captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour night, crime and punishment-- president trump grants clemency to several high profile criminals. then, campaign chaos-- a new pbs/newshour/npr/marist poll propels michael bloomberg onto the next democratic presidential debate stage. plus, crisis in syria nearly a million people are displaced following brutal assaults by the assad regime and russia. and, different by design. exploring a museum exhibit that mixes art and science to create a new sensory experience. >> when we can offer experiences and opportunities that may change the way that they see and perceive what art is what a

great thing to be to not be locked in a box. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. n major funding for the pbs newshour has beeprovided by: >> on a cruise with american crcese lines, you can experi historicestinations along the american cruise lines fleet of small ships explore american landmarks, loc cultures and calm waterways. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshr. >> when itomes to wireless, consumer cellular gives its customers the choice.

our no-contract plans give you as much-- or as little-- tk, text and data as you want, and team is on hand to help.ice to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank yo woodruff: president tru today pardoned or commuted the sentenceof 11 people, all of

whom the president said had treated unfairly.e or been this comes as the president has also sharply criticized the department of justice for its handling of the recent case of his longtime advisor, roger stone. william brangham looks at the president's powers when it comes to how justice is meted out. >> brangham: after serving about eight years of a 14 year sentence, former illinois governor rod blagojevich was due to be released today from this prison in englewood colorado. it marked perhaps the highest profile commutation that president trump has issued since >> he served eight years in jail, a long time, very far from his children, they're growing older now, ty're going to high school now and they rarely get to see their father outside of an orange uniform.at th was a tremendously powerful, riculous sentence in my opinion. >> brangham: blagojevich was found guilty in 2011 of 18

counts that included seeking tol se an appointment to president obama's old senate seat. the conviction came just m after blagojevich appeared on trump's reality show, "the apprentice." in a state often kno corruption; four of its last 10 gon;rnors have gone to priso blagojovich's sentence was the longest for an illinois polician. chicago mayor lori lightfoot >> this is a man whos theon: governor of our state.te he commcrimes as found by a jury of his peers. cept got to ac responsibility for that. president trump is probably the least credible person to make this decision. >>rangham: in addition to blagojevich's commution, president trump today pardoned seven people, including former new york police commissioner bernie kerik, who served three years for tax aud, and financier michael milken, who peaded guilty to violating u.s. securities laws in 1990.

all of today's announcements come after attorney general william barr altered the sentencing recommendation for mr. trums longtime ally, roger stone. he'd been convicted of lying to congress and witness tampering and faced a possible seven to nine years in prison. the president criticized that as barr subsequently said the president's tweets about his right to intervene in criminal "impossible for me to do my job." for a closer look at the president's recent moves, i'm b jointwo former federal judges: nancy gertner was p appointed sident clinton etd served as a u.s. district judge in massach for 17 years. and paul cassell. he was appoied by president orge w. bush anderved as a u.s. district judge in utah for five years.es juwelcome to you both. thank you for being here. nancy, to you, first. let's talk about the pardons and the commutations the president

issued today. eleven difrent people that sort of spanned an unusual utlitical gam what do you make of the president's move today? >> well, in a regime that has extraordinarily punitive regime, the pardon power is reay critical. the clemency power is critical and important. most other presints had a process for it, had standards, had a parn attorney, had a process within the department of justice. i don't know that the president has that kind of a process, and the purpose of that process is to make sure that pardons are political influence or just celebrity status. so that is a problem with the, you know, the deploying of this very, very important clemency tool, and the question is whether the people on the list todaare the mostserving or just the most famous.

>> reporter: paul cassell, certainly thesident does? have unlimited power to pardon esople. oftentthough, it does come into a decision about who is pardoned and when they are pardoned. do you discern any motive behind the president's actions today? >> i think one good thing ae ut esident's actions today is that he took them well before the next election and, so, th electorate will have a chance to decide whether he'sy wising this presidential power to commute sentences, along with many other things the president is doing. some of the pardoned decisio in the past have been made by presidents on their way out the door and, so, at least this one will beeviewable. >> reporter: let's turn from the pardons to the question of c the ongoitroversy within the department of justice. as we know, roger stone was convicted of lying and witness a tamperinng many other things. the prosecutors in that case recommended that he serve somewhere between seven to nine years. president trump strongly criticized that on twitter, and

attorney general william barr then stepped in, overruled tha recommendation and said, no, no, that was far too harsh. those four prosecutors have left and resigned from tha case. nancy gertner, hlp us understand, is it unusual for an attorney general to overrule their line prosecutors in a case >> it is exraordinarily unusual. it's extraordinarily unusual to have main justice, you know, the upper echelons of the justice department itervene in a case involving the line prosecutors, presumably the line prsecutors, the four who resigned, would have reviewed the recommendation already up the chain. he did it, it's also the way he did it. the notion that, after the president tweeted, that, you know, these were rogue prosecutors, barr stepped in and, youw,noalled for a second memorandum, very pubsplic

y of displeasure with four prosecutors, asking, you know, sentially rejecting their recommendation. their recommendation, i might add -- although i might have bench -- was a guideline on the recommendation d consistent th the federal sentencing guidelines, which barr conceded. usually what a prosecutor would do in a situation like that would d go before the judge an say, here's what the guidelines say, i unduerstand, judge, have a right to go below this, and that would have been communicating to the ju the department doesn't likely stand behind the guiline sentence, that, in fact, the judge could go below it. but wht barr did was a shot across the bow to other prosecutors which was likely, really troubling, that he would intervene when he did for someone who was obviously a political crony. the president is very troubling.

>> reporter: paul cassell, onat's your takthat? is this a shot across the bow where the president is clearlyin trying tervene to protect one of his buddies? >> well, attorney general barr said that didt communicate with president trump in making these decisions. i think if the attorney general can be citicized, it's simply because he's failed to keep these deliberations inte the department. the u.s. attorneys office for the district of columbia was in a time of transition when the initial sentencing coendations was made an i think his higherups, including the attorney general, looked at it, decided it couldn't be sustained and they sepped in put forth a more reasonable recommendation, a more limited recommendation. it's interesting to see that this is a situation where a lot of people who typically decry the severity of the sentencing guidelines are somehow now opposed to the justice department trying to find a bit ticularniency in a par case. so i don't see this has some kind of broader message involved

at all. >> reporter: nancy gertner, our understanding -- i i might. >> reporter: please, go ahead. yeah, the question is whether or not barr will intervene on behalf of other people for who th sentencing guidelines were hridiculous, whether or n would intervene to tamp down on whether this is a one-of, and if it's one-of, then it is troubling. understanding is tomorrow, our there's a meeting of the federal judge's association and, reportedly, this is a meeting of this groul of fededges who are having a meeting because they are troubled, reportedly, by what has been going on in the d.o.j. and the president. is that yor understanding and, if so, dunes the concern of the judges of what is happening in the country today? >> well, i understand ere coof the president having running commentary of ongoing judicial prceedings and

specificly criticizing a judge by name. i think that's very unusual and certainly not something i thinko is the ki activity that we like to see from the president. on the other hand, though, i'm not sure whether the judge's association is the best group in a position to make a citicism of what the president is doing. judges are typical above the fray and don't stepnto what our political -- what ar political controversy. this has become a political controversy. it's clear that judge jacks who's been criticized has no lack of allies among membere of co, even presidential candidates who are running against president trump, so i'm not sure it's something tht the judge's association needs to step in to. >> reporter: nancy gertner, in the short time we have left, what do you make of that? do you think judges shuld stay out of this fray and, look, we are on the bench, we will make decisions as we see fit and let the political fray be the political fray? >> i thi they can stand up for the institution. the kind ofo comments that hekes mid-proceeding, when he makes of

the kind of comment he did trashi the judge who was hearing the case, and when he's o king the kind of comments he did with respectpolitical crony, judges should well be concerned about the interference nwith the bench as a institution. having said that, i doubt very much if they will say anything other than what justice rob, ts saen trump was talking about, you know, obama judges, and somethier that would be vy different than what the chief judge of the district court said when she said these are, you know, independent judges who should be free to make independent decisions free from political influence. >> reporter: right. so takinn that posit fine. i don't think they'll say much more that. >> reporter: nancy gertner and paul cassell, thank yth very much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, the coronavirus outbreak m in chi be slowing, with new cases falling twlow 2,000 fodays running. so far, nearly 2di00 people have , including the head of a leading hospital in wuhan, epicenter of the outbrea china is enforcing mass quartines and stepped-up surveillance, but the world health organization stopped short of criticizing those measuresoday. >> what china is trying to do is while they are getting success in putting out one fire, they do not want the fire to start someere else. now, you can argue whether those measures are excessive or whether they are restrictive on people, but there is a lot at stake here. there is an awful lot at stake here. >> woodruff: meanwhile, 88 additional cases are reported on a quarantined cruise ship in japan, for a total of more than 540. that is the highest concentration outside china. in afghanistan, elections officials announced today th president ashraf ghani won a

second term in last september's vote. results had been repeatedly delayed, partly by accusations. of fra ghani's rival abdullah abdullah rejected the outcome, and so did the taliban. that, in turn, could jeopardize taliban.with the the united states imposed financial sanctions today on russia's state-owned oil brokerage rosneft. the state department said the company is helping venezuela skirt an american oil embargo. it marked an aggressive move against both russian interests and venezuelan president nicolas maduro, with more to come. m >> there will e steps and further pressure in the coming weeks and months. the united states remains firmly committed to the people of venezueland to the cause of freedom there. >> woodruff:he u.s. and other countries say maduro's re-election in 2018 was illegitimate. an appeals court in the netherlands ordered russ today

to pay $50 billion for seizing the yukos oil company in 2003. yukos founder mikhail khodorkovsky was an outspoke critic of president vladimir putin and was jailed for more than a decade. company shareholders have been pursuing compensation ever since. moscow says it will peal today's decision. a court in istanbul, turkey has acquitted nine opposition activists of aiding protests in 2013, in a bid to overthrow the government.th outsidcourt, supporters applauded, and some shed tears, as the verdict was read today. they argued the case was part of a campaign to stifle opposition voices. >> it's a great verdict, acquittal was the only thing that could possibly be just. this is the verdict we should have been given more than tw years ago. >> woodruff: within hours of the verdict, one of the activists, philanthropist osman kavala, was detained again. the turkish state news agency said he is being investigated

for alleged ties to a failed coupn n 2013. backis country, the boy scouts of america has filed for iofederal bankruptcy prote facing a storm of sexual abuse lawsuits. several thousand men have alleged they were assaulted by scoutmters and other adult leaders, decades ago. the chapter 11 finlets the organization try to craft a sweeping settlement th could we'll return to thislater in the program. a fresh round of heavy rain is expected to bring more misery to parts of the south, starting tonighhe new flood waare in force in central mississippi. some neighborhoods in the capital city of jackson are already under water from weend downpours. the new downpours could stretch from eastern louisna to western georgia. the state of alabama has declared an emergency. on wall street today, stocks slipped amid ongoing questionsec abouomic effects of the virus outbreak in china. the dow jones industrial average

lost 165 points to close at 29,232. the nasdaq fell one point, and the s&p 500 added nine. and, nascar driver ryan newman is reported to be awake and talking at a florida hospital, after a terrifying crash lastth nit, ie daytona 500. in the final lap, newman'sol number six cded with the barrr wall, flipped over and was hit byther car, then,on skidded the track in flames. officials say his injuries were not life-threatening. dennmlin ended up winning the race, for the second year in a row. still to come on the newshour: poll shakes up the democratic presidential r the re-election strategy behind president trump's oueach to african american voters. near a million people are displaced as a result of brutaly milita assaults in syria. and much more.

>> woodruff: six democratic presidential candidates are set to debate tomorrow night in nevada. and as lisa desjardins reports, there will be a new face on stage. >> desjardins: after mounting calls for michael bloomberg to have to debate his opponents directly... >> i think he should be on that debate stage, which eventually he will be, because i can't beat him on the airways, but i can .at him on the debate sta >> i'm going to get a chance to debate him on everything from redlining to stop-and-frisk to a whole range of other things. >> desjardins: ...2020 democrats will get their chance tomorrow night in las vegas, during the 9th democratic debate, which will be bloomberg's first. the former new york city mayor qualified for the debate after national pbs newshour/npr/ew marist poll out today.

another headline in the poll: bernie sanders' has a hefty, double-digit lead. other democrats, including those with strong showings in iowa and new hampshire, fell behind. like former south be, indiana mayor pete buttigieg, who criticized sanders at a vewn hall in las. e politics that says the you don't agree with me 100% of the time you don't belong, that's clubbing people over the head telling people you have to be all the way over to the edge like us. >> desjardins: the in-person campaigning is battlg a tidal wave of ads on the airwaves, especially from bloomberg. he's funded a nearly $420 million ad blitz with his own fortune. bloomberg's record has come under fire in recent days, fors hipast comments on "stop-and- frisk" policing policies targeting minorities, and hist treatm women at his company. hanow, several news outlet surfaced bloomberg's 2011 newshour interview with jeffre brown about a program for young minority men. >> there's this enormous cohort

of black and latino males aged, let's say, 16 to 25 that don't have jobs, don't have any prospects, don't know how to find jobs, don't know that the-- what their skill sets are, don'a know how to in the workplace, where they have to >> desjardins: thades the other able dynamic: the importance of diversity. some 40% of nevada caucusgoers and candidates today areor. >> democrats are supposed toow. represent workinpeople. represent black pele ando latinos. >> desjardins: the hopefuls face off each other again when the state holds its caucuses this saturday. >> woodruff: for a closer look at the results from our latest pbs newshour/npr/marist poll and what those numbers mean for the state of the 2020 democratic d esidential race, i'm joi domenico montanaro. he's the senior political editor at npr. we welcome you back to the

program. >> thank you, as as. >> woodruff: so let's look at these numbers, domenico. we're going to put the numbers of the npr/marist poll up, as we just menoned, bernie sanders on top 31%, michael bloomberg shooting up into second place. what do you see with the numbers? spent $330 million from adng analytica, and what he's bee able to do is flood the airways quite literally, build his profile and he's ganed 15 points in our polling since last december. 's leapfrogged over joe biden the former vice president who had been the far and away poll ader for a long time and, remember, you know, when i would come on and talk about hows, national pof they don't likely matter all that much, states, and the ngs wille the move, that's what's happened here. so you see warr down. pete buttigieg really srprisingly at 8%, down five points after two very good showin, a lot on the line in

nevada and south carolina. >> woodruff: yeah, it's interesting because pete ttigieg, jusas one example, came in first barely ahead of nders, in iowa. did well right behind sanders in new hampshire, but that's not reflected here. >> he is the pledged delegate leader, and he's at 8% in the national polls. >> woodruff: right. the reason why national polls matter more now is we're only a couple of weeks away from super tuesday, march 3, when 13 states you will have aird of the delegate states all up for grabs primary. like national you have mayor bloomberg advertising in all the states and having all that money and ha do it at will because he'sworth millions. >> woodruff: amy klobuchar, here's something who did bet than expected in iowa and new hampshire but you see her in sing digits. >> yeah, if you add up klobuchar, buttigieg, biden, and bloomberg together, they get to about 51%.

you add up sanders and wrren for that pric progressive lane, you're at about 43% so you see there's this filter where they're reay sort of struggling to get out of each other's way, klobuchar and buttigieg, in particular, need to distingui because they've had a very difficult time breaking through teth voters of color. you have two s in nevada and south carolina where overwhelmingly you will see way wre voters of color,ay more diverse states, 41% in 20 in nevada were non-white, in the democratic electorate, and in south carolina two-thirds non-white, 61% african-american. respectively in our poll with black voters. they've got to do better than that if ey want to win a nomination. >> woodruff: speaking of african-american voters, domenico, former vice president biden was and has been doing we in south carolina. >> yeah. >> woodruff: here's somebody who was leading in almost every single national poll. >> that's right. >> woodrf: and here you see there have been a couple of polls, including this one out

today, that shows him running third at 15%. this is nevada poll which has him down a little bit, still in send place. >> right. >> woodruff: but how do you account for what's happened to >> look, biden still has the support of african-americans. in our poll, he has 31%f th black vote. bernie sanders, though, right on his heels at 28%.of so the margi error difference really between the two of them. i ink that's the most undertold story of this entire election is how much bernie sanders has been able to win over voters ofr, cospecially voters of color, under 45. voters under 45,er genly, it's like no other candidate exists. he's got more than half the voters under 45 in or polling and, you know, biden was somebodyho promised he could win over the working class white voters and he couldn't do it in a place like new hampshire and it makes his electability case very difficult. >> woodruff: so mu volatility, so much change, so much to watch. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: domenico

montanaro, npr, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> woodrf: while democrats make their case to more diverse primary electorates in nevad and south carolina, yamiche alcindor has been reporting on how president trump is hoping to make gains with black voters ahead of november's general election. >> alcindor: a stepped up pitch to black voters. >> we're delivering for african americans. >> alcindor: just inast few weeks, president trump has touted what he considers his biggest achievements for the black community. here he in his state of the union address: >> african american poverty hase ined to the lowest rate ever recorded. >> alcindor: ...in a speech on" opportunity zon" in north carolina: >> from the day i took office, i have been working to build an american communitior african

>> alcindor: and a super bowl ad released after the president commuted her prison sentence. >> i want to thank president nald john trump. >> alcindor: only 8% of black voters went for president trump in 2016. but the president's 2020 campaign is hoping to up those numbers. it is ramping up effor to peel black voters from democrats in key battleground states. and the president is confident his economic message is enough to bring black voters onboard. last week, he told a crowd in charlotte, north carolina that democrats haven't done enough for african americans. >> they want your vote. and then the day after the election, they're gone. that's the democrats. and i said, all these bad numbers, "what the hell do you have to lose?" then i went offstage and my people told me, "i don't know. that's not nice." i said, "no, it's true." it's true. what do they have to lose?" >> alcindor: but some of the president's outreach to black voters has come under scrutiny.

>> janiyah, i have some good news for you. >> alcindor: during his state of the union address, president trump awarded philadelphia fourth-grader janiyah davis with a scholarship, appearing to tout a white house initiative to support school choice. >> i am pleased to inform you that your long wait is over.dl i can prannounce tonight at an opportunity scholarship has become availableu. it's going to and you will soon be heading to the school of your c >>lcindor: but it turns ou the money for the scholarship came personally from education secretarbetsy devos. also, davis already attends a highly-sought after arter scho >> april mccord! >> alcindor: allieof the president also held a pro-trump evenwhere they gave away a total of $25,000 to a mostly black audience. >> come on down to the price is right and get your $300 ril. >> alcindor: attendees praisedpr thident after they collected th tcash. and at event, a white house official was awarded.

>> four more years for president trump. >> alcindor: the event was organized by a non-profit called urban revitalization coalition of america. a pro-trump super pac also gave2 the group ,000 grant. it is run by ohio pastor darrell scott. he also co-chairs an outreach program for president trump's re-election campaignubbed" black voices for trump." a trump campaign official told the newshour, "these events are not affiliated with or sanctioned by the president's campaign." >> woodruff: and yamiche is here with me now along with donald erman. he's the deputy director ofti ns for responsibility and ethics in washington, a non-eg partisan watchdog group. donald sherman, welme, hello to you. yamiche, let's talk about what we were just seeing, donald, and let me start with you. your organization has been looking at a few examples ofh te kind of thing the trump organization is doing.

are there ethical concernwith regard to all this? >> absolutely. first, seems like thee prsident suggested that the scholarship for janiah davis was part of a government program, but then we found out it tas paid for byhe personal charity of one of his we're also intd to see whether the department of education officials were used inacilitating this doation because, then, it makes it seem like they are actually grant officers for the secretary's .personal chari in addition, the urban revitalization coalinton eve is particularly troubling, one because this is supposed to be a nonpartisan 501c3 charitable organization, and engaging in political activitlike voter registration drives, upending for the previsident woulate organizations for charitable oranges. finally it would be a problem

for white house and government officials to attend litical events using federal fundsa violation of the hatch act. >> woodruff: yamiche, what is the trump campaign about this and do they have a larger strategy? what else it to reach black voters? >> well, president trump's outreach to black voters hasn long bmething that has been criticized and controversial, going back to 2016. the time th 2020 trump campaign is saying we're not affiliated with any of this. i had a long conversation with katrina pierson a senior advisor the trump campaign andso voters working on black voices for trump. she said even this was part of the campaign, looks like it would be illegal.a so tht's an admission on the campaign's parthat there shouldn't be cashaways at the events. the campaign officials, rrogates of the president are talking about the economy, school choice and better the lives of trearns and going around the country makg that pitch. when you listen to the president himself, he's still going backes

to the 2016 on that got him into a lot of controversial conversations, which is what do you have to losse, african-american voters? he says his campaign said that's not something he should be saying, but the president said i d better than the last republican nominees wit african-american voters, so i'm going to continue to do the things idhink will work an as we saw in 2016, it worked. >> woodruff: donald sherman, picking up on this, we understand your organization is going to be looki int something ivanka trump, the president's daughter, did a couple of years ago in pushi for these so-called opportunity zones. remind us what that was aout and what's the concern there. >> so, sure. complaint with the department of justice related to ivanka isump's role in pushing opportunity zoneecause her husband jared kushner has a $25 million stake in a company that is packagingv inestment vehicles through the opportunity zone program. an so, what that means is

ivanka trump's work for the opportunity zone prram is essentially a conflict of interest that -- where by discovering the program is funneling moy into her pocket and her husband's pockets through this company that jarede kustill has an ownership interest in. >> woodruff: so that's an ongoing thing you're looking at? >> it's anngoing thi we've looked at. we've filed a complaint with the department of justice but we're await ago response. >> woodruff: one other thing, yamiche, that we were just discussing, is one member of the presidt's cabinet, one of th few senior officials in his administration who is black, ben carson, the secretary of housing anhousingand urban developme, he introduced the president, recently making a point ying the president is not a racist. to what extent is it a concern of the campaign that there is this perception out there that the president is discrimatory is this. >> well, president trump has done a number of things that have caused pele to think of him as racist. that's, of course, critics ofen the prescalling him

racist. they say, one, the president wa a long-time birther, questioning whether or not president obama was born in this countrythat was seen as largely a racist conspiracy theory, given thatpr ident obama was born in the united states. the second way, the thing he talked about immigrants, saying some are rapist and criminals, some think the president the president talking from a to a certain segment of thelking population that's worried about at, so there's a feeling in the campaign they need to defend the president's racist,hat's why you see ben carson saying he is not a racct. and thitics are saying the president isn't interested in upping the numberof black voters but are trying to convince white voters including white women who helped him wn in 2016 that he's not racist and by that trying to speak to african-americans and trying to appeal to a broad range of peop and is really trying to comfort a lot of white voters

that have gone in front of him >> woodruff: think cal congratulation that went before all this. nk yes. >> woodruff: tou both so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: only one pocket of resistance to the ruling assad regime remains in syria. and since late last year, bashar al-assad's military, backed by russia, has been pounding idlib province relentlessly. now, nearly one million people are on the move in the freezing cold, and out in the open.ic asschifrin reports, in a war defined by displacement, this is the largest movement of people, of the entire war. >> schifrin: ty flee by the hundreds of thousands, 900,000 in just the last twoonths. but now, after nine years of war, tre is nowhere left to run. they arrive by the truckload, at camps in open fields.

others flee to tents set up next to abandoned buildin international humanitarian groups. this is their final refuge-- pushed north by syrian and russian forces against the turkish border. but the border is closed, and the internally displaced, are trappe >> ( translated ): this is our 10th displacement. now we are getting rdy to leave, but to go where? we don't know. we couldn't find a house so now we are just taking o stuff to the countryside. maybe we will just sit under an olive tree. >> schifrin: some have found temporary homes by olive trees. but the tents are thin and t winter is harsh. and he, the only way to stay warm are thin sweaters, and the only fuel for the fire, aresh bs. >> ( translated ): we fled from the air strikeand we came he and now we are dealing with the snow. we have no heaters, blankets, mattresses. no firewood. don't have bread. this entire camp is poor. we have nothing.

>> schifrin: last april the rian regime and russian military launched a major campaign to recapture idlib province, syria's last oppositiontronghold. in december, the regime intensified s assault to recapture the m5 highway, the country's most important commercial rou. turkish forces are in idlib resisting the regime. d turkey has pushed russ diplomatically. but those turkish troops are preventing cilians from crossing the border. bashar al-assad predicted victory over turkey and all the regime's enemies. >> ( translated ): the battle to liberate the idlibnd aleppo countryside is ongoing regardless of some of the empty bubbles of sound coming from the north, as well as the battle for liberating all syrian il, crushing terrorism, and achieving stability. >> they lost their homes, their

equipment, and everything that they have. >> schifrin: fouad sayyed is the fo organization trying to provide relief to displaced syrians. he says the air strikes are closing in.fr >> they are sod from everyday attacks or what will happen for them if the syrian regimeame to this area. >> they have been destroyingsi hospitals whil people are inside them, and they are destroying bakeries while people english teacher. hawa is an his story, is the story of the rian war. in 2012, he was a hopeful local council leader who helped lead an anti-assad protest that pushed the regime from his hometown. >> we are looking forwarto a better futur >> schifrin: but then his town haritan was bombed by russian and syrian jets. when we spoke again in 2016, gone were saleh's hometown and hope. >> most of the population of haritan left the town, because

there was no single house which is safe right now. we were let do. america let us down. >> schifrin: his hope returned briefly in 2018, when turkish troops entered idlib. >> the syrn people see that the only savior for them is turkey. maybe, a few years ago, they hoped that america would do that. >> schifrin: today thokish troops are still there, but saleh says, they cannot save the people of idlib. >> does the international community accept that all thesep are killed just because they wanted their freedom, their dignity, their equality? i'm calling for the united states, president donald trump. please, please do something. i beg you. now, more than one million t people are goibe exterminated. >> schifrin: the u.s. supports turkey's military presence in b, and has called russia involvement unacceptable. but last week national securityo

adrobert o'brien ruled out any intervention. >> the idea that america must do something, i just find that to be-- i don't even see that bng a real argument. what are we supposed to do to stop that? we're supposed to parachute inpo as a globaceman, and hold up a stop sign and say stop this turkey, stop this russia? ia schifrin: so all that s like abdullah mohammad can do, is to try to protect their children. he teaches his daughter that when she hears air strikes, she laughs. she's supposed to laugh. he's lieto her-- that they're only toy planes. but the planes aren't toys, and the air strikes are inching closer. >> the syrian people being exterminated, being killed, being bombarded, every single day their schools, their hous, their hospitals, the infrastructure is completely destroyed, and nobody is doing anything. >> schifrin: for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin.

>> woodruff: boy scouts of america officials said their bankruptcy filing early today is the only way they can deal with the growing number of sexual abuse lawsuits and still maintain scouting programs for but as john yang reports, it's a bitter pill for former members who were abud as scouts. yang: growing up in florida, juan carlos rivera loved being a boy scout. >> i started to, you know, jus learn everything about suting, camping and, you know, do the merit badges. whatever scouting entailed, i was all over it because i liked it it was fun. >> yang: by the time he was a young teen, he was a life scout, the second-highest rank, and wns taking art lesrom an assistant to the scoutmaster. >> yang: and then one day he summoned me to go upstairs in the house to a bedroom.

and that's when the incident. took pla that's when everything changed. >> yang: rivera says that was the day he lost interest in scouting and quit. for 20 years he never told anyone why: he had been molested. now he's suing the boy scouts of america and is telling his story publicly for the first time. >> it angers me that it happened because was a part of my childhood that should have been innocent. you know, i didn't seek it. it just happened. >> yang: rivera's case is among about 2,000 collected by an "liance of lawyers called abused in scouting." many as 70 new claims.sts as their ollient is 93 years old; the youngest, eight. timothy kosnoff is one of the attorneys. >> more than 95% of them are slentifying perpetrators that have never previbeen identified.

so it's an amazing act of civic responsibility to come forwa. most of these men have never disclosed this abuse to anyone. >> yang: in a statement, scouts c.e.o. roger mosby said the organization "sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in scouting." he said the boy scouts wants to use bankruptcy to create a fund that "will provide equitable compensation to all victims." the organization's most recent i.r.s. filing lists assets of $1.4 billion, including land for camping and hiking. the scouts are asking the bankruptcy court to halt existing lawsuits and set a deadline for new complaints. >> while it's unfortunate that these men probably won't get be their day in court, at least this means that we're moving forward and ese men will get at some point, i'm confident, >> yang: the scouts follow more than 20 individual catholic r dioceses aigious orders

to bankruptcy in te ofin turning sex-abuse lawsuits. allegations of abuse in the boy scouts go back decades. in 15, the "new york times" reported on an internal "red expelled for "moralleaders perversion." last year, testimony in anla und court case revealed boy scout files from 1944 to 2016 listing nearly 8,000 n believed to have abused more than 12,000 children. attorney jeff anderson discussed the disclosure on the newshour. >>ne have known they have b harboring offenders and keeping these files. we didn't have the precise number untile got it from the expert on the witness stand. >> yang: most of the names have never been made public. in 2012, an oregon court unsealed documents in a sex abuse case that identified more than 1,200 scouting volunteers

accused of molesting young boys between 1960 and 1991. >> these are files that document the history of allegations of abuse in scouting and how the boy scouts respondedo those allegations. >> yang: legal and financial pressures on the scouts increased last year when more than 20 states enacted laws changing the statute of limitations for abuse cases. >> what this new law does is, number one, it brings outos information, ee and accountability that these institutions have beble and incapable of doing. >> yang: juan carlos rivera, now r confronted his abuser d doesn't know where he is now. he still strgles with what happened that day nearly four decades ago. he says the boy scouts of america should worry more abitt that thafinancial future. >> they need to man up and do the right thing.

i understand that they want to protect their assets. that's fin but they need to put themselves in the positions of the people that werabused. money is okay. but the trauma that abused people have that's lifetime, that never, ever goe. suffered in a program whose stated mission is to teach young people ethical and moral values. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in washington. uf >> woo and now, a museum on created by designers and brain researchers, that challenges our senses demonstrating how we all experience art differently, and

jeffrey brown reports from dallas as part of oundongoing artsulture series, canvas. >> brown: it's a kinnsof playgrounde an art museum. large, room-sized works, in which exploring the different ways each of us experiences the world around us is as important as the art itself. now at the dallas muse of art, the exhibition is titled" speechless: different by sign." it's unusual in that touching and much more is encouraged, even required. >> i became interested in what happens if we take, do an exhibion where it's interactive, where we encourage people to use all their senses >> brown: unusual, too, in how it began-- in a very personal way for curator sarah schleuning, when her now six year old son, vaughn, was fit diagnosed with an expressive language disorder. >> so "speechless" is really quite literal in that he was speechless for the first several years of his life. and as we were navigating that as a family, we were trying to

figure out-- i'm a hyper-verbal person, and what happens when io the rds that i use and how ico express anunicate, is no longer valid?th and i thin led me into ese ideas of to your point, what is disability i didn't think he fferent. his sister doesn't think he's different, but he gets out in t e world and people didn'know how to communicate with him and itas very frustrating. >> brown: and that led her to curator, and how winteracta in different ways with art. for this exhibition, she asked artist-designers to bring those differences to life. ini archibong, a california- born, switzeand-based designer, created an installation title, "the oracle." it's made up of ten pill-shaped synthezers, crafted of blown glass. museum vitors can move them, subtly altering the sounds in

throom, even the color and vibrations of a pool of water. the console controing all this, "wizard of oz"-like, is behind a wall. yuri suzuki, tokyo-born and london-based, created "sound of the earth, chapter 2," a large sphere that requires the visitor to experience it up close. suzuki gathered audio by crowd- sourcing on instagram, with people around the world sending in clips of sounds of everyday life.so hered substitutes for visual imagery we might expect and if i stay here long enough, i'm going to-- >> yeah, then you'll get a nice sort of hug. >> brown: most playfull: misha kahn, a brooklyn-based arst and furniture designe who lled a large room with strangely shaped sacs of hand- inted silk over vinyl, each covering a wood sculure

inside, and all of it constantly inflating and deflating, so the whole room seems to be breathing. >> everything'touchable and you can kind of explore it. and for me, i wanted to find a way to sort of embed these sculptures and humanize them bya ng them breathe and sort of shy away from you. >> brown: not only that: you can jump in and take a seat. and so we did. you wanted to know if this would be perceived as a place to sit? >> yeah, and then like, if you hasort of think of it as a then what else is going on? and so it sort of pulls you into a different area, it activates your brain in a slightly different way. >> brown: and that is what dan krawczyk brought to theex hibition. arkrawczyk is a brain resecher and deputy director of theer ceor brain health at the

university of texas, dalsss. >> we'retially seeing how active the brain is.of it's a heat mareas that are particularly active for some kind of process. artists got to work, curator sarah schleuning brought them together with scientists and medical researchers who study dementia, and much more.nd dan krawczyk was one of them. >> i was excited by the possibility because we don't often have these opportunities to have a science-meets-art kind of conversation. i have long thought th especially visual arts has a very clear link within the brain and when you're a neuroscientist you tend talways think, how t do brain become active in different ways? >> bro: the artists then did their thing: the design team ofe brothers steand william ladd of rolled-up, colocrollsundreds of all sizes, each made and initialed by a resident of dallas oatlanta.

the room entices the visitor to touch and feel, or sit and meditate. neuroscientist krawczyk was able to explain to the artists how their work alters perceptions. >> i think the major message i really tried to inform them about is how dynamic the brain is that we don't just perceive, we're constantly perceiving with a goal to act. the brain is constantly cyclinge een perceiving and then acting.ug so i t there was a lot of exciting synergy with the way the brain really works because we always want to take the next tion. >> brown: why would this kind of art be more accessible to someone who we would all disabledin terms of what's going on in the brain? >> well i think i would suggest pretty dramatically, right?ts and that's going to change the brain state quite drally. so the range of options, if you're more of a touch-based exploratory person, you're likelyo get something very different out of these exhibits.

>> brown: and that, of course, is the point of this exhibition, which even includes a so-calle"" de-escation" room where visitors can relax, with a weighted blanket, after all the sensory stimulation. curator sarah schleuning hopes the hibition can be part of new model for museums. and opportunities that may change the way that they see and perceive what art is what a great thing to be to not be locked in a box. it's okay to be different in the space and you can still be surrounded and engaged in the experience. >> brown: the exhibition" speechless: different by design" was a collaboration with the high museum of art in atlanta, and travels there next. for the pbs nehour, i'm jeffrey brown at the dallas museum of art.

>> woodruff: on the newshour designed by renaissance master tphael have all returned sistine chapel for the first time in nearly five centuries. take a cser look on our web site, pbs.org/wshour. later tonight on most pbs stations, frontline examines tho rise of tegy titan jeff bezos, the richest man in the world, who is leading amazon's delivery of endless products, entertainment services and technology innovations to customers with just a click at a button, buhat price? and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, from las vegas: a preview of the next democratic debate.uf i'm judy woo join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and e you soon. >> major funding for t newshour has been provided by:

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. two exclusive interviews. >> i can't even envision a situation where he could be reelected. >> house speaker nancy pelosi tells me why democrats must defeat the predent in 2020. then -- >> ukraine, i told him very st ho and i was very open with him. i told him that we fight with corruption. >> the ukrainian president fights back against trump's charges of corruption and opens up for the first time on in what he calls the impeachment soap opera. plus -- >> everything that is admirable about t t t is also something that we should fear about it.