tv PBS News Hour PBS February 17, 2020 6:00pm-7:00pm PST
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judy: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. outbreak as people around the globe released from quarantines, e number o americans diagnosed with the coronavirus grows. with early voting underway in nevada, amy walter and tamara keith examine next battleground in the race for the democratic pnasidential noon. and protests in greece over the fate of refugeestuck in the country as waves of migrantsin cont to aive on greek shores. >> i'm very angryor both sides. the greek people and from the refugees because they put a lot of people in h one spot. living conditions are terrible. judy: all that and more on
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tonight's "pbs nour."un annor: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has bee by --ided >> before we talk about your inewstments, what's >> audrey's expecting. >> twins. >> grandparents. >> we want to put money aside for themo change plans. >> let's see what we can adjust. >> change in plans. >> ok. >> mom, are you painting again? you could sell these. >> let me guess, change in plans? >> at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of t plan. nouncer: bnsf railway. american cruise lines. consumer cellular. collette. orwilliam and flora hewlett
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foundation, for than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions topr ote a better world at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbsat n from viewers like you. thank you. >> we'll return to judy woodruff and the full program after these headlines. a new government report from china on the coronavirus is giving us a clearer picture of the outbreak.
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thetudy from the chinese center for disease control and prevention found that 80% of the cases were mild. only 5% of patients becameic crly ill. the fatality rate for the confirmed cases was 2.3%. that is a lower death rate than for sars and mrz but the world health organization says every scenario is still on the table. the real issue is whether we're seeing sufficient simmunity transmission o of china and at the present time we're not observing tha the risk is very high inhina. it i high regionally and horh around the. that is not the risk is high of pandemic. reporter: china has reported over 1800 deaths from the virust and mon 72,000 cases. more than 300 americans are back the united states after being held nearly two weeks on a cruise ship in japan.
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at least 14 tested positive for the coronavirus. they are being treated or quarantined at facilities in california, texas and nebraska. syria's presidents bashar al-assad congratulated his military forces for major gains in the last rebel-heldng stlds. the russian back blitz recaptured all of the of the aleppo region. the heavy bbardment has driven nearly 9,000 people to the turkish border where they are struggling against freezing cold. >> there ares40 famil without shelter. there are no heaters. the conditions are difficulty, the weather is, har especially at night. in the past 10 days circumstances have been very tough, especiallng on y children, ill from the cold. stephanie: turke has warned
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syriaian forces t halt the offensive. in afgnistan, taliban fighters kept up their attacks through the weekend despite a pending peac deal with the u.s. militant commanders said they will not stand down until they receive orders that a week-long reduction in violence has begun. a senior taliban leader saidalhe ill not be signed until the end of the month. back in thisountry, swollen rivers are cresting in mississippi and tennessee after days of heavy rain. the pearl river topped out today atearly 37 feet in jackson, in central mississippi. that was short of historic levels but officials had to release water from dams, caung deluge in communities downstream. governor tate reeves warned more is on the way. governor: we do anticipate more heavyainfall for this region. in fact, we could see as much as one to two inches of rainfall on monday night, tuesday, into
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tuesday evening. we could potentially see additional rainfall later in thk stephanie: in western tennessee, a landslide in hardin county caused two houses to topple off a bluff overlooking the there were noeports of injuries. a state senator is in virginia toda rejected a ban on the sale of assault weapons. democratic governor ralph northam pushed the plan but four democrats jned republicans to defeat it in committee. state lawmakersdv haveced other bills including universal background checks and limits on handgun purchases. still to come on the "newshour" with judy woodruff, quarantines areifted across the globe. what impact will it have on the spread of the coronavirus. amy walter and tamara keith analyze the runup to the nevada caucuses. angry protests eru a 20,000
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refugees overwhelm a migrant camp in greece and much more. announcer: this is the "pbs newshour" from weta sdios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkrite school of journalism. judy: more questions about the fate of americans aboard two cruise ships caught up in the global coronavirus crisis. amna nawaz has the latest. amna: this is not how cheryl and paul molesky envisioned their cruise vacation. >> we have been in this room on the diamond princess for the last 27 days, for the last 12 days we have not stepped footor out of this donto the hallway. amna: the syracuse, new york, couple were part of the 300-plun americans quned on the ship in yokohama, japan. the vesselwith 3700 passengers
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and crew, has been docked in japan for 12 days. more than 450 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, making it the largest cluster of cases outside of china. but late sunday, u.s. officials evacuate340 americans who had been released from the ship, including the moleskys, and flew esem back to the united st >> it's a little bit scary with the numbers going up of the ople being taken off the ship with the covid-19 virus so, you know, it's i think it's time to go, i think its time to cut our sses and take off. amna: the two flights of evacuees landed early today, at military bas in northern california and texas. quarantine.ce another 14 days in meanwhile, the world health organization said it is working closely with japanese officials to prevent a larger outbreak. >> we need to make sure that we focuon our objective which i
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to contain the virus and not to contain the people and making sure we can have the right balance between the health o the population in japan and other countries but also the health of the people currently on this boat. amna: late last we, the westerdam cruise ship was finally lowed to dock in cambodia -- after five countries had turned it away. traveled to malayswhere she then tested positive for the virus days later. hundreds of people released from the ship have already headed to their me countries, and they're being warned to quarantine themselves. in china, health experts say the outbreak may be stabilizing. some workers returned to their jobs in beijing and shanghai today as the cities' two-week quarantines expired. >> the elevator is beingec disid every two hours and you need to take your body temperature and record it before entering that building, and thet take it r time before entering the office. so i don't think fear is
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necessary. amna: the chinese governme said today that more than 10,00i ents who have been hospitalized with the virus ve recovered and been discharged. >> all over the country except wuhan, the number of newly diagnosed cases has en declining for 13 consecutive days. these are really goosignals illustrating that our prevention and control efforts have worked very well. amna: w.h.o. scientists are now in china, working with officials there to research the spread of the virus. the centers r disease control said the decision to repatriate americans from the ship in came after an increase in the number of new coronavirus.ases on boa how well does quarantine work and what are the risks after isolateo have been return to the wider population? for that and more i'm joined by professor of infectious diseases at vanderbilthoniversity's mr. shaffner, welcome to the
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"newshour." i want to ask you about how health officials are handling these cases. cruise ship case.the first they have hundreds of people they evacuate and they fly back the united states even after some tested positive for the coronavirus. are they handling it the right way? >> i think our officials are hancling the circums very well. they have well prepared places where folksn quarantine are going to go. they're providing excellent clinical care forpl the p shown to be diagnosed with the virus. and i think we're sti i very the containment phase here in the united states. themckly, and then publicgnose health can work on all the contacts. so i think our officials have this one under control. amna: what about the rest of the d rld now? we te story about the second cruise ship that was allowed to dock in cambodia with hundreds ofassengers who haved
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disembarnd gone to other places. one known case of a positive coronavirus case. what are your concerns about >> i'm more concerned because there was turmoil and not a consistent polic people who have been exposed have traveled to many parts of the world.e i h they're being identified and i hope localea publich officials are contacting them and keeping them under surveillance. i'm not sure that's happening and we have now the possibility of littlendividual outbreaks starting in other countries because if tho people are infected, they could start chains of transmission in other countries. that would not be a good thing.m : tell me a little bit about what we do know about standards of quarantine. we have been hearing from passengers here who have had to go through the 14-day quarantine. some emotional tales they're telling. one woman saying i feel like i've lost a month of my life,
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after 14 days of quarantine in japan and 14 more days in the united states. what is that quarantine like? and do you know if other countries are standardizing it in any way? >> i don'the think's any standardization but certainly i feel for -- my hat is off to all the people who have been quarantine it must be very, very boring. the rest of your life is moving on and you can but deal with it through your iphonend it must be very, very difficult. also, you're in isolation or semi isolation so there's not a ft interaction with other individuals. it's not a very pleasant experience. you're being imprisoned by a amna: i have to ask you, there's a lot we don k yetw about the virus but there are a number of theories circulated and shares and i'd like to get your take on them. there's some skepticism, it' fair t say, aroundnformation
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coming from the chinesego rnment, where the virus is tobled -- believed to have originated from china. arkansasotovernor tomn gave an interview yesterday and he was asked about the origins of the virus. take a listen to this. governor: we don't know where it originated but we know we have wenow a few miles away fromt and that food market is china's only bio safety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases. we don't have evidence that this diseas originated there but because of china's duplicity and disdishonesty, we need to ask the question. >> it's a question that needs to be addressed. there are no scientists or public heah officials around the world who think this is an escapevirus from a containment facility. this is a virus, just as the
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sars virus was and the mir virus, middle east virus, these are coronavirusam that to humans have animals. amna: there is skepticism around the information coming from the chinese yovernment. rust the numbers as reliable? >> the number o cf casesing from china have changed over time because their ce definition has changed. i think they're trying to do a good job but it's still very confusing and we have to be skeptical. we don't know whether the outbreak in wuhan and other parts of china is continuing at the same rate, increasing or decreasing. the numbers are not consistent enough for us to draw firm concluons yet. amna: we heard today that the chinese government is saying there was a dipn the numberf
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cases. if that is true, what would that tell you about theotential future spread of the virus? >> if that's true and i wouldnly hope it is, it mean that this ginormous public health experimenthey have done quartining from 11 to 50 impact in reducing the transmission of the virus. i hope that's correct and we can begin, then, to plan the end game. when can we start turning things back to normal. but it's too early toe confident that we can do that. we can t hope for best but we worst.o keep preparing for the amna: have to ask you, asnt re as a week ago, scientists wer speaking ohe potential of a global pandemic. do you believe that's still the case? whether or not we'll get let it
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we don know. i'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers.: am. william shaffner of vanderbilt university school of medicine, thank you very much. >> thank you. judy: the eight democratic vying forir party'sates still nomination are trying to build on their momentum or rebound from poor showings in the first are turningand many their attention to the west. most of the democratic hopefuls have fanned out across nevada with state caucuses coming up saturday and early votingy alreegun. former south bend, indiana,r, maete buttigieg, was in reno today looking to build on strong showings in both iowa and new hampshire. >> let me share with you the image, the idea that guides a
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lot of our thinking in this campaign, an image of a moment in our near future, how it's going to feel the first time that the sun comes up over the mountains in the deserts of nevada and donald trump is n longer the president of the united states. judy: former vicoe president j biden and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren also campaigned in nevadag hop to recover after finishing as also-rans in the two contests so far. >> we did ok if you take a look at what happened there. it was kd of an unusual tng that i hope doesn't happen here. >> what do you do when people arefraid, when the danger is real? do we back out? do we cower? do we get timid? or do weht back? i'm fighting back. judy: but the candidates also spent mucof the weekend focusing their fire on a rival whose name isn't even o
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>> there's a lot to talk about, michael bloomberg. >> he cannot hide behind the money. judy: foer new york city mayor, michael bloomberg, has risen in national polls, spending nearly $420 million of his own fortune on advertising. senator bernie sanders of vermont and others accused him of trying to buy the election. >> i got news for their bloomberg and that is the american people are sick and tired of billionaires bing elections. judy: minnesota senator amy klobuchar took aim atmb blg's past support for polici policies that target minorities. >> as for what michaelloomberg did, stop and frisk, that i unconstitutional. judy: "the washington post" reportit on law filed over the years against bloomberg and his business information company, alleging sex discrimination and the creation of a culture of sexual
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harassment. "the post" also a uncovered 1990 blocklet put together by an employhat cataloged sexist remarks allegedly made by bloomberg. >> he's going to have to speak to it. judy: it's in the clear if bloomberg will qualify for wednesday's democratic debate in las vegas to defend his record on stage. but he did turn to twitter ontu ay, writing, "i would not be where i am today without the talented women around me." and he said he would always be a champion for women in the workplace. meanwhile, another blionaire candidate, tom steyer, spent today in southarolina ahead of that state's primary on february 29. bernie sanders turned his attention to california, the biggest prize on the supertu day contest on march 3. >> and i hear the establishment saying, oh, bernie can win the
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election. take a look at this crowd today and tell me we can't win the election! judy: president trump isls a competing for the spotlight. on sunday, he opened this year's daytona 500 stock car race in florida. mr. trum took a warm-up lap in his limousine in a spectacle that drew a big reception. that brings us to politics i'm here with amy walter of the cook political cook political report and public radio politics with amy walter. joining us from las vegas, nevada, tamara keith of npr and co-host of the "npr politics podcast." it is great to see both of you. there's soh to talk about on this monday before nevada. tam, you've been out there for, what, a couple of days.te us what you are seeing on the ground. i know you've been spending a lot of time looking at the, candidatistening to them but also talking to voters.ha
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tamara: been to a couple of early caucus sites talking to voters. people have already voted in early caucusing and there's a real mix. for a while i felt every person talked to ranked bernie sanders first. finally today i met some voters who have areference for other candidates -- some of them amy kluchar warren.elizabeth i've only met one voter who said he put joe biden at t the list. and there really is a sense here at this is bernie sanders' state to lose and that he is not too likely to lose it. he invested very ear in this state. he has more people on the ground than the other candidates, working. and he, in particular, has put a real emphasis on reaching latino voters who are anmptant part of the electorate here. judy: amy, what are you hearing about nevada? what is your sense coming out of iowa and new hampshire, where
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this race stands? i amseems we'll have two discussions about nevada. the first is who wins, how big of a win it is, who has momentum, who's falling further behind. the other questions raised is how will the caucus actually run. after iowa, lots of erconversations about wher not this process is going to be more successful than iowa, namely, the technology around it. nevada was using the same app they were using in iowa until the iowa debacle happened. now there's a new stem in place. the bottom line with the caucuses, because of the new rules in place, the caucuses are now being asked to perform duties that caucuses were never designed to perform, namely, to be more transparent, to be easier to vote, to use early voting. caucuses were designed really in mind for the partynd the party to have more control over the process. this is trying to bring a more
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democratic process together but it's not really designed for that. it's run by volunteers. it has a spotlight on it a way that is overwhelming for people who are notl- fme professionals. judy: tam, you were there. what are democratic officials there saying about the prospects for running smooth caucuses on saturday? tamara: let me tell you what i have been seeing in the last two days. i have been to two early sites, one in las vegas that had about a 20-minute wait forpe le to register their references. preferces. today i went out to henderson and people were waiting two three hours in a line that snaked around the building into a ballroom. they had to set up chairs for people to sit in while theywa we ing. they were making light of it, having fun, saying we'll make new friends.
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but the whole idea was to make it easier for people to caucus, because the traditional idea of a ccus is you have to be in ase place at a set time and dedicate as many as four hours to the caucus process. so in some ways it makes it easierut it als makes it more complicated. there are very long waitinpeople are pu up with. and what the state par is saying is that they are doing this to make itore accessible, that as part of that, people can go to any caucus site in the county to early caucus so they can shop around for a shortne and i talked to some people who were shopping for a shorter line. what we don't know is how this will integrate come saturday when t in-person caucuses happen. they certainly have a plan for it. but already 26,000 people have early caucused just in the first two days. we don't know how many have caucus today and there's early caucusing tomorrow and all of
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the preference cards have toso e ed and tabulated. it's a big lift. judy: complicated because of the multiday voting. let's talk about the race.e of bernie sanders wins new hampshire but followed closely by pete buttigieg. ere do you see the lanes folks are i amy: bernie sanders is acting as a front-runner and h given success in iowa and new hampshire and delegate totals, he is a front-runner. the fact that bernie sanders is in states like colorad and california and north carolina, so close to theel caucuses, you that everythin his campaign feels about this, which is we feel so good about nevada, we know we need to get a big bump going into those super tuesday states which hav s many delegates, a third of the delegates.ta judy: 14s. amy: 14 states, a third of the number of delegates there.nl the other person competing at that level in the super tuesday stas is michael
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bloomberg. judy: wh is taking flack now especially, tam, from miket bloomberg, who today tweeted and i think we have picture of this, a video, some pictures, as well. bu mike bloomberg is complaining, essentially,th abot the candidates coming after him so hard. but on top of that, as we pointed out, he's not even the ballot and yet the stories about his past, how he ran the bloomberg company has moved to the forefront of this race. tamara: right. there's a sense that there's the bernie sanders lane and then there's the "everyone else" lane and michael bloomberg hasn't been on the ballot in the first stes but has spent a lot of money. the other candidates are hoping er get momentum to push them
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into s tuesday and meanwhile michael bloomberg who has yet to be o a debate stage is blanketing the airwavesn these states wh the resources to do thingsed other campaigns don't have -- judy: we've not seenything quite like this where somebody has spent450 million already on adverting. amy: just on advertising and he has organizations and employees in those states, as well. so there's an infrastructure, not just the tv ads. but yes, we are going to see where the scrutiny -- there will be two different questions. the first is, does he get on the debate stage before t nevada caucus or will it be before south carolina? time to that criticism coming his way and questions from moderators. the secon piece is howoters will react. democrats have been telling us
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and we have been saying this it democrats care about is bhob -- somebody who c beat donald trump. so the question is, if winning'f everything, ho does that extend? does it extend to forgiving michael bloberg for his past policies, transgressis, things he's s will they look beyond that because they see him as the strongest candidate to win. in 2016, many of us said about donald trump, he can't say john mccain isn't a william war hero, republican voters won't accept that, until they did. judy: and tam, you were telling michael bloomberg's name withp not -- he's ease not on the ballot. tamara: right. which is a sign of the reach he has. me voters said theyhe wishe was on the ballot but he's not so theyegistered their preference for other people,
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including amy klobuchar. judy: quite a list of candidates ill in the race. we mentioned eight of them. but one of them will find out this week whether or not he makes the debate stage. amy walter, tamara keith, thank you both, politics monday. stay with us. coming up on the "newshour," bookshelf just in time for president's day. "ahor in chief: the untold story of our presidents and the books they wrote." and comedians sve martin and martin short on the moment they became the martins. amid growing public unrest in greece, the government there isy temporar halting the construction of permanent detention centers foreople seeking asylum flocking to the country.
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tens of thousands of migrants and refugs have been stranded in greece more than four years since the border withne hboring macedonia was sealed and the european union failed to offer enough plas t asylum seekers. malcolm brabant toveled t the island of lesbos, a refugee way station. but h begins h report in the greek capital,thens. malcolm: they traveled from e frontline of europe's migration crisis to show the greekis interior my that they've had enough. "we are all islanders," shouted a protestor. in the islands of the aegean sea, tditional hospitality has given way to frustration and anger. 1,150,000 asylum srs havere than landed on their beaches. a man called thodoris tselekas from the island of lesbos shouted, "we won't give away our sacred land to non-chrtians, to illegal migrants!" this is the target of his
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indignation -- moria, in lesbos, universally vilied as an overcrowded, insanitary, dangerous open prison. originally designed to hold two thousand temporary migrants, it has mutated into a permanent ghetto for twenty thousand, ten times its intended capacity. >> where are their papers? a i haid, my name is thodoris tselekas! where are their papers?al they are illigrants! malcolm: his concern a that of other otestors is that a bigger migrant camp iso be built close to the taxiarchis monastery, one of the holiest placesn lesbos, where its claimed, miracles take place. >> those that come here are raging dogs.re theyorn to savage any christian when they see one.
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but god will send fire like he did in china, in australia, in brazil and other places. god will take care of us, that's certn. malcolm: but not everyone holds such extreme views. >> i am really angry for both sides. r our islands, the greek people and for the refugees because they put a lot of people in one hot spot. the living conditions are terrible. the people that live near the harbours, the villagers there, suer. malcolm: "stop incarceration a seizing land," they chant. l they want to leave, as much as we want them ve because it is ruining our regular daily fe there. we're not asking for anything else, we're just asking what they want to do. they want to leave as well. malcolm: koss moutzouris, the regional governor of the northernegean, is leading the campaign to relieve the islands.
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>> i really n't think anyone has fallen into the water. malcolm: there were 60,000 new arrivals in 2019. it was the busiest year since 20. crews from the irish nrofit refugee rescue, say that young afghan men comprise an estimated 70 pernt of those reaching lesbos from turk on flimsy dinghies. but others come from africa and the middle east. immigrants comprise forty percent of the populatioof the five affected islands, whereas on the greek mainland the fire is only two percent. governor moutzouris says the imbalance needs to be corrected. div. moutzouris: all these people need to bersed around the country and probably in europe. but if it's not possible in europe, then to be dispersed in the rest of the country. lcolm: and the governor has this warning. gov. moutzouris: it's like powder, awaiting a match to start fire. malcolm: governor moutzouris wato avoid a repeat of scenes in early february when migrants clashed with riot
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police after protesting abt condions inside moria. the police deployed tough tactics against the predominantly young male protestors. but they were accused of brutality after migrant families with young children were overwhelmed by tear gas. tensions rose to the surface in january when islanders went on strike and staged demonstrations demanding the closure of the camps. continuing hostility has forced the migration ministis mitarakis to freeze plans ntnounced earlier this year in the greek parlia >> the situation is that is why we have been saying for the last two months that the new centres have to be built on the islands, with dignified living conditions for those inside, and the utmost security for the region and the utmost security for the employees of upe asylum service, so they can effectively speeheir services.
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malcolm: the governments retrear is a victory campaign of civil disobedience. on lesbowhere islanders blocked access roads leading to land requisitioned by the government for a new detention camp. but protest leader desna gabriel is aware the battlet isn'er yet. >> there's going to be a war, amongst the people. the local people and the government people. we are not going to allow them to put any campsite, not on this island or nowhere in the northern aegean. people cant live. the farmers are suffering as well. and the lives of the people has been just absolutely destroyed. you cannot understand what they are gointhrough. malcolm: this is the fishing village of skala sykaminia in northern lesbos. five yrs ago residents were nominated for the nobel peace prize for saving the lives of so many migrants. but weary of the open borders policy of the previous left leaning government, the people of lesbos turned right at the last election six months ago. greece's new conservative
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government is tryingoject a tough image when it comes to migration. it says it's determined to protect e country's frontier recently it announced plans to build a floating wall, between turkey, six miles away in that direction,lend this island os. miles long with lights on at.7 night. and the government hopes it's making the crossinrants from but the idea of a maritime version of presidentrump's mexican wall has been condemned. experts fear the construction could'rther endanger migrants' lives. gracelin moore from ssachusetts is a volunte with the irish non profit, refugee rescue. a i think that there'et o said it best, you don't put your children on a boat unless your home is the jaws of a shark. thespeople are fleeing war. and the glimpse of hope that is ores of europe is often times an overcrowd camp.
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and policies are ena ted by the eumake their lives more and more difficult here to deter them from coming. but because of the kind of danger of their hontry,and the they have no other choice. malcolm: the greek government has appealed to nato to reinforce european coastguard vessels patrolling waters used by migrants and people traffickers.t litical analyst nick malkoutzis believes the greeks are in denial about the tality influx. >> there seems to be a lack ofmo desi greek politicians and in greek society to discuss the fact that there are tens of thousands of genuine asylum seekers here in greece who are 't going anywhere, they' not being allowed to go to northern europe or other countries that they want to. and they are stuck here for years on end and greek society isn't really addressing thise isout how to integrate, how to provide jobs, how to provide education.ol malc back outside parliament, the protestors found source. anwar bakri, secretary general of the syrians
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association in greece. >> we do agree with the reest and demands of the people of the five islands in the aegean sea. nicause what's going on is a crime against hu in these nive islands. close down thesel farms. give the papers to the refees so they can go north, because in greece, the situation is very very bad. a malcol it could get worse. potentially, the numbers could be swollen by refuge from heavy fighting in syria's idlibm province, not tion the constant threat by turkey' president erdogan to open the migration floodgates. the islands and unhappy guests are fishing for a reversal of european unionnc policy. but the rest of europe effectively sealed off greece four years ago, there has been no sign of the tide changi. so
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the aspirations of the migrants n.d the islanders are likely to flounder once ag for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in lesbos. judy:and on this president's day, theatt title on the "newshour" bookshelf. the historian's new work explores the tradition of book writing by american presidents. >> in this election y americans are judging presidential candidates using many measures -- as leaders, as policymakers and as orators. a new book looks at presidents asriters. "author in chief: the untold story of our presidents and the books they wrote." the author of "author in chief"
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is craig ferman. we're all used to the cycle that before the campaign is a try t introduce themselves ands shape their own narratives. every leading democratiat cand had a book out before after the presidency, they have a post-presidential legacy book trying to shape their own legacy. but thi isn't new, as you write. this goes back to the founding fathers. >> that'sht absolutely r the first campaign book was written by thomas jefferson. the first legacy book was written by john adams so the history of presidents as writers is as old as america itself. >> you write that thomas jefferson not only wrote the first pre-campaign book but was the first to be dogged by a paper trail. >> it caused himrouble in the election of 1800. herote passages abouteligion , that you shouldn't
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worry about the beliefs of others but thatecame one of the first modern soundbites because his critics said if we accept that, we have no shared moral framework and the country will fall into decay. what's really interesting is referred to his book. i found stories in my book of his supporters citing his book by page number saying this is not somebody who i an atheist but wants religion and pitics kept separate so you had a book at the super of -- center of the campaign. >> the first legacy book, john adams, you said itas extraordinarily personal and petty. you said he went to war with his enemies, marshaling a nasty intimacy. >> john adams was somebody who had lost the presidency. he went home and was frustrated
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and felt history hadn't given him a fair shake and his answe was to write about it and because he was emotional and eloquent, he wrote amazing zingers about alexander hamilton or thomas pane, -- payne. pr i was sed by the model of both a pre-campaign book and a post-presidential book. calvin clidge, a president considered tas -- very few words. >> what mad him a huge celebrity after he left the white house was his words so he had a book that helped him when he ran for president. the book that was my favorite was his autobiography. he wrote about his son who wpassed away while he in the white house.am ericans knew the story but he h
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to side of the story that is heartbreaking to read. heeaid, "i'm most powerful person in the world but had no power to save my son." and he revealed the personal side of being in the white house. >> you talk about that perh.nal to are there many modern memoirs,ti presid memoirs, that are more personal, less sort of "my greatest hits" and trying t shape legacy, trying to shape what historians will write? >> most presidents are pretty good talking about their early life, their childhood or favorite books or how they got into politics, there are great once they get close to talking about their political careers, you see a little bit of spin. but what i tried to do in my book was take readers behind the scenes at that point because if someone is trying to project a certain image, it's interesting to see how they decide what they're going to do. bill clinton's "my life" is amp
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good exa. his editor had to spend the night on his couch to make sure the author wld turn in the pages on time. >> you write a lot about presidents as readers, not just writers. calvin coolidg harry truman, barack obama. >> it's important to understand ou understand if how they write because any writer i shaped by the books they read. one of my favorite examples is ulysses grant, his memoir is one of the best known. he was theirst american president who was a fiction lover. when a cadet at west point, he got demerits for spending too much time in the library because he loved novels and i think you see that in his memoirs. the moments that stuck with me is when he described meeting abraham lincoln or robert e. lee.oo novelists are at describing characters and that helped him write such a great book. >> john f. kennedy, -- his first
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book, and his later book, "profiles in courage," i think it's generally accepted that theodore sorenson, hisid wrote "profiles in courage" but kennedy'sered involvement in the push for publicit for this book and push for the pulitzer prize for that book. >> if kennedy would have been happyith a ghost written book, it would have had a happy it was already a huge hit before it won the pulitzer. atwhen he came out o a meeting with truman, reporters asked him at they were talking about and kennedy said, my book. kennedy. wasn't eugh for while he was a u.s. senator, he would write his editor letters and say, hey, i was at the airport and didn't my book for sale. you would think a senator had more important things to wor about and that desire for the push for the pulitzer. in
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i found documents that showed that kennedy himself was perjury involved in this and so once he got his family d some of his family supporters on board, they were able to influence the pulitzer's board and get the book the prize when it probably didn't deserve it becauset wasla ely written by someone else. >> all fascinating. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. judy: next up, the two martins. martin short met in the mid 1980's while filming the "three amigos" and since have grown closer. they share some of their magic that keeps us all laughing. this report is part of our artsc anture series, canvas. >> we are very close friends. we willacation together. we're going to go on vacation
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next month with families. >> not ours. >> not ours. different families. >> can you describe the moment when you first met? >> i went to steve's house to pi up acript for "three amigos." i couldn't believe how great and beautiful this house was. a picasso here and t baconre and i said to steve, how did you get this rich? because i've seen your work. you said? >> i said could you get this script to marty w short. come to that moment when i'm steve goldbloom. we were excited to enter steve martin and martin short touring in their latest special "now you >> what an honor to stand next to a novelist, playwright, musician, composure and
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comedian, steve martin. >> they talk about their careers and more than 30 years of friendship which started onhe set of "three amigos." >> you've talked about being in fis, when you're in the trenches of a movie, you get very close and then there's a routine of never seeing people again and you made a conscious decision not to let steve go. >> that's true. you are intensely involved in everyone's gossip and if they're having an affair on set, you want to hear about it. then you never see them again.im but som you say, i don't want to lose that person and certainly that was the case witm steve andelf. >> we got along. we had instant comedy rapport. when i first met marty, he had just had a little girl and i remember being jealous of the little girl because she was going to t takee away from me. >> was there a lack of competition, would you say, between you two as comians? >> i don't think we have any competitivetreak. >> i don't remember feeling upset that steve was funnier at dinner or something because it never happened.
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>> when i watch you tog notice there's a laugh every 15 seconds. how mindful and conscious are you of the stretch of time between when you talk and the audience laughs? >> i'd say we're extremely conscious. >> yes. you but whe was --g to do with >> can i get a coffee because whatever you're going to say, i've heard i >> when i was writing "the jerk" with carl reiner, carl gotlieb, our goal was to have a joke on every page. i think we think that way, too. >> you two are the greatest talk show guests in history. mart, you were considered the greatest by a magazine. not that it's a competition. >> it's not a competition but when that came out in "the new yorker," june 17, 2017, of course, no one was happier tha me and iad to deal with it. >> as a work couple, youlo spena of time together. who has the louder inner critic? >>ve i'd say s
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i prepare for a talk show or something or forome reason i'm off or we don't connect, i feelr s nothing i could have done more and i feel fine. >> i'm the opposite. if it dsn't go well, i get depressed and analyze it. >> early on, i realized that for me to be tense, i'd see myself back on something and i'd think, i'm n helping myself so i willed anxiety away. my brother died when i was 12. my mother died when was 17. my father, 20. when you go through those tough experiences, you're either empowered by it ory victimized b it and somehow i think i was empowered by it. if someone didn't laugh at me putting my hair up in a point, i didn>> really care. here was a moment when you were on "s.n.l.," you wanted to watch tape bk and someone said give it a rest, move forward. >> that was davy wilson, the director. i was going to get a v.h.s. >> that's what we used to d doing "saturday night live."
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we would watch the entire s again afterwards. >> his point was, it's done, it's finished. >> he's not taking into consideration >> that's true but it would turn into possibly sf-hatred. >> question for martin. is there a moment when you and of course this question is special because it was submitted by steve. [laughter] >> i met steve in 1985. 10 yearsfter -- >> by the way, i object to the phrase genius. i can'tust sit her anyway -- >> by the way, you're not alone. i thinkak it kind of a genius to be open to the people even better.hat can makeim the whole package is a genius. >> i remember a moment, can't identify the year, but we were going to lk at a special. it was so extreme and i thought wow, you areeally unafraid. and i remember that. inking this is reall bizarre, i've got to respect this guy more. >> steve, you've said beforeo
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thate think they want to see you, revive old material with arrow through your head and you say they don't want that, theyust thinko. why do you think that? >> the late 1970's doingst d-up comedy, it was a zeitgeist thing and if you extract it out of t times, it's not as funny. when you do an old bit, you g automatic laughter but it's in the real laughter. i don't remember how to do it. i don't knowhere i was coming from. when i look at it, i go, was that funny? i don'tounow. >> if could add a third wheel to your act you haven't worked with, who would it be? >> bieber. [laughter] >> i'd say jerry seinfeld is too good. we don't want him. >> yeah, yeah. >> john muley as a younger voice. >> he doesn't need us. >> no, he doesn'teed us.
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judy: on thee "newshour" onl right now, several companies have started hosting take your parents to work days in an effort to better attract and retain millenial employees. why? we look at the roots of this trend on our website, pbs.org/newshour. that's the "newshour" for tonight. on tuesday, a look at president trump's strategy to win over african american voters in november. i'm judy woodruff. tomorrow evening.d again for all of us at the "pbs newshour," thank you. we'll see you soon.un annor: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> on a journey with american cruise lines, travelers experience thearime heritage and culture of the maine coast i and new englaands. our fleet of small cruise ships explore american landscapes, see
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side villages and histoc harbors, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, crowd sponsor of "pbs newshour." announcer: fidelit investments. bnsf railway. consumer cellular. collette. and by t alfred p. sloan foundation supporting science, technology and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. supported by the john d. and tath rinn t. macarthur foundation committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. with the ongoing support of thes institutions.
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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers lik you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning ute which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this is "pbs newshour" west from our bureau at the walter crkrite school of journalism at arizona state univeity.
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