judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, a grim reality. covid kills more in the u.s. in a single day than ever before as infections and hospitalizations continue to skyrocket. then, the history-making moment of kamala harris' election as vice president, and pressure on the incoming biden white house to choose a diverse staff. and forced labor in china -- how beijing's economic rise comes with a human cost. robert o'brien: if not a genocide, something close to it going on in xinjiang. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshou"

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station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: the surge of covid infections and illness is pushing much of the country to its worst point since the pandemic began. more than 100,000 people are hospitalized -- nearly double the highest point of the spring. the u.s. has had a total so far of 14 million cases out of 65 million around the world. that's more than any other nation on earth. and four million of them in the u.s. over just the past month. deaths are also climbing. more than 2800 were reported yesterday alone, again a single-day record. the death toll overall has now passed 275,000. doctor robert redfield, the director of the centers for disease control, warned in an appearance with the u.s. chamber of commerce yesterday that the winter could be even worse. dr. redfield: the reality is december and january and february are going to be rough times.

i actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that it's going to put on our health care system. the mortality concerns are real, and i do think unfortunately before we see february, we could be close to 450,000 americans have died from this virus, but you know that's not a fait accompli. judy: dr. redfield said masks, social distancing, and other precautions by the public could help prevent the very worst projections. in an interview today on cnn, president-elect biden said he will call at his inauguration for everyone to wear masks during the next 100 days. the growing covid caseload around the u.s. is putting an enormous strain on hospitals and health care workers. let's hear more from doctor amy compton-phillips, executive vice

president and chief clinical officer of providence, a health care system operating 51 hospitals and more than 1000 clinics in texas, alaska, and five more states across the western u.s. dr. compton phillips, thank you for being with us. what kind of services do you provide and what are you saying in your facilities? dr. compton-phillips: we provide a wide range of any service you need in health care. we have everything from primary care office visits through acute care visualizations through rehab afterward. we are seeing what the rest of the country is seen, and that is a huge uptick in people who have acquired the infection, and a couple of weeks after, they ask for heth care. our icu's, our hospitals are filling up rapidly on people who need acute care from this very dangerous germ.

judy: do you have adequate space? how are you dealing with the space issue, first of all, bed space? dr. compton-phillips: the physical bed space is probably the easiest part to solve because we have been able to work on that for 10 months. we have figured out how to get more and more patients him, how to convert leftover storage rooms into storage rooms -- into negative pressure rooms. we can solve the space. the thing that is harder to solve for because of the broad base of the pandemic right now across the country is the people to operate those newly added beds. we don't have the icu staff, the skilled nurses, the equipment, people who can manage things like ventilators and oxygen to take care of all the beds that are open now. that is really the hardest part about where we are today. judy: where do you go for those

skilled workers? where do you find them? dr. compton-phillips: everything from seeing if people who have recently retired are willing to come back in, even nurses who travel and help out where we need help temporarily, with new infections -- they are all taken. we don't have them anymore. we are turning into people who previously worked outside of an icu system and rapidly getting them trained to work in an icu setting. you see telehealth services to make it so icu doctors that are in short supply can cover for other doctors who are covering icu beds now with consultation. they are helping monit icus. we are really tryingo rapidly scale up the human teams we need to take care of all these patients. like you said in your opening, what we are worrying about is,

if this continues, we are going to run out. it is painful. as a clinician, you don't want to let people die when things are preventable, because you did not have enough of something. this is really outside the balance of what we are used to experiencing. judy: what sort of strain has this put on your people, the people who work with you to take care of these patients? dr. compton-phillips: enormous strains. we have had several of our own caregivers -- it is hard to care about -- -- it is hard to talk about -- commit suicide. it is the stress and the strain. we have not had anything remotely like that in the past. the rates of burnout are going up dramatically because of the workload. not only the workload, but the incredible challenge of seeing so many sick people that don't need to be there. we have offered services to help

our own employees, everything from meditation apps on demand, middle health care, on-demand counseling -- and we have had over 15,000 of our employees take advantage of the services, over half of whom need tele-spiritual help. this has been a shot to the soul. people going to health care because they care about human beings. this is tearing at the people who are caring for the patients. judy: so hard to hear this. dr. compton-phillips, what do you need in order to get through this? clearly, you need people to try to avoid getting stick to the extent that you can. what do you need to support the demand that is coming? dr. compton-phillips: we need people to help. dr. redfield just said on your

earlier opening segment that we do not have to get to a worse case scenario. the way we avoid that worst-case scenario is people doing the things they are so sick and tired of doing -- wearing the masks, minimizing social contact outside your bubble, staying home, staying apart. right now, over the holidays, like we saw on thanksgiving, were people checked the mask and went traveling -- business is coming. we are used to being around family and loved ones. if we do what we have always done around the holidays, this is going to get so much worse. we need people to stay home. we needed a few more months, and then we can have burn the mask parties in the summer. but for now, please stay home. your life depends on it. judy: dr. amy compton phillips, chief medical officer with the providence health care system.

we wish you the best, you and l your colleagues. thank you. ♪ ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. we will return to judy woodruff and the full program after the latest headlines. new unemployment numbers underscored, again, the pandemic's economic damage. another 712,000 people filed for jobless benefits last week. that was down from the week before, but it's still triple the average total before the virus hit. momentum is building for a new, economic relief measure in washington -- before congress quits for the year. president trump said today he would support a bill, and democratic leaders in the u.s. house of representatives voiced optimism. the bipartisan "problem solvers" group in the house -- including virginia democrat abigail spanberger -- urged action now. rep. spanberger: congress damn well better come together and deliver the relief that is so

necessary. frankly, relief that was necessary weeks and months ago. but today is just as good a day as any to actually see it through. stephanie: congress' top democrat, house speaker nancy pelosi, and the senate's republican majority leader, mitch mcconnell, spoke today about a stimulus bill. and several more republican senators came out for a bipartisan, $900 billion measure. judy speaks with utah republican senator mitt romney in a few minutes. the nation's foremost infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci, says he will stay on at the national institutes of health and he will serve as the biden administration's chief medical adviser on the pandemic. also today, president-elect biden named brian deese to head the national economic council. deese worked in the obama administration, and helped craft the auto industry bailout. president trump refused to say today if attorney general wlliam -- william barr still has his confidence.

instead, he told a reporter, "ask me in a number of weeks." on tuesday, barr said there's -- that neither the u.s. attorneys nor the fbi looking into the election found evidence of widespread election fraud, as the president claims. today, mr. trump said barr needs to keep searching. pres. trump: they haven't looked very hard, which is a disappointment, to be honest, because it's massive fraud. this is not civil. he thought it was civil. this is not civil, this is criminal stuff. this is very bad criminal stuff. stephanie: meanwhile, the wisconsin supreme court refused to hear the president's challenge to 220,000 ballots. he lost the state by just under 21,000 votes. the trump campaign is pursuing a -- the wildfire season road back to life, leading to evacuations and injuries. wind gusts turned a house fir into an 11 square-mile inferno in orange county even as electrical companies shut off power to tens of thousands of

residents. two firefighters were hospitalized with injuries. china and the united states clashed today on 2 fronts. the u.s. state department imposed tough new restrictions on chinese communist party members and their families coming to the u.s. for extended stays. beijing blamed what it called "extreme anti-china forces". later in the program, we will look at a u.s. ban on cotton imports from xinjiang province. back in this country, the u.s. supreme court ordered a lower court to reconsider covid-19 curbs on religious services in california. it could lead to throwing out the restrictions. last week, the high court ruled against similar limits in new york state. still to come, how, harris is making history as madame vice president-elect. the human cost of china's economic rise, and much more.

♪ ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: as we reported earlier, with only a handful of weeks left in the year, support is growing in congress for a nearly trillion-dollar covid economic relief bill. if passed, it would extend aid for small businesses, unemployment benefits and provide extra funding for state and local governments. utah republican mitt romney is one of the senators backing the bipartisan negotiations, and he joins me now. senator, thank you so much for being here. before i get to that, i want to ask you about these grim new numbers about covid. off the charts in terms of number of cases, hospitalizations, number of deaths. what should have been done at

e very top of the federal government to keep things from getting this bad? sen. romney: it would have helped if there had been communication from the beginning that this is very serious and we should take every action we possibly could to reduce the spread, including wearing masks. the idea that that became political, were some republicans in red states felt that masks were impinging on their liberty -- that was the wrong way to go. that is one of the things that contributed to the record number of deaths and hospitalizations you are seeing today. judy: president trump from the beginning did not send a clear signal about what people should do. sen. romney: i think that was unfortunate. i don't know what i would have done in that situation. i can tell you the communication has been mixed. it has been unclear. people have been confused. the result has been a number of folks have taken actions which have spread the virus. the result is we are seeing

record numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, and a number of new cases. it is really inexcusable. judy: given how bad things are, everybody looking to congress to see if there will be economic relief around all this. has there been serious progress on these bipartisan negotiations? do you think legislation will pass? sen. romney: i think there will be a relief measure. i cannot tell you exactly what it will look like. emma kratz and republicans have negotiated a package. nancy pelosi a couple of weeks ago was saying it is $2 trillion or nothing, we are down to $908 billion on a bipartisan basis. either that bill will pass, or portions of it will be taken by speaker pelosi, mitch mcconnell -- mitch mcconnell, chuck schumer, and others, and put together in an omnibus package. i think you will see relief for a small business program for unemployment. these measures have to be included, as well as vaccine

distribution. food security has to be provided. these are elements that are part of the package and i think they will make it through congress. judy: we have heard speaker pelosind senator schumer say they are on board with this bipartisan plan, that they are prepared to negotiate. what about majority leader mcconnell, who has not indicated he is onrdrd yet? sen. romney: i cannot speak to the majority leader, but he asks us to describe a remeasure in some detail. whether he accepts it in whole or negotiates with the speaker in the minority leader to select certain portions of it and include that in an omnibus bill, that is for him to decide. but we have clearly negotiated a measure which does address the challenges that many americans are feeling. i think given the number of people suffering from covid right now, it is important that we move it before the end of the year. judy: what is the majority leader pushing for? we gnocchi is concerned about

liability protections for business owners. is that worth holding up agreement on this over? sen. romney: i think the republican side, not just the leader, but the republicans generally, a very concerned about sending a bunch of money to states and localities that might use the money ineffectively, inefficiently. at the same time, they want to make sure that schools are not sued, hospitals, universities, small businesses, because people get covid. so there is a trait here. we are going to give some help to cities and states, but at the same time, you have got to give us protection from all those enemies -- all those entities that are going to get held up in lawsuits and slow down the economy for heaven knows how long. judy: as we know, congress is supposed to go home in a little over a week. congress has this to get done. also looking at funding the government, defense authorization bill. and yet the senate has gone home. shouldn't the senate be back in

session to get this done? sen. romney: negotiations are ongoing. we have met seval times today. we are going to meet again tomorrow. we will meet over the weekend. officially, votes are not being taken, but senators are working on this compromise day and night. our staff is putting together language that reflects the agreements we are coming to. we are going through some of the detail on the overall package. precisely what are the liability protections going to look like? how do we decide which localities are eligible? all of these details are being negotiated. we are drafting language. we are going full speed ahead. there is nothing slowing down because votes are not being held on the floor. what we are ready to get a vote. we will get it. judy: you know very well president trump continues to insist the election was stolen from him, that there was massive

fraud. he continues to state that today. we heard elections officials in the state of georgia plead with the president to stop this, because we now see threats being made on election officials at every wrecker -- at every level of the country. he also said republicans who don't stand up to the president on this are complicit. is he right? sen. romney: i think it is very important that the rhetoric be tuned down. it is totally appropriate for the president to seek legal recourse and to present what evidence he has. but so far every court has said there is nothing there. even the attorney general has said there is no there there. there are going to be irregularities made, but that gets corrected. there is nothing at the scale of what the president suggested. for him to communicate time and again that the election was rigged, stolen, that there was massive fraud without evidence -- it is dangerous for democracy

here as well as around the world for people who look at america as proof that democracy can work. people in china are smiling ear to ear saying, look at how we can show that democracy does not work. in the united states of america, the president is saying it is rigged. it is very unfortunate. judy: this election official, he is a republican. he is saying it is undermining american democracy. sen. romney: i have said the same thing. i mean, as you know, i put a message up. i said the same thing. it does. it strikes at the foundation of democracy here and around the world. it is a very dangerous development. again, it is one thing to pursue legal recourse. but legal recourse has not yet shown any evidence that has convinced a judge that there is a case to be made. and the attorney general and the fbi cannot find the case. to continue to allege massive fraud when there is no evidence

of that is very damaging for democracy here and abroad. judy: senator, with all due respect, many of your republican colleagues have not been prepared to say that, including thmajority leader. sen. romney: everybody makes their own decision. i cannot criticize my colleagues. they have their own perspectives. i expressed mine. you know i put it out there from time to time. judy: we are glad to have you joining us. senator mitt romney, inc. you very much. -- thank you very much. sen. romney: good to be with you. judy: it was exactly 1 year ago today that california senator kamala harris announced she was dropping out of the presidential race, citing a lack of funds. now, the vice-president-elect is poised to break barriers on multiple fronts, inspiring many along the way. yamiche alcindor begins our coverage.

yamiche: in her victory speech, vice president-elect kamala harris spoke to the historic nature of her election. sen. harris: while i may be the first woman in this office, i will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. yamiche: harris represents many firsts -- the first woman, first black american, and first south asian american vice president-elect. she's the daughter of immigrants from jamaica and india. she proudly emphasized her roots with fellow indian-american mindy kaling, cooking dosa during her own presidential primary campaign. she is also a graduate of howard university ands a member of the nation's first black sorority, alpha kappa alpha. today, she often celebrates her connection to historically black colleges and universities -- sometimes dancing with marching bands on the trail. it's a milestone that inspired many. we invited viewers to weigh in on what her historic

inauguration will mean to them. hundreds of people responded. >> i was from the u.k. i was only able to vote in this election as i became a citizen last year. so to be a part of something and then to see myself up there, it's just amazing. >> i feel like i can breathe because i feel like i can be hopeful for the first time in a very long time. i'm proud to see someone who represents so many different facets of who we are, sitting at the table. >> for the indian community, it's very exciting that we feel more accepted as immigrants. >> i think we have an opportunity on so many issues -- civil rights, climate, coronavirus, the economy, to actually help people. yamiche: and across social media, young girls dressed up as harris -- including her signature converse sneakers. tonya vivian's daughter, ophelia, was one of them. >> she's two years old.

she has no idea what's going on, and i can't wait to share with her as she gets older. this definitely resonates differently. as a black woman, it really means everything. it means that anything is truly possible for her. and i just am excited about the future, you know, and that's -- that's just something i haven't felt in so long. yamiche: even before this moment, harris had broken many barriers. she was the first black woman to serve as attorney general of california. she was only the second black woman to serve as a united states senator. the first was carol moseley braun, who told me it's hard to express how excited she is about harris's election. >> frankly, for me, on a personal level, it really is a matter of coming to grips with the fact that i really was more of a role model and not an object lesson. i mean, right now there are more women in the united states congress than ever before. and i think that's just going to continue. yamiche: yet even in her

excitement, braun added that harris should ready herself for an onslaught of criticism and perhaps unfair unexpectations. >> we will not have really arrived until kamala harris gets treated like any other vice president in history, like dan quayle, mike pence, you name it, and not have to rise to the occasion of being something unusual. and we haven't gotten there yet, but we will. and she's setting the table to make it happen. yamiche: in harris's august speech, after her selection was announced, she paid tribute to the women who came before her. sen. harris: these women inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on. women like mary church terrell. mary bethune, fannie lou hamer and diane nash, constance baker motley, and the great shirley chisholm, we're not often taught their stories. but as americans, we all stand

on their shoulders. yamiche: democrats in philadelphia celebrated the win. but representation isn't all that matters, says local organizer candice mckinley. >> it's nice to have people that look like me. you might have family members that look like mine, but if they're not actually fighting for my community and like for policies and laws that will actually help my community, then that doesn't mean much to me. yamiche: eddie glaude jr. is the james s. mcdonnell distinguished university professor of african american studies at princeton university. i think black women need to claim this victory and in doing so, insist on having and wielding actual power. and we -- the representational moment is important. the symbolic significance of a black woman being the vice president of the united states is important. but what we need in our communities right now are

policies that will address the suffering that engulfs our communities today. yamiche: that's something harris has promised to do. and as she looks toward the inauguration, she's already acknowledging the tough road ahead. sen. harris: as i said the night we won this election: now is when the real work begins. the necessary work. the good work. of getting this virus under control, saving lives, beating this pandemic, and opening our economy responsibly while rebuilding it so it works for working people. yamiche: it's a tough road being paved for the first time. we turn now to explore the rest of the diversity of the biden team with karen bass, the chair of the congressional black caucus. there are reports the congressional black caucus is pushing for possibly the secretary of defense or the attorney general to be a person of color, and african-american.

how concerned is the cbc about the diversi of the picks now, and are you concerned the picks are not diverse enough? rep bass: let me tell you what process the cbc is using as a caucus. there are 59 members of the congressional black caucus. with a caucus of 59, you are definitely going to have people who have different opinions. so we have formed a biden-harris 100 a task force, where we are collecting names and making recommendations of individuals we feel should serve in the administration. we are in regular contact with the administration. we feel the communication has been strong. we are absolutely elated that two of our members have already been tapped for the administration. first and foremost of course is my senator from california, who will be sworn in as the vice president in less then 50 days.

and then a former chair of the congressional black caucus who is going to be serving in a very senior way within the administration. we do believe that the diversity so far has been terrific. the linda thomas-greenfield is the ambassador to the um, and the individual that will be on the economic council will be elevated to a cabinet position. of course we would like to see other african-americans appointed to key positions such as the attorney general or the defense secretary. but to say that the congressional black caucus is unhappy with the diversity so far i believe is an overstatement. i don't believe that is true. there are many more appointments that need to be made. already, we have seen african-americans in a significant roles. yamiche: you talked me through some of the diverse cabinet

picks. there are civil rights groups who have said they have requested a meeting but have not gotten one. they are saying they are not getting a seat at the table like they should. what do you make of that? rep. bass: i hrd that meeting is being planned. that meeting will take place. maybe that should have taken place already and it has not. the civil rights groups are doing what they feel is correct. i think that that is just fine. they will have a seat at the table and they will be speaking with the president elect. yamiche: when civil rights groups say he is not listening to them enough, that he is not putting enough black people in high-level senior positions, your point is give him some time? rep. bass: my point is two things. my point is the congressional black caucus is separate from the civil rights community. we have regular contact with the administration. we have a task force where we are looking at making

recommendations. i believe the civil rights community has not connected with the administration, they absolutely should. it is something that should have happened already. the fact that it has not, i think i mentioned that i believe a meeting is getting set up now. yamiche: are you concerned about names being floated out there? there is rahm emanuel, with some saying he has a problematic past when it comes to police shootings. are there people who you do not want? rep. bass: i will tell you we have not had that discussion in the cbc at all. we are viewing it more from a proactive stance. we have not been looking at an appointment and having an opinion one way or another. i know many of the civil weights groups feel that way. for the civil rights gro i doing is fine. what the congressional black caucus is doing is different. we have a very specific process. yamiche: you are being considered for the housing

department and could be considered for the senate position. the senate would have no black women with senator harris reads office -- leaves office. rep. bass: i find it interesting because i see in the paper that i am being considered for all sorts of things. i absolutely think there needs to ban african-american woman in the senate. the idea that in the u.s. senate right now there are three african-americans, soon to be just two, when seem vice president harris leaves. there will be one african-american democrat in the senate. of course i think that is something that should be addressed. as to whether or not i am under consideration, i am willing to serve in whatever area in which i am tapped. i'm going to get in there. whether it is in the house, the

administration, the senate, whatever, i am more than willing to continue to serve. yamiche: thank you for joining us, karen bass, chair of the congressional black caucus. rep. bass: you are welcome. judy: this week the trump administration took one of its most aggressive steps yet against what it calls chinese slave labor. the u.s. accuses beijing of forcing ethnic uyghurs, a muslim minority who live mostly in western china, into factory and farm jobs against their will. nick schifrin reports on how uyghurs end up as forced laborers, and the larger campaign that has ripped uyghur lives and families apart. nick: within a government campaign the u.s. calls "close to genocide," one man is chained

to a bed. he can't talk because of a guard outside his door. but his video speaks loudly about the conditions of his captivity, and the fate of muslim uhurs. merdan ghappar was a 31-year-old uyghur model in southern china. his flashy ads targeted han chinese, the country's majority ethnic group. but in january chinese authorities detained him in a xinjiang detention facility full of ethnic minority uyghurs, whom the chinese government calls disloyal. pro-beijing messages play from a loudspeaker. he secretly filmed and sent the video to his uncle, ablikim ghappar, who now lives in amsterdam. >> when i saw the video clip, i really felt sorrow for my nephew. nick: merdan sent text messages describing the conditions of his initial detention in a police station. he wrote, "the cop just shouted fiercely at me, if you lift that hood again i will beat you to death!" merdan adds, "i don't want to die."

>> in the detention center, they were tortured. the cell was very small and very crowded, more than 50 or 60 people. every night, some people slept, while some people needed to stand. a hood was on their heads. they're always handcuffed, and their feet were chained. nick: merdan's video, which was first reported by the bbc, is one of the first visual testimonies from what the trump administration calls the human rights stain of the century. hundreds of detention facilities and camps that the u.s. says are filled with more than 1 million uyghurs. national security advisor robert o'brien -- >> if not a genocide, something close to it going on in xinjiang. nick: there and in a neighboring province, residents say the government has partially or completely destroyed at least a dozen mosques. a communist party program forcibly inserts han chinese into uyghur families. and china has banned uyghur language and music. the chinese government calls some uyghurs separatists and

terrorists. it cites a 2009 ryan -- riot and a 2013 tiananmen square attack claimed by uyghurs who argue xinjiang is an independent country. the chinese government says it built camps to reeducate and radicalize separatists. today the government claimthe camps of closed. in september, president xi jinping shrugged off international criticism, as read by a chinese state tv anchor. >> the party strategy is completely correct and must be adhered to for a long time. nick: but the australian strategic policy institute found since 2019, at least 61 camps and detention facilities have expanded, or are newly constructed. and now international researchers say uyghur detention has evolved, into uighur forced labor. >> the patterns of mass detention in xinjiang are actually very closely linked to forced labor that we're seeing there. nick: amy lehr is with the center for international and strategic studies. >> there is an idea that you can reform people's minds and cut off their connection to their

culture and religion by by putting them to work in factory jobs. and so they're taking these detainees and either within the detention facilities or moving them into guarded dormitories, requiring them to work in factories in the region. nick: the chinese government calls it poverty alleviation. ethnic minorities and prisoners get low-skilled factory and agricultural work, to improve their lives. xi jinping talked about it in september. >> president xi jinping says unprecedented achievements have been made in xinjiang's economic and social development. xi says the sense of happiness and security has increased among all ethnic groups nick: but what beijing calls security, the us calls forced labor as business and governing model that profits beijing 150 billion dollars. beijing's central planners pay companies in eastern china to open ftories in xinjiang and train uyghur workers. the xinjinag local government, gets paid to build factories

near uighur detention camps. >> i interviewed a number of former detainees that were put to work. your communications were monitored. they were paid in a year what they should have been paid in a month. they were not there by choice. the kind of treatment that these workers received when they are detained continues when they're working. // you see that pattern of trying to decrease their connection to their own culture and increase their loyalty to the ccp, within the system of work. nick: the chinese government denies that. >> there is no so-called forced labor problem. some anti-china forces try to use this made-up topic to smear china's image and seek their own political interests. nick: but it's a policy decades in the making. in the 1950s the chinese government formed the xpcc or xinjiang production and , construction corps. its mission, stabilize what the government considered an unstable frontier. it guaranteed xinjiang became more han chinese, and less

uyghur. today, the us says the xpcc runs the detention camps and nats - farms -- and textile industry. xinjiang alone produces more than 20% of the world's cotton, and china is the largest exporter. that global supply chain makes it hard for companies to trace whether their product was made with forced labor. >> we're working with all of these companies to help them really do that incredible detective work that they need to do to to penetrate the deeper layers of the supply chain. nick: sharon waxman is the president of the fair labor association, a group of organizations and companies dedicated to protecting worker'' rights around the world. she says because uyghur workers are too scared to tell the truth about their labor conditions, western companies can't figure out who exactly is creating their products. >> it could happen on the cotton field. it could happen when the when the cotton is ginned. so the risk of forced labor is cut across all the different rungs of the ladder. nick: several clothing companies

have promised to cut ties with xinjiang factories, and have taken steps to do so. but now the possibility of forced labor is harder to track. in 2018, the chinese government moved 62,000 ethnic minorities out of xinjiang to work across china. the chinese government claims the workers move, to follow higher salaries. >> if you are focusing only on xinjiang, you know, you have one region. and then if you're looking at all workers in factories all over china, you know, it takes it to a whole other level. nick: the trump administration has recently punished china for uyghur forced labor. xpcc and xinjiang party leaders, have been sanctioned for quote "serious human rights abuses." the department of homeland security banned all xpcc products it says are made with forced labor. customs and border protection has seized uighur hair extensions, and womens gloves.

in congress, the u.s. house of representatives passed a bill that would block all xinjiang cotton, co-sponsored by massachusetts democrat jim mcgovern. >> the forced labor is astounding and irrefutable. nick: but under xi jinping, external pressure may be incapable of changing chinese policy. >> the government is making the decisions about against uighurs these really horrendous abuses against uighurs in xinjiang. it's part of a concerted policy and only the government can change that. nick: and there's no evidence china has any intention of changing its policy--as family members of the detained know all too well. >> china does not want to educate uighur people. they want to destroy them. they will put you in jail just because you are uyghur. nick: after merdan ghappar filmed and sent this video to his uncle, he has not been seen since. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. judy: such a tough story to

hear. stay with us for a moving story of a mother and a daughter. first, we will hear from your local pbs station.

judy: when beth papanastasiou's daughter bella was born, she was diagnosed with a rare, degenerative genetic disorder and given 18 months to live. in tonight's emotional brief but spectacular, we meet mother and daughter four years into their journey, a journey on which papanastasiou says palliative care is key to making the most of her daughter bella's life. >> my daughter, bella, is four and a half years old now. about seven hours after she was born, she was transferred to children's national. after about two weeks in the nicu, they informed us that bella had a very where genetic

disorder called canto cerebellar hypoplasia type six. at that time, only 12 cases had been reported in the world. they let us know in most of those cases, the children did not live past infancy. that was truly the start of our journey and our life with bella. when we first brought her home, every day, i felt like, well, today could be the day that we lose her. the panda team at children's national is the palliative team care that works with families who have children with terminal conditions or just other very serious conditions. they have been through it. they've been through it with other families. the hardest decisions that we make with the palliative care team are deciding at what point bella is still fighting to be with us, a at what point do we know that bella is tired. having the support of the panda

team is crucial to my ability to care for bella the best way possible, and just give us the support and the strength we need to get through living with a child who you know will likely pass before you. it's going to be a little bit different for bella than what you want for your child. what i want for her is that she reaches the potential that she is capable of. what i want for bella is that she knows that she's loved, and she knows that we are here for her and will fight for her, and that she experiences life in the way that she can. she keeps me going, because if i stop, there's no one for bella. and i have to get up every day and i have to take care of her,

and i have to struggle with her and laugh with her. and if i'm not there to be that person, then i'm letting her down, and she doesn't have enough time to be let down. my name is beth, and this is my brief but spectacular take on my daughter, bella. judy: it is so clear that bella is loved. thank you and your famy for showing the story. you can find all of our brief but spectacular segments on our website. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow. thank you. please stay safe and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> architect.

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from cows that graze on lush, green grass comes the taste of kerrygold. from our farmers' hands to yours, this is the true taste of kerrygold. for this christmas edition of 'how to cook well', i've created a seasonal menu ideal for entertaining because so much can be prepared in advance. the three courses work well together but can also be served separately or with other dishes. the entrée is a more indulgent version of the already luxurious potted shrimp. instead of shrimp, i'm using lobster. this recipe offers an elegant way to get good value for money from what is an expensive but very special ingredient.