captioning sponsored by newshour productionsll, c >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, hopes for a vaccine-- we talk to a lead member of the team determining who gets the shot. then, defending the vote-- a kef georgicial warns about the dangers of violent language when the system works. and, on display-- a woman renaissance master painter, often overlooked, gets her day at london'national gallery. >> she had a very forceful character,nd actually when you look at her pictures you get that sort of personality come through her pictures awell, i think. she is determined to be considered on a par with oth le artists. >> woodruff: all that and more

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>> woodruff: britains now the first country to approve a rigorously tested covid-19 vaccine. the creation of pfizer and a rman drug-maker won emergency approval today. inoculations in britain could begin next week. still, the world health organization forecast there won't be enough vaccine to stop new surges, for another three to six months. we'll get details, after the news sumry. viebtd warned the pandemic could kill another 150,000 people in the next two months. he did not offer details but more than the c.d.c. projects. mr. biden alsoct prothe economic toll and promised efforts to spark a speedyry reco he promised congress with a down payment now on newlief.

>> i believe with the right policies we can fundamentally my hope is that we able to help in short order, but thatpe s a lot on friends in congress, on the other side, if they're prepared to take action that needs to be taken. >> woodruff:e'll talk to two senators about covid relief and other issues, later in the program. president trump rainto opposition today with a veto threat against a sweeping defee bill. he demanded a provision to end liability protections for social media companies, for their users' posts. republican senator jim inhofe, committee, dismissed the demand. and, negotiators approved a final version without the liability language. afghanistan's government and the taliban have had a breakthrough of sorts. they announced a preliminary deal today, setting the rules for peace talks. it's their first written agreemt in 19 years of war. ethiopia and the united nations

agreed tay on openg a humanitarian corridor into the country's tigray region. some six million people have been trapped there during a month of fighting tween the army and rebel forces. the agreement calls for oolowing in medicine, and other critical supplies. hong kong is under fire afterad three g pro-democracy activists were sentenced to jail. agnes chow, joshua wong and ivan lam will serve seven to 13 months over a protest last year. supporters demonrated in solidarity today, some hiding their faces out of caution, as china crks down on dissent. >> ( translated ): compared to other protesters who d damage on public facilities, or even people who were charged with riot, they were just participating in the protest. everyoas angry at that time, they shouldn't be the only people to take t blame. it's just because they are morea renown that they should

shceive a heavy sentencing. >> woodruff: in gton, house speaker nancy pelosi "brutal sentencing of young champions of democracy." back in this country, the boeing 737 max made its first public flight since being grounded for 20 months after two fatal crashes. repoers flew on a 737 max from dallas to tulsa, oklahoma as part ofn effort by american airlines to restore public trust. american plans treturn the planes to service, on december 29th. the u.s. transportation department is putting an endo emotional support animals on airliners. a rule issued today allows only service dogs trained to help people with physical orhi psric disabilities. ytrlines say passengers have brought along evng from turtles to a peacock, in a bid to avoid cargo fees. wall street had a relatively quiet day. the dow jones industrial average

gained about 60 points to close at 29,3. the nasdaq fell five points, fot, the s&p 500 added six another record close. and, american olympic champion rafer johnson died today in los angeles. he captured the decathlon at thl 1960 rompics, and ultimately set three world records. in 1968, he worked on robert f. kennedy's presidential campaign, and helped sdue the gunman who fatally shot kennedy. rafer johnson wa86 years old. still to come on the newshour: how the covid vaccine will be distributed. strong words from a republican in georgia on the dangers of violent language. a renaissance master breaks gender barriers centuries after her work hit the canvas. and much more.

>> woodruff: the united kingdom's approval today of pfizer's covid vaccine dialed up the anticipation, pressures and questions about vaccines in the u.s. and how the distribution will be handled. william brangham talks with one of the federal government's leading authorities on making this happen. >> brangham: judy, the pfizer vaccine, which requires special cold storage, is likely to be available in the u.s. later this month to healthcare workers and elderly americans living in long-term care facilities. the u.s. government so anticipates offering vaccinions from moderna later this month. all told, the government says 20 million people could be vaccinated in the u.s. by the end of this year, and possibly

100 million by the end of february 2021. dr. moncef slaoui is the chief scientific officer for the government's vaccine and erapies program, known a operation warp speed. he joins me now. . slaoui, very good to have you on the "newshour". 100 million americans by the end of february, that seems a o remarkabtimistic and ambitious goal. >> well, it is an ambitious's goal, and goal that we have been working very hard since the month of may to be able to achieve, frankly. we are, as you know, on the verge of having two vaccines approved, i hope, by the f.d.a., on decembe or so and can start immunizing.and we we think we will have 40 million doses of this vaccines in the month of december, that's enough to immunize 20 million people because each individual needs tw of the vaccines.

and we plan to have about 60 million doses ie month of january, and then 100 million doses between these tw vaccines in the month of february. and we feel that the plan is achievable. it's stretched, it's challenging, but it's. achievab >> reporter: it is rmarkn't we're even talking about vaccines being deveand rolled out in the same year we discovered the virus we'rec trying to nate against. you have said we could be close to herd immunity in the u.s. by as early as may. how many americans would likelye o be vaccinated to achieve that goal? >> yes, this is very, very important, frankly an aea of potential concern for everybody involved i public health in the sense that we need about 75 to 80% of the tot population to be immune against the virus for herd immunity to really impact the rest of the population. we will be producing enough ccine doses by the month of

may to cover about 80% of the population. whathe don't know,at we really hope will happen is that the vaccine doses will actually be used and people will be accept to be immunized. very, very importa. we are working hard, trying to talk to eve wrybody about he developed this vaccine, how we didn't cut any corner, we took financial risk, operationald risk, we di not take any scientific or safety risk, we are thrilled that the vaccines are highly efficacious, and we look forward to the riews, totally transparently by independent bodies, indepesoent ad board, for instance, to the f.d.a., that we look into the data, discuss the data public transparently and then potentially recommend theap vaccine fooval. >> reporter: you're talking about this concern that many people share that there's a lot of people who are suspicious about vaccines and might not take them even if the data are quite good.

what other challenge apart from that, do you see as challenges in the road ahe? >> well, there are several challenges. first, our plans rely on six vaccines being successful and approved. we have two. we have another two that areco leting their phase three january and hopef approvedt in in late january or early february. they need to be effective. we hope they will be, but, you we'll know when w know. then two more that may come in the month of may. those may have less impact on the first round of immunization, i would say, in the population. the second thing that needs to happen the we are manufacturing lythese vaccine daiand every single dose that we produce will behaped ouside. this is verply com manufacturing, and we just

reached the maufacturing. problems could happen. we don't have reasons to believe that they will happen, but ving long experience for 30 years producing new vaccines early on things hapn, reality happens, we may have slippages of time by a week or a day or two weeks. >> reporter: the world health organizationtoday, cautioned that there may simply not be enough vaccine in the supplye chain tod off a major surge this winter, which many people tar. do you worry this good news -- g good news -- about these vaccines may cause some people to loosen up their precautioh and think, the end is near, we don't have to worry about masking and distancing and all those things? >> well, this is a real concern, indeed, because vaccine, even in this country, where unfortunately we are experiencing a major surge, and

unfortunately, we will not be able to immunize all the population all at once. this is goi to happen gradually over the next five or six months. during that period of time, everyone needs to assume and act as if they were not protected. we need to have our masks, we need to keep our distance, w need to wash our hands, we need to continue to be exremely aware of what we're doing and where we are because, even if we are immunized, we may be protected against disease but we may carry the virus to dysome else, and just we would show the wrong example. point that you raise. it is a concern. i hope everybody would understand. it's a matter of only a few months. so, please, be patient and be resilient. >> reporter: already, dr. ncef slaoui, chief scientific officer for the operation warp speed, thank you very much for being here. >> my pleasure, thank you for having me.

>> woodruff: now, a clarion call to curb threats of violencet agaiection workers. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our report. >> it all gone too far. >> alcindor: a cry of alarm from a republican and a top elections official in georgia. on tuesday, gabriel sterling condemned dangerous language aimed at elections officials. and he warned of potential violence.ng >> someone's go get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed, ind it's not right. >> alcindor: stecriticized president trump and his allies accused other republicans of s standing by ilence. >> all of you who have n said a damn word are complicit in this. >> alcindor: today, sterling'sbo and fellow republican, georgia secretary of state bradr

raffenr, backed him up. >> this is exactly the kind of language that is at the base of a growing threat environment for election workers who are simply doing their jobs. >> alcindor:hat tweet from president trump yesterday also and, trump lawyer joseph digenova suggest krebs, who was fired by the president from his job as director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, be sho today, krebs responded during a virtual forum with the >> this has got to stop. it has to stop. we have to let the professionals do their jobs and it's well beyond time for everyone on both sides of the political spectrum to call for an end and to call for this, our process, our on into the next atration.moving >> alcindor: but at a white house briefing, press secretaryi ka mcenany argued there is blame to go around. >> we condemn any threatsne against an

there's no place for violence. what i wilsay though, too, is that the president's lawyers, they were doxxed by a left organization, theiprivate information put out. so, we're seeing that happen to peop on both sides of the argument and there's no plac for that ever anywhere. >> alcindor: all this as the president continues to insist, without evidence, that the election was stolen. he has yet to concede to president-elect joe biden. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. gi woodruff: and gabriel sterling, the geelection offici who had sharp words for his fellow republicans yesterday, joins me no atlanta. mr. sterling, thank you so much for making time to talk witus. you've caughtour attention yesterday. tes us what the message w you were trying to convey when youdy said, someould get killed, somebody could get shot. >> very straightforward message, and thanks for having me, judy. that's exactly what we're seeing on the ground here in georgia,

with the environment that's being created through misinformation, disinformation, lying, that people are being threatened who are just simply doing their jobs, anfinal straw for me yesterday was that young contractor that was the for dominion voting systems who was simply doing his job, and somebody got hi name, started sending out a video of him doing an innocent part of his job, saying he was manipulating votes and it was treasonous and within a couple of tweets of that someone had hung a gif of a noose saying you have citted treason, sir, may god have mercy on at that time i was done. the secretary and his wife have been getting threats. i have had police protection, but i took a hiring profile job. this kid is just doing his jobs. that's the same thing for hunddsds of thousanlection officials around the country who ran the most secure election in united states history this year. >> woodruff: you seemed to be,er yey, pleading with president trump as, in your

words, to stop inspiring potential acts of violence. what is it hat the -- that the president has said and done th led you to this point? >> your vote is being stlen. secretary rathlingsburger, life-long republican, is an emy of the people asking for the two senators in this state to call for resignation, for rampant mismanagement, all fraud to happen. none of it is true and frankly undermines our nation, democracy and the republic to continue to insist there's some path to win. i am a republica i will vote for two senators, becse i think it's important for the republicans to take control of the united states senate to move rward but the president is in a place of ranesponsibilithe needs to take some. >> woodruff: the white house today said they don't done violence, the trump campaign violence. don't con

is that accepting responsibility? >> it's great to have yourle spokespeo out and say what are the right words but, as you saw today, he put out anther video saying there is massive voter fraud in this state where there's zero proof of it, non some to have the people formerly part of his legal team met today where they said don't trst any of the voting machines, in fact, don't go vote in the election coming up inanry. this office wants to encourage everybody to vote, republican and democrat ake and fight it out. but this has turned into a stuation, like i said ebody asked me what these charges were, i said they're part ve a dream. they're made out of whole cloth. one ofhe early conspiracy theories was that these machines were flipping votes and there stuff, so we did a hand audit, and the hand audit was so precise and aligned with the outcomes it was only off .1503% from the ballots cast and .009% of the margin where most are ofy

to 2%. this state did it right. we ran a true election. the president came up short. maybe if h hadn't discouraged people from using absentee voting by mail during a pandemic it might have been a different outcome. >> woodruff: you call it a fever dream, is the ay rational explanation for what the president and allies aresa ng? >> i don't mind using the court system, that is part of the due process, but to go out there, blindly swinging a bataying ere's conspiracies everywhere, prood, when there's early no ffice is continuing to investigate all the items brought to us about ballots around any kind of election violation. >> woodruff: you say you do plan, still, to vote for e republican candidates for the senate, but, at the same time, these are two individuals, senator per due and senator loeffler who called on your boss the secretary of state to resign. i'm reading, they say he failed to deliver honest andan

arent elections, he's failed the people of georgia. they have not condemned what the president and others are saying. >> they have not, an it's unfortunate, and it makes me angry on some levels, obviously. but here's the reality, and this is what we see hapening right now, these two senators are in the fight of their political lives and they know if they cross president trumy and mabe defend some of the stuff with this really secure electi we've had i the state, he could do one or two tweets and kill their campans. they need the trump base of voters to show up and that's what they have to deal with. i file for hem at some point. at some level i'm sure the don't care about my sympathy. i'm a republican but not my position here. i want them to win, but i want everybody od vote. >> wff: but is there fear that psident trump wouldn't support them justification for their continuing to stand behind these claims he's making. i can't speak for the senators. i wou b hope that wouldn enough.

but when you have your politics in line with thithing, an realize this is the control of the united states senate, which we give deocrats complete control of all the levers of power in the nation if they blow up the filibuster, t about packing the court, protecting small businesses, finding aa rationalh through covid, understand i'm not talking abo politics on this front, i expressed my own opinion on this and realize that we do not need to have thicpresident basly telling lies about how the election is going, inspiring pe to potentially say, he, the president wants me to take action against these enemies to have the people, and these are election workers that are just doingheirobs trying to protect the machinery of democracy. when stacey abriams in 2018 sd she wouldn't concede ithe undermined democratic process. when presidentup president trump did it, it undermined the process.

they're both wrong. wodruff: gabriel sterling, thank you for being here.ou >> thankjudy, great to be here. >> woodruff: lawkers in washington are under pressure to deal, as covid cases and deaths spike across t country. house speaker nancy pelosi and senate minority leader chuckhu r said in a statement today the bipartisan covid relief bill unveiled ye terday shoulde starting point for negotiatns going forward. illinois senator dick durb is h the secohest ranking democrat in the senate and he joins us now. senator durbin, thank you so much for being with us again. what caused the democrats to change their starting point? we had heard speaker pelosi sisting on that 2.2 trillion, but now you're looking at something that's a lot less that what happened? >> well, we're in the reaty period of time.

on december 26, 12 million americans will be cut off from unemployment insurance. we know businesses are struggling to survive and we ow they need a helping hand. state and local governments have faced downturns in their venues. we know we need more money for vaccine.ribution to have the you stack them all up, that's why this bipartisan coalition of senats and housemembers have been working for weeks to find something that we can agree on, that we can fight for and we've done it. we've come up, i think, maybe one or two items to be resolved, important btems,ut only one or two, and so many of them that we've t reed on thaaders said they wantr this to be the starting point to get something done now. >> woodruff: and i now you have been workingith tha bipartisan group, but, senator, with all due respect, the needen has reat for months now. why just now, in early december, e democrats moving their position? >> i'm te wrong senator to ask.

senator mcconnell, he is the one who decides what's brought to the floor. six months ago -- ithiwas six months ago -- nancy pelosi passed a substantial bill which i fully sported, the heroes act, and then she came back and reduced the number to try t get in range of negotiation and pass that bill as well. so we've dons, thie've brought this to the house and the senate for consideration fo months on end, but we're at the end of our rope here. we've got toet do somng. how in the world can the member congress go home and celebrate christmas when ey know the next morning 12 million americans are losing their unemployment insurance? >> woodruff: what do you think it will take tot a deal? what are democrats prepared to live with and where do yo see give on the part of republicans? >> well, i can tell you, we have been giving negotiatiock and forth for the last several weeks and there's been a lot ofn givetake and there still is. we hardly ever meet that we don't resit one of these itms

on here. but it's # $08 billion of basic bipartisan agreement. what we need, we need senator mcconnell to say you're going to get a day on the floor, we're v going to have te and do this in a timely fashion so we can consider pasing it in the senate, maybe do the same in the house or some version, work out r differences and get it done on a bipartisan basis. i think that's what the american people are clamoring for. >> woodruff: are you satisfied with this -- i mean, clearly, there's more than you would have liked to have seen in here, but you can live wih this, and do you think the majority of democrats can live with this?>> think they can. i believe they can. now, pelosi an schumer sa this is a starting point, so there will be further negotiations, but we believe this $908 billion for the next ur months, december through the first three months of the year, is an emergency response that is desperately needed. when we're talking about dritting vaccine, why in the rld is there any difference of

opinion? when we're talking about money for education, when we'in taabout money for businesses to be able to survive and basically to ve to units of government some kind of relief from the struggles that they're going through? >> woodruff: senator, i kno you're pointing a finger at the republican leader senate majority leader mcconnell, but, of course, republicans are spinting right back at democrats anker pelosi and saying there was no give on her part, on the part ofoc demts. wh is the public to believe here? >> i hope they will believe this simple statement -- this proposal, this bipartisan proposal from house and senate rapublicans and dem should have a day on the floor of each chamber. ple want to offer amendments, so be it, let them offer amendments, but letar's at this point that we worked out among ourselves a bipartisan agreemenme if you can p with something better, more power to you, but if you can't, letas's t do this as quickly as possible. >> woodruff: do you think this week when congress is due to go

home? >> absolutely. it can absolutely get done. senator mcconnell, as i said, controls the floor, he decides what comes up on the floor and he can make the decision thatmo we're going to through this very quickly, and he should. none of us want to spend christmas eve or christmas day here in washington, but we also don't want to go home and turn our backs on the people who desperately need our help. >> woodruff: and senator, is part of your thinking that, if you can get ths passed, that you would expect president-elect biden, his team, the democrats under a new administration to ce back early in the new year and ask for more relief? is that part of what the thinking is? >> i don't want to try to guess what the bidbeen agenda wilr the timing of it, but, for instance, we provide, i think, it's $8 n billr additional distribution of the vaccine across america. it could be that number is not enough, and we need more. are we going to slow down the effort to do it? it would be under the new president, he would make a proposal, maybe in sme other

areas think there was a sense of urgency. at we try to do is take it through the end of march, and beyondt it's going to be up to the new administration and the new congress. >> woodruff: the second ranking democrat in the united states senate, senator dick durbin of illinois, thank you so much. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: as we heard from republican gabriel sterling of georgia, the language around the election-- denial of the vote, false claims of fraud and potentially inciting violence, are dangerous. sterling claims his state "did it right" as they now face a runoff that willetermine control of the u.s. senate. d as we just heard from senator durbin, there is a critical need for economic relief from the pandemic. republican senator bill cassidy of louisiana is one of the senators involved in the bipartisan bill aimed at addressing some of those needs.

he is also a doctor and he joins us now. senator cassidy, there you are. i wanted to makeure you were with us, at the capitol. us.nk you so much for being with i know if you were able to hear any of what senator durbinu saidit's very clear, from listening to him, that democrats are prepared to support ether this bipartisan proposal as it is or something close to that. where are republicans on this? >> there is a lot of enthusiasm on our side, people want to getn somedone. now, still, we have to show the details. you know the old saying devil's in the details. we're working on a bipartisan basis, house and senate memstbe. i ot off a call regarding that to come to a mutualnd undersg of those details. and people are operating in good faith, not holding out, trying to get something else, operating in good faith, and that's very encouraging. >> woodruff: well, we had heard from senate majority leader mcconnell that he was not in favor of the amount of

federal unemployment assistance that would beart of this bipartisan proposal. is he prepared to change his mind on that? do you know? >> i cannot speak fochr m mcconnell, but if you look at the comments he made earlier, they're actually in line with what we ha been speaking of. he's not in favor of bringing a bill that caot pas this is bipartisan, it is the he's not in favor of doing something which is merely to make a point. hey, i agree with that, it was not bipartisan. the best way to sd a message is to pass a bill, and if it's not n bipartisan, it wiver pass. an so, i think, actually, if you look at the qualifications he has for getting somethi through, we meet those qualifications, which is why i'm told that the u.s. chamber of commerce has come out in support of. so we're lining upht suprt from business interests from others as well.i' like to think that leader mcconnell will come on board.

>> woodruff:o ist am trying to understand what it is that you think that could be an obstacle to his support because, for month after month, we've seen him resist thepo prols not only from speaker pelosi but other proposals that were as mun money or more moey -- not much more money, but some more, than what is represented in his bipartisan proposal. >> first let's stop and look atr thposals speaker pelosi put forward. it mentionedua mar more than jobs. it had a bailout for millionaires and billionaires in big blue states. now, that was not really a proposal meant to attract attention. i will go back to what i saiead ier, if it's not bipartisan, it is a messaging bill, and that was a messaging bill. this is bipartisan, this is a bill that sends a mesage that we can pass a bill that we care about the american people. i would not look too harshly upon the leader not considering the heros act, speaker pelosi'sw

bill, because s a messaging bill. this is a bill that can pass.o >> wuff: do you believe this can get done by the end of next we? senator durbin says he does. are you optimistic? >> i don't know. mean, there's a big spending bill that we have to pass, the national defense authorization act. in the lineup of that which musa maybe those two come first or maybe not. but i do think the progress we've made, the support -- and i can't emphasizenough, judy, people from either side to have the party coming up to ive solutions to a problem that we know, okay, republicans are bringing a solutiont that we know democrats care about, would you be okay with it and vce versa, that is progress. there's a heck of a lot of good will going inding a productt that republicans and democrats in the house and the senateeean agrpon, that's what gives me encouragement. >> woodruff: senator cassidy, i want to bring up a differento subject with. few minutes ago, i interviewed top electionsofficials in the

sterling, who has just, in the strongest language, condemned the president's -- what he says are the prsident's language that has led to threats -- threats of violence against elecons officials iia geo he called on republicans everywhere to condemn what the president is doing. are you prepared to do that? >> i have said that, although i ted for president trump and wished him to be elected, it is clear from the electoral college awarding 270 votes to joe biden that joe biden has won. i will also say that, if somne is to make allegation, they should be made in court and they should be verifiable. if you have allegations to make which are not verifiable which do not hold up in court, it would be responsible not to make those allegations. i have not followed what e president is saying. i am just saying that in general. if you are going to make allegations, they better be

supported in legal court, and are not sustainable in a courtey of law. >> woruff: wll, president trump has recently as today is saying that the elecon in georgia was rigged, that it is riddled with fraud. he's continuing to do this. president are making threatshe against elections officials in georgia and other states. who's responsible for that? does the buck stop with the president? >> first, let's say this, that threats of violence against others are wrong, period, end of story, and should not be made. secondly, there's republican governor in georgia, there's a republican governor in -- there's a republican secretary ofstate, both of whom are strong president trump supporters, and both of whom, as best i know, have assured that the election processs wa valid, and my understanding is that

there was a hand recount, which, again, verified the results. and, so, if sebody s, whoever that person is, has some verifiable proof of fraud, it should come forward now, but if there's not proof of fraud that can be pron in a court, the allegations should not be made. >> woodruff: senator bill cassidy of louisiana, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: "i will show your illustris lordship what a woman can do." the words of aartist, a woman, who painted her way to fame in the 16's, was largely forgotten for centuries, and more recently is getting h full recognition, now in a exhibition in london, one of the most anticipated of the year.

the exhibit opened in october, ien had to close for a ti november due to the pandemic. but, today it reopened to the public. affrey brown has the story for our ongoing artsnd culture series, canvas. >> brown: a young wocosted by two older men demanding sex. the scene, "susanna and the elders" from a biblical story, was portrayed often by 16th and 17th century painters, but never like this, in a rk by then 17 year old artemisia gschi. >> the way artemesia paints it, a's really the first time woman, that is susanna, is shown sort of forcefully saying ¡no' to these men. it was sort of viewed as quite because, of course, it shows a woman naked or half naked nthing. but artemisia do paint this picture in an erotic way at all. you feel the sort of physical erjection of susanna and h and i think artemesia put so ch of herself in her pictures

and she's a young, vulnerable, you know, 16, 17 year old when she paints this picture. and i think you already see quite lot of the traits that yowould later see in her pictures that she brings her sort of ved experiences, but also her sort of feminine sensibility to her subjects. >> brown: treves is curator of an exhibition at london's national gallery that brings together 29 paintings by artemisia, one of the few women artists of the renaissance andqu baeras. among them: self-portraits: "as a lute player," and "as a female martyr."" baptist," "mary magdalene in ecstasy." our team was there fhe short period this fall when the exhibition was open. it all stems from the museum's 2018 purchase of its first workt byisia, "self portrait as saint catherine of alexandria." cently rediscovered painting that the museum restored, and then took on tour inritain,

into places such as schools and a women's prison, where such valuable art is rarely seen. also telling: artemisia is just the eighth female artist in the national gallery's world-famous collection, which includes more than 700 men. this is more than just looking this is also addressing something much larger for your museum and others. >> it is absolutely and i think we're sort of riding a wave of increasing interest inisia but also generally across the board about women artis in general and women arsts of the early modern period. >> brown: artemisia was deeply influenced bthe work of her older contemporary caravaggio, and his hypedramatic use of light. she was trained by her father, the painter orazio gentileschi, two of his works are in the exhibition. but in 1611, a year after artemisia painted "susanna d the elders," a scene she returned to several times, she was raped by one of her father's friends, the artist agostino tassi.

the exhibition displays detailed alurt records of the trial, including the sod¡ judicial torture' in which cords were tightenedd artemesia's fingers as she was questioned about the truth of her claims, the victim once again victimized. >> the jge asks her, are you willing to do this to prove that you're telling the truth?an she says, absolutely i am. and she basically complies. she knows she has no other oice. and i think what's also really telling is when you read her answers, you know she utters these very famouwords "e vero, e vero, e vero", again and again. she says "it's true. it's true, it's true." but she also there's a sense of her spirit that you see, and she she looks at tassi and she quips, this is the ring that you promised me.ur these are yoromises. rod she's referring to the fact that tassi had psed to marry her and instead wedding ring. she has these ropes tied around her fi iers. and to mee a real survivor in that i see someone who's strong and who sort of is challenging her aggressor. so i felt it was quiortant to show her not as a victim, but as someone who really, you know,

>> brown: tassi, here's one of his works, was convicted and sentenced to exile, but that w never enforced. in fact, some of artemisia's most famous works have been viewed as a kind of ¡revenge in int.' the exhibition brings together her two versions of the biblical heroine judith beheading the assyrian general, holofernes: an almost cinematic violence, with blood spurting, the man with his eyes open, helpless now in his horror. the image, by the way, became a social media meme during theur supreme hearings of brett kavanaugh, after christine blasey ford accused him of sexual assault she said occurred but curator trevesises wehool. not reduce the artist's life and work to this one eventver traumatic. >> i felt it needed to be talked out in the show in a ver sensitive but not over-d sensationaliy. i mean, she must have, you know, carrieit with her emotionally

tsd psychologilly. and i think she hat sort of energy into her pictures. but i feel if you've just read her pictures and in particular sort of lens of her rape and seeing it as a sort of revenge in paint against her r i feel you're actually doing her a you're diminishing, in a way, her artistic achievement. >> brown: her artistry was recogniz in her lifetime throughout europe, with works commissioned by leading families including the british royals. there was even a mention in the popular netflix series "the crown": >> it's by artemisia. >> brown: ...and personal letters displayed here, including love letters to orentine nobleman, capture her own spirit and sheer willpower. looking at all the work you were able to look at, from reading these letters, how did you come to see her as a person? >> incredible feistyincredibly determined. i mean, i think she had a very folyeful character, and actu when you look at her pictures you get that sort of personality come through her pictures as well, i think she is determined

to be considered on a par with other male artists. >> brown: artemisia gentileschil died in around 1654 and, as tastes changed, her work was largely forgotten. but by all accounts, gender bias, even mogyny, played a g role as well-- women not taken seriously in the annals of t history. this exhibit, on through januare 24s remedy that for those who can be there in personaland in a virour for the rest of us. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: stay with us for how luck can marry opportunity. but first, te a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air.

>> woodruff: before the pandemic, transformations in manufacturing changed american life. covid-19 is now delivering a new blow, but paul solman reports on how one nearly two-century-old family business is working to turn that around. this encore presentati is part of our making sense series. >> reporter: business resurgent in fall river, massachusetts, at least at merrow manufacturing, founded back in 1838. >>his is the first overloc machine. merrow created the first overlock machines in the late 1800s,

>> reporter: 120 years later, 8th generation owners charlie merrow and his brother owen trieto revive the business, an industry with a proud past and moribund present. >> the firsthing people see is how much history there is. and the first thing i will tell somebody is that none of that pays the bills. >> reporter: the merrows' bright idea was to sew electronic components, simple one into clothing for the military and apparel makers. and then along came covid. how vulnerable were you as a business? >> completely exposed. having to shut the facility dowa complete not knowing whether we were gonna be able to open again. esafter closing, your reve they disappear. to reopen requires capitalizing your compa again, meeting a payroll without any without any income. it was terrifying. >> reporter: meanwhile, the whole country was terrified, and especially of course hospital workers, like nurse jacqui anom: >> it's literally frightening when you walk in there and if you're spending half your w brainpowrying about if

you're going to die, you're not concentrating on the patient. even have the most basicdidn't personal protective equipment: masks and gowns. >> it was a disaster.ep >> rter: but one that merrow, with its 500 sewing machines and know-how workers, was uniquelyoised to address. >> after shutting the business down with our health teams working, working to clean the facility up and our design teams, building prototypes, it became clear. through the phone that started to ring that this product was needed so desperately that if we weredble to build it, we woul get orders behind it. >> reporter: merrow pivoted the business within days to make medicagowns. >> we're building 100,000 to 150,000 gowns a day now. >> reporter: it's now the nation's biggest producer of them. we're wearing its masks. >> this is new mask. we're building 10k of them a day and we'll probably scale it up to 25,000. >> reporter:, as merrow told congressman joe kennedy, he's all in. >> we put in a bid to build 40 million gowns in fall river over the next six months. it's a big deal. >> 40 million? >> we've got the plan for it,

i've got the fabrics for it. >> reporter: politicians both near and far are interested. merrow's phone rang during our >> i thought this f. i have a call today with the canadian government. >> reporter: wait, that call just now was the canadian government? >> it was. >> reporter:nd what did they want? >> they want to have a discussion about how to build a technicamanufacturing of medical goods that'll survive for two, three, four years.or >> rr: because canada may be realizing something critics of american business bemoaned for decades: the offshoring of manufacturing, which saves money short term, but comes at a prohibitive, in this case fatal, long term price. >> there isn't an inastructure in the united states that is capable of building even 10% ofc the medical ts that we need today.r: >> reporte not the factories, not the know-how.f in fact, 80%e simplest protective equipment was sourced from china and southeast asia. >> part and parcel with moving manufacturing to centers outside of united states is moving the design, e development, the

pattern making, the engineering of products outside of theit ed states, which is fine. global trade is rt important paf our of our healthy, healthy economy. however, without tho skill sets local, it makes it much harder to scale anything up. >> reporter: that's why merrow, one of the textile industry's survivors, was so desperately needed. >> it has been two months of 18 hour days and every single day has been tense. you have to remember, the demand for these gowns is in the millions.d people neeem tomorrow. there are calls every single day from providers who don't have them, that are wearing trash bags. we paid employees to be here twice their salaries to work here until late at night. and every single day we worked at that at the very edge of our limit, there isn't anything i've done thas been harder. while! hours was crazy for a i was exhausted. >> reporter: while distancing, while disinfecting, while masked. do you like wearing a mask? >> no, not really. it's it's tough. sometimes it's difficult to breathe. eporter: but it'll get

easier, presumably. meanwhile, the mostly-portuguese immigrant workforce, all of mpem legal,sizes charlie merrow, takes home on averagean more than $17 d hour plus merrow has added aut 50 new jobs already and expects toou create anothere hundred by year's end. >> we have no control what's happening in the world and doing this, this type of work makes us feel good. >> reporter: now, merrow is not alone in its pivot to p.p.e. production. shoe company new balance, shaving brand gillette, car companies ford and gm, and, many, many more manufacturers are for the moment stepping up, stepping in. but charlie merrow insists his is a sea-change shift. >> at the expense of taking short term business in we signed long term contracts because this is the only way, in my opinion, for us to justify infrastructure investments, which is what w need in order for this p.p.e. problem to not be a supply hioblem going forward. >> reporter: one that's happened during my reportorial lifetime has been the move from

just in case to just in time. >> yes. >> reporter: no warehousing of anything is there going to be a sea change, do you think, in how american business does business? >> this is the beginning of understanding how vulnerable we are to our ports closing. the business of building things is going to be a function of national security in addition to ease and access. >> reporter: are we moving back om just in time to just in case l? >> no, not yet. i think that if that if the covid crisis fades from our consciousness, that the industry will quickly go back to waiting for waiting for imported products to show up and not solving any problems. >> reporter: but merrow, for one, plans to produce p.p.e. here for years to come paul sman, in fall river, massachusetts.

>> woodruff: as you decide what your holiday travel plans will be, or won'te, most people will carefully weigh the risks, and make a dision what to do. you can gather all your information: case numbers, how many people will gather, travel time; but then there is still the element of chance. tonight, author and poker player maria konnikova shares her humble opinion on how to strike the balance between luck and skill. >> a few years ago, i went through a period in my life where it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did. out of nowhere, i came down with an autoimmune disorder that no one uld diagnose. my grandmother, totally healthy, slipped on her way to the bathroom, and never woke up. my mom lost her job.job. all in a span of weeks. we don't really think about the importance of luck in life when things are going our way. but all it takes is a series of events totally outside ourak control toit clear just

how limited our agency can sometimes be. so what should we do? for an answer, i turned to a the game of poker.nal teacher: and more than any experience in pmy life, yes, including in psychology, it has taught me both the ccial importance of skill, and its limits. most people assume that pokeis luck. it isn't. you can win with the worst hand, d.and lose with the best h remind you of anything? in fact, it turns out the acal best hand wins only some 12% of the time. what happens the other 88%? the best hand gets outplayed by perior skill. but the opposite can also be you can make the right move, be an absolute favorite to win, and then luck can turn against you. as in life, there is no such thing as complete certainty, because, like life, poker is a game of incomplete information, of unknowns, of constantly changing, endlessly moving

parts. your job is to decipher the static. to make an informed choice. and to make that choice knowing that the so-called right decision does not guarantee a win. poker teaches you that t outcome is a result of that balance, the interplay of skill and chance coming together. if you keep making the right choices, if you keep thinkingnd wellcting thoughtfully, if heu keep putting yourself in a position to win, eventually, the variance will be yo your side. and when it is o side? stay humble. and never forget that er to win, you don't just have to play well. you also have to get very luckyr >> wf: and that keeps us humble. thank you for that. and that's the "newshour" for d that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorr evening. r all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon.

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