turn that around, the only way we're going the make this government work for us starts right here in the democraticpr aries. >> brangham: warren will join six other democratic contenders on a new hampshire debate stageo ow night, the candidates' next chance to boost their position before the state's primary next tuesday. here to break down what this news out of iowa meanshe democratic party and the 2020 candidates is robert costa. he's the moderator ofas ngton week" and a national reporter for the "washington post." he joins us from the post. newsro bob, thanks for being here after this debacle in iowa, and i think that is the technic term for it, dnc chair tom perez

ys he wants iowa democrats to do a recanvass. can yo explain, wat does that actually mean, and how much does it matter? >> a recanvasss not a recount. a recount is a counting of individual votes. what the chaheirman of democratic party wants to do following all the frustration about the iowa oresults is back and look at the maps, look at the data that was reported from different prencts, and retabulate those forms rather than going t count each individual vote. >> braham: so i guess we'll wait the see what the results of that are, but what does this do for democratic party unity? we know this is not all the dnc's fault, what happened in iowa, but this has got to be disruptive for the internal ty.hanism of the par >> there is a real push in the democratic party based on mysa convons with many campaigns to move more toward a primary-only system in th, e futuat there are so many problems when it comes to caucuses and how it's done, how it's arranged, how results are

collected, that in the future, you could see the democratic party not only moving aay from iowa, a state that's 90% white, and new hampshire, a, tiny state in new england, moving more toward diverse states to begin the primary noinating contest, but also away totally from caucuses. th's a trend that's beginning only to build this week. >> brangm: so shifting now to the candidates, normally after the first big primary or caucus, there's this push to seize the mantle of being the front-runner. we now have two candidates whoar trying to claim that role of the victor out of iowa. how do you see that shaking out? >> you see in senator sanders a campaign that has been a movement. campaign going back to his own run in 2016. he's trying consolidate the left wing of the democratic party, looking ahead not only the new hampshire, which he won in 2016, but ahead to super tuesday in early march. and mayor buttigieg sees vice president biden's limed performance in iowa and sees a

lane ahead for himself to try to consolidate that centrist wing of the democratic party. it's notoing to be esy. there's a lot of competition, senator klobuchar and others6 forget former new york mayor michael bloomberg sitting there ready forsuper tuesday, spending millions on advertising.>> brangham: you mee limited performance of former en.e president joe bid this iowa result has got to seem like a pretty bad result for hi i mean, he referred to it as a gut punch himself. >> he did refer to it as a gut punch, but when you talk to hisa toppaign advisers and his ally, i was on the phone the with former governor of ohio, he said for vice presideniden, it's always been about south carolina, because he's making a case to the entire democratic party nationally that he's the candidate who can win not just white voters in iowa and older voters in new hampshire who are mostly white, as well, bt win over black voters, win over then re obama coalition serving

as vice president for president obama. long term he's the only want the date who can do so. but his campaign acknowledges publicly and more privately that he needs a bishowing in south carolina in a few weeks in late february. >> woodruff: what about elizabeth ware one of my colleagues mentioned earlier today ha she didn't do badly enough to get presan she didn't do well enough to get press. what happens to her in this mix? >> she's in a difficult political position, because raise a ton money, and she's competitive, but she's not ablee into his core support on the left of the democratic party at thisoint. but she does have some money, and she has a strong repiout among grassroots democrats who see her as a version of senator sanders, a lefwing ideology but someone who can maybe win over more voteers from the ceiner. she's pu from different parts of the democratic party. you cannot count her out.ll new hampshire e a test. it's a neighboring state to

massachusetts as well as being a neighboring states tator sanders and his home state of vermont. >> brangham: all right. bob costa of the "washington post" and washington week, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: we can never know how the eyes of history will look back on the present, but we can be sure this was a consequential week that exposes the deep divisions in our nation. we want to take a step back now to reflect on how this momolt in americanics compares to the past wit presidential historian michael beschloss. ellen fitzpatrick, an author and political historian at the university of new hampshire. and carolyn lukensmeyer, executive director emirita at ive national institute for discourse, at the university of arizona.me

and we welll three of you back to the news hour. michael, let me begin with you. has this been as consequential a week as those of us who cover all of this l the time think? >> an awful lot going on at once. one of the big themes is how divided thisation, is especially the state of the union the other night. judy, there re some ceremonies that wosre alminvented to bring the nation together, three anches of gvernment, the president speaks, usually a civilized atmosphere. that has been slowly breaking down over the years, but we have never seen a scene like the other night where the cooperation between the o parties was at such a minimum dnd you had a campaign chant of four more years such open hostility between the speaker and the president and the vice president. >> woodruff: ellen ndoutrick, is this a sta week? can you think of a time in modern history where we've seen this kind of sort of politics on fire if you will? >> not really.

i think that we're in sort ofar und waters here in which we're seeing a kind of performative element made for television. in the early 1980s, road rage started the process of introducing members of the audience and working references tohem into hi state of the union address, but here the whole process integrated a conferrihonor on michael rush limbaugh which truly was an innovation of sorts. so i think that trump is --um president is very ali to the elements elevision, mass media, and he dd hear the a -- he did gear the address toward those realities. >> woodruff: calyn lukensmeyer, as somebody wh looks at political discourse, political division, what does this moment say do yu thi

about our political -- about tho bodyitic? >> well, i think what we've seen, judy, over the last really more than four years but intensely in the last three or four is that what started out at hyperpartnership in congress is now like a virus that's gone across the country. an we have now embedded it, as o michael said, e of the traditions of our democcy that was intended to bring everyone together. so the potential for this becoming even worse during what we all expect to be a quite vicious 2020 campan is of high concern in terms of how we can as americans deal with the tifferences that are now so wri large. >> woodruff: so michael, as somebody who thinks about american history a lot, inhe past when we have had these kinds of divisions, w have americans dealt with it? >> well, one of two ways.

the good news i guess is that we have ben there before. this is not as bad as the 1850s when the country was being completely torn apart by slavery and it culminated in a civil war. over what you do to get out of the great depression. 1940 do you stand up to hitler? vietnam in the late 1960s was dividing american families. so you look back, how did we get out of these things? it's basically one of tw things, either, god forbid, want a il war or an externaln't crisis like wor war ii and the threat of hitler and the imperial japanese that caused americans resolve their differences and fight the war, or you have a preident who says, you know, part of my job is to bring people together. have a role to propose policies that divide people, but mart of my job is toefe cf state. dwight eisenhower in 1953 came

in at the time of mccarthyism, very bitter divisionsnd said, my big job is to unite this country. ellendruff: and fitzpatrick, i mean, whether it's one of the examples michael has cited or something else, do you see how this , untw the american people work their way through this? >> well, sometimes it doesn't happen as quickly as we would like. michael's reference to the civil war is a telling one. in 1856, charles sumner, a united states senator from massachusetts, was aost beaten to death on the floor of the united states senate by a congressman amid the debate over tnsas and slavery and is extension. it was a horrific moment, but in some ways a liminal one that dramatized the divisions that existed in the society as a whole. people to be anxious and worried

about the nature of these very public and very raw divisions that arbeing articulated by ent,leadership at this mom our elected representatives who seem to not be bringing people together as much asgeflect or mirroring these deep divisions. i guess the up side, if there is one, is that usually extremism overreaches and the pendulum does swing back. and that has been the case repeatedly in american history. >> woodruff: carolyn lukensmeyer, do you see the and i guess i'm sitting here thinking, is therefully -- is there any degree to which it's wetter to air our differences in this country rather than to trys sot of artificial compromise that papers over what people are really believing? >> well,udy, i think iave another source of good news

about how we can get out ofis given the work we do at the national institute for civil discourse, i am al oays ask often asked, am i optimistic or pessimistic about where we are in our ability to get out of it. and it's a very quick and easy answer for me. it all depends on what i pay attention to. if i watch the president's tweets, if i watch the national narrative, if i watch social media i'm very pessimistic aboue our ability to beyond this and out of it. but if i pay attention to what we have the privilege of seeing in communities all over thi nation on a regular basis, the vast majority of americans know how wrong this is, and they actually have a hunger to be connected across the divide. >> woodruff: and hearing that, michael, is it on any levelfo healthamericans to air their difference to, air their

ep divisions? >> yes. >> woodruff: because there are places in the world where people can't do that. >> that's whatounders wanted. they were trying to make the society different from england otwhere differences were allowed to be aired. everyone had the basically say, we agree with the king.of so that part is good. but am i allowed to complain about the founders, they asignuc ed too of this to the president of the united states. ey expected the first president, george washington, tt s. abraham lincoln called this the mystic chordsf memory, that this would unite the country in times of division. it's too difficult. the country is too broad. and donald trump, this is no a criticism of president trump, but his approach, he'd be the first to say,s toater very much t one part of the country and, you knowlfill that job of the president to propose controversial policies but as ha ha, he doesn't feel it's a

big part of his job to unite the country and cmbine groups tt don't otherwise agree, and the >> woodruff: so ellenconess. fitzpatrick, does that suggest that we need to theink about th kind of government that we have and whether it is equipped to deal with the world that we live in today? >> i think we need to think more, judy, about te kind of citizens we are, and it seems to their defense, michael, really emphasized that we tend toet fos that a democracy depends on the virtue and the knowledge nd the wisdom of the citizens themseld s. seems to me that there's such a highly personal character to these attacks thare being made in the public sphere today citizens to really go back to the fundamental principles and

values that we share in common. and in some sense thold our government to those fundameal values. and there's room in that for leaders to emerge. in 1950, fr instance, senator margaret chase smithtood i the well of the senate and confronted a member of her own party, senator joseph mccarthy, and said as much aso she wantedee the republican party gain power, she didn'twa to see the party ride to victory on what she calls the four horsemen of calumny. she menntioned ignorance bigotry and smear and fear.h and she said this isn't place for character assassination. otherwise we're really resorting to totalitarian methods. so there are moments for courageous people to step

forward and our government and take those tyes of stands, but it's up to the citizens to hold our officials accountable. >> woodruff: carolyn lukensmeyer, ellen fitzpatrick, michael beschloss, thank you. thanks, judy. thank you, judy. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: today in the ited nations security council, the u.s. condemned russia and the syrian government for an ongoing onslaught in idlib province, the last holdout of syrians opposed to the regime, wherea, syrian and allied forces have driven huneds of thousands from their homes. the offeive comes as two films about the syrian war are nominated fobest documentary in sunday's academy awards. one of them is "for sama." and we should warn viewers now, there are graphic images that are difficult to watch. as part of our ongoing arts and

culture series, canvas, nick schifrin reports thafor sama is about the depth of the war's destruction, and theriumph of love. >> schifrin: the darkest days of the syrian war, spared no one. not the children who lost their lives as they played. not the boys who lost a brother. and not the camerawoman behind the lens, documenting horror and confronting her own mortality.so >> iany places i filmed just because i know that i will be next-- killed or dead or injured. and i want to do my responsibility for this people, >> schifrin: waad al-kateab was the camerawoman, hamza al-kateab the doctor who became her husband. >> my first baby sama. her me is meaning, the sky. sky we love, sky we want, tthout air forces, withou bombing.

>> schifrin: and sama, their daughter, for whom the film wasa . in this warzone, they create a family. but dad is one of the la remaining. docts in aleppo, and this ne life, is surrounded by death. surroundedy scenes of the uniminable: waad films as a mother realizes her son isead, and carries his body through the >> i think for everyone who was living in a war zone that you always had the scenario like what i will do if my child wasll kied. what would i do if my wife was killed. what she would do if i was killed? in my head it's always like i lived this scenao that sama is lled, waad is killed so many times. >> schifrin: it didn't start out so fistically. waad filmed the hope, of the beginning of the syrian revolution in 2011. the pride these syrians felt in

takingn syrian president and the innocence of a doctor who became an anti-regimeti st, and the camerawoman who helped him.ar >> that two of the peaceful demonstration, it give us like a lot of hope, a lot of, well, we want to change something. not just tchange our life. you want to change like the whole world. >> schifrin: and then waad gets pregnant. she says sama represented hope even before she was born. >> so many times when i was getting out to film some people or some stories outside when the destruction happened, or any shelling happened, and i can feel sama.ik you knowthat feeling of the life that i have inside my body, which you know stood against every feeling, every bad feeling we've seenround. >> schifrin: but the rusan air force, and the syrian bombardment on aleo were relentless. their hospital is purposely

bombed, killing 53 of their coworkers and friends. waad says at one point, in aleppo, there was no time to grieve. the children are not all right. waad films as children play in b bombed o. >> she was like four years old when i asked her about the bus she was painting, like whato happenedis bus. >> ( translated ): do you know what his this bus? >> ( translated ): a cluster bomb. >> she would say clustbs. and she's four years old, you know. it was cluster bombs. they understand whappeninged how how they adasi to that ation. >> schifrin: they want the film to become a wakeup call.nd last weethey won best documentary at britain's equivalent of the oscars no i'm just trying to focu

about w we can really transfer this great reaction from the >> schifrin: today, the darkest days of this war continue, in idlib, where the syria and russians are trying to capture the last rebel stronghold. >> there is now over 3.5 million civilians who are living inside idlib, and the regime is still shelling and bombing them with the help of russia. >> schifrin: edward watts is" for sama's" co-director. >> and so that's why we're wearing these badges, stop bombing hospitals because we'rer ying to say to people in all these places we're going in the sort of gl ceremonies, what you see in the film is still happening today. and in some ways, worsthan ever. still inside syria, they didn't know whether they would survive. within one block oeregime got to

hospital, and hatha considered e unimaginable. >> they killed daughters in llont of their moms, they fathers in front of their wives dn't want to see sama in that situation, like for her to watch us as we were being killed. hamza told me like, let's just leave sama in one room and close the door, because they don't want them to know that she is our daughter. >> schifrin: in a war define, by lowhat kept them alive, was love. waad filmed this scene, right before hamza proposed. >> you don't know what will happen next, we don't know when any one of us cod be killed. so why, what are we waiting for, let's just like do that and responsibility with each other, and go through this journey to the end. and i'm just like, i love him. he's like just a great, not just a doctor with hifor me like my hero. >> glad to hear that.ri >> schn: they are still in love today, as they were on their wedding day.

>> in my wding when we were like dancing we didn't care about what's happeni yeah, we had like kind of sound of the shelling, but the music that we were doing it was like much, much louder.>> chifrin: and that's their final message: even when things look impossibly bleak, and ave woman ars, dead, nine months pregnant, and a baby seems lost, love and hope can overcome despair. >> i've seen that amazing isfeeling when like this b born, and everything we trying this is more stronger thanngll thshelli, all the bombing, all the crimes that the regime was doing. >> schifrin: for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: for sama was broadct on pbs's "frontline" and is streamis. for free on org/frontline and the pbs video app.

>> woodruff: christina koch returned to earth today after setting record for the longest female single mission in space, and setting other milestones along the way. amna nawaz has the story. >> christina koch, she is outum and a up and a huge smile. >> nawaz: after spending nearly 11 months in orbit aboard the international space station, 328 days, to be precise, christina koch, with her two crewmates, rachuted into kazakhstan aboard a soviet soyuz capsule early today. she returns to earth as a record-holder. the single longest stay in space by a woman. scott kelly holds the overall s record for tgle longest stay-- 342 days in space. and peggy whitson holds the record for cumulative time in space, 665 days. koch was asked about this mileste moment while still on

the space station two days ago. >> i think some people draw inspiration from milestones and from seeing someone work hard to achieve. together, outreach andings inspiration, make it worth the talk about these things we've d the honor to do. >> nawaz: last fall, koch drew international attentio and a trending hashtag, as hf of the very first a-women space walk alongside jessica meir, one of koch's six spacewas during her mission. but her walk with meir only happened after a previously- scheduled all-women spacewalk was scrapped because nasa didn't have enough spacesuits tfit koch told reporterhopes her work will inspire an even more diverse group of exorers. >> talking about these milestones for women is actually the way for us to be where wed are today. i mean i definitely look forward transparent and we don't have any underrepresented groups, but highlighting this story, itt

helps us to move toward a world where everyone who has a dream has to work equally as hard to achieve that dream. >> nawaz: koch, now graduated from nasa's academy program, worked at the goddard space flight center, and completed nasa's astronaut training in 2015.ri her time on the space station, she's participated in more than 200 projects, including protein red arch that coform cancer treatments, the impact of space on plant biology, and, of couetter understanding the effects of particularly on woght on humans, that is key, as nasa begins preparing for potentssions to the moon and mars in the coming decade. before departing the space station, koch said although she was ready to return to earth, she would miss these spectacular views, spending time with her crew, and some fun you can only ha in space.

she also took a question from an 11-year-old girl in north carolina. >> what advice would you give to a girl my age who wanted to become an astronaut when they grow up? >> i think the best advice i can give to anyone is to follow your passions, to know yourself, do what you love and also do what do the things that you think might be just outside your reach but they intrigue you and they call your name. i think that when you achieve those things you find out what you're capable of and it brings the colonel spend six months aboard the international space station. >> we some women n space. we have some women in engineering. at the same time, it's still not easy to be a mediocre women in engineer, a women astronaut, women's producer, anything of those things we have big problems here on our earth. you real ned a team where you recognize the skills of

everybody, especially when they're different than yourings. there are so many wonderful things goi on up there and i love that there's some attention to it. look at that person and gosh, i wonder if this cod be me or i wonder if this could be my. daught >> nawaz: for the moment, koch said she's excited to get back to gravity's pull. nd>> i live near the beach absolutely love the water, walking the dog on the beach, feeling the sand and the wind. those are thingsou can't really replicate up here. >> nawaz: today, she and her two crewmates went through preliminary medical evaluations. > oodruff: tonight's brief but spectacular features an artist who uses his worto shed light on the truth. paul rucker has created pieces

that explore mass incarceration, costemic racism, police brutality and thinuing legacy of slavery in this country.y his st also part of canvas, our ongoing series on art and culture. l >> t. riots happened on my birthday, they started on my birthday at april 29th, and that was one of the turning points for me that i realized i can't make artwork aut nothing, in making artwork, it's really important to bring truth to light. that's power. we repeat history over and over again, whethere as a country allow lynchings to take place, thousands of lynchings to take place without any kind of accountability, we hlice shootings or shooting by civilians such as the one that happened to trayvon martin. there's parallels to that system, there's parallel systems as far as slavery in the prison system, we went seamlessly from one system to other system. i dione time lapse that show the growth of the u.s. prison system over a couple hundred of years.

since 1976, we've built on average one new prison a week in the united states. we currently have 2.3 million people incarcerated right now, my work is not really aboutle. black history, it's not white histor this is american history. you have a visceral understanding of history when you hold something that was once used on humans. this is a ship's branding iron, it was used to brand africans, humans, before they were put on the boat. the branding is "s" for slave. i want to keep these pieces and show these pieces and i allow people to hold them so because they tell a story. these objects hold power over all of uright now, and until we as a society admit andsy confront that emic racism is sewn into the ve fabric of who we are as a country, we'll never be able to dismantle this ugly legacy of slavery. my father could have been lynched if he didn't yield a sidewalk to someone. myather could have been lynched if he said the wrong

word to someone. he lived ding a time where you had to be really brave, and unfortunately really careful. and right now, shouldn't have to be careful, but as person of color in america, particularly i black man in a, i have to be careful. so it's my responsibility to bring awareness regardless of how daerous it is. my name is paul rucker, this is my brief but spectacular take on the normalization of systemic racism. >> woodruff: you can find more brief but spectacular essays on our website at pbs.org/newshour/brief. on the newshour online right now, see how a spanish artist transformed an abandoned house into an inspiring public art piece in one city in arkansas. that's on web site, pbs.org/newshour.at and the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join uonline and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. m or funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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here's what's coming up. soaring, poverty is plummeting. >> trump touts a boomi economy his state of the union address. responding for the democrats, the governor of michigan tells me that is not what she's seeing in her swing state. then a different take. ♪ >> david byrne's "american utopia." i speak to theheormer talking s front man about his brdway hit and his incredible career. plus -- >> we're coming out as broke. >> we're here, we're bke, get us to it. >> america's favorite nanny, fran drescher, returns in the new sitcom "indebted".