♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, dividing lines -- even as lawmakers pay respect today to a fallen capitol hill police officer, republicans face a defining moment for the party's future. then, a new start -- the u-s and russia agree to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty. plus, immigration reset -- policy changes leave the future of former president trump's border wall and migration to the u.s. in question. >> we're a nation of immigrants, immigrants, and that's true, and at the same time, we're a nation that has typically always rejected the newest immigrants.

judy: and, upending the markets -- we explore the unconventional trading that led to turmoil on wall street. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." announcer: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. the engine that connects us.

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contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: republicans in the u.s. house of representatives are split tonight over the fate of 2 of their members and perhaps, of the party itself. at the same time, republicans and democrats in the senate have come to an agreement. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins reports. lisa: at the capitol, a bipartisan move forward today -- a deal to give the senate basic and much-needed operating rules. democratic majority leader chuck schumer. senator schumer: we will pass the resolution through the senate today, which means that committees can promptly set up and get to work with democrats holding the gavels. lisa: but otherwise, the building remains a scene of bitter divisions, especially among house republicans. last night, house minority leader kevin mccarthy met with georgia freshman representative marjorie taylor greene -- who has promoted conspiracy theories and published threats of violence against other members.

mccarthy is under pressure to take action against greene. >> we have never had a hearing like this one before. lisa: as house democrats today started moving on a rare resolution to strip her of all of her committee assignments. they argue greene is dangerous and unrepentant. >> anyone who questioned the 9/11 attack, endorsed executions against our colleagues, referred to the midterms as islamic invasion, simply put, is a danger to this institution and our personal safety. lisa: no republican defended taylor greene instead they argued process, charging that democratare steamrolling. >> it really does seem to me that this would be setting a new precedent and and one that i think could be very dangerous. it is a precedent where the majority party can punish a member of the minority party by removing them from their

committee assignments. lisa: that gop battle played side-by-side with another. house republicans met this afternoon to debate their number 3 leader, representative liz cheney of wyoming, and her actions last month. that was the vote to impeach now former president donald trump. cheney was one of 10 republicans who voted for impeachment. since then, a vocal group of republicans has pointed heated criticism at her. all of this played out at a capitol that is torn, tense and today, grieving. >> would you pray with me? lisa: with fellow officers on watch, the cremated remains of u.s. capitol police offir brian sicknick lay in the capitol rotunda. sicknick died after defending the capitol in the january 6th riot, killed by extremist trump supporters. president biden and the first lady paid respects last night. sicknick is only the fifth

person to have lain in honor in the capitol rotunda, an expression of national gratitude and tribute for americans who were not public officials. a combat veteran, his remains were taken to arlington national cemetery for burial. judy: lisa joins me now. let's go back to what you reported. republicans meeting tonight to discuss liz cheney, who in their leadership. can you tell us what happened? lisa: the future of the house republicans caucus is unclear. the house republicans have been meeting for just over t hours and have not decided if they will vote foriz cheney's future or not. one member said he wants his

republicans to deal with them tonight. we expect a long night of speeches, kind of a family feud behind closed doors. liz cheney, we know, spoke to her fellow republicans and said she does not apologize for her vote to impeach president trump. we also know behind the scenes that she has been calling nearly every member of her 211 member conference to try and keep her job it the house minority leader kevin mccarthy, top republican, walked out of the meeting during this break and said he does support cheney. but there are many that criticized her. we are still waiting to see what happens to the number three leader in the house caucus pit -- house republican caucus. judy: also under pressure is the freshman congressman from georgia marjorie taylor greene. ,what are you learning about

that? lisa: so extraordinary. as we talk about the current leadership of the republican party, we are also talking about its identity. mccarthy said he offered a deal to ms. greene, that democrats responded saying she belongs on no committees, that she is dangerous, she has repeated publicized threats against speaker pelosi. kevin mccarthy came out with this statement in the last hour about congresswoman greene. he said, "i made clear that as a member of congress we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard. it sounds to me like mccarthy is

giving her another chance. but democrats are looking to vote tomorrow as a house to remove her from committees. that is something that has never happened. it shows how strongly democrats feel. republicans say they are moving too fast. judy: with all that going on, there is a number of issues to talk about. the big one committee covid relief proposal. what is that looking like? li: so happy to talk about this important issue. we know that president biden spoke today with democrats at the white house including cck schumer. schumer walked out of that meeting saying, we all agree we want to go big. that total is approaching $2 trillion, which is what president biden had initially asked for. there is some talk from my sources on capitol hill that the bided administration may lower

some of its requests, targeting the direct payments for example to fewer families. getting closer in line to what republicans are asking for. in general, it looks right now like democrats are full speed ahead. they do technically have the votes to do that. they have to decide, are they willing to go it alone on a big package or will they make it smaller tory to bring republicans on board? right now, it looks like they are going big and going partisan. judy: watching all this. thank you, lisa. to talk more about where the republican party right now, i'm joined by former republican senator john danforth of missouri. senator, thank you so much for joining us. you garnered a good deal of attention last month when after the attack on the u.s. capitol,

you were quoted as saying your support for your home state senator josh hawley a couple of years ago was the worst mistake you made in your life. he said he was instrumental in his actions in creating what you called the darkest day in american history. what that all say about the republican party? john: the republican party today is not just a friend from what it had been, it is the opposite in many ways. america needs a strong, responsible, conservative party. that has been the republican party. it is neither strong nor responsible nor conservative today. it is losing i think its grip on the country as a whole. it is becoming increasingly a regional party with almost no exceptions. the northeast now is gone as far as the u.s. senate is concerned.

the west coast is completely gone. so we are in decline. the last two presidential elections. president trump lost in 2016 by 3 million votes, lost in 2020 by 7 million votes. we are going in the wrong direction. the worst thing is that we have become kind of a grotesque caricature of what the republican party has traditionally been. we were founded as the party of the union, of holding the country together. now we have this populist attack which is us against them. there areonspiracies out there involving liberals, corporations, big tech. they are picking on you, the american people. you should resent this, you should -- we are going to

continue to create wages to drive americans apart. it really is kind of a grotesque departure from the tradition of the republican party. judy: when senator holly and others say they don't see anything wrong with challenging the election results, and in fact senator hawley himself said what he had done was not an effort to overturn the election, what is the danger, what are the challenge -- what are the consequences of challenging a legal election outcome? john: the consequences are what you saw january 6. it is a fracturing of the country. the certification of the electoral college votes was a

mere formality. i never attended one. they may have lasted an hour or so. hawley created an event. he repeatedly said that january 6 would be the decisive day. then he appeared in front of the capitol building in that famous photograph encouraging what was going on. it is not the democratic process. he claimed all he was going to do is usthe opportunity to speak. he did not speak. when pennsylvania came up, he remained in his chair. it was really an effort to create an event. and there was trouble created in that event. judy: i want to ask you, we know what senator hawley said, what

senator cruz did, but it is also others in the senate. the leader, then majority leader mitch mcconnell, senator roy blunt, they were saying as late as december that president trump , there is evidence that president biden had won even though he won by 7 million votes. should they be held accountable too? john: i think the question is, what republican elected officials are hearing from their constituents and what they are hearing from the trump types, becae what they are hearing is, if they don't toe the line, they will lose their jobs. most people understandably are motivated by self-preservation. they don't want to lose their jobs. all of the pressure now has come from the populist wing of the

party, what i would call the trump wing of the party. the rest of us have been pushed and pushed. it is really time now for us to start pushing back. judy: should former president trump be convicted in this upcoming trial? john: absolutely, he should. if what he did does not warrant a conviction, what does he echo some people say, is this constitutional to do this after he left office? most legal scholars would say yes. i think that debating that is kind of a subtlety now and the real question is, what is the position of the republican party with regard to president trump. i think anything other than a strong vote of conviction by republicans is going to be

viewed rightly so as condoning trump. judy: senator, as you know, most republicans are saying that they don't believe he should be convicted, at least they said they think the process is not constitutional. how do you explain that? john: i think they are looking for some reason to duck the vote. i think they are looking for a reason not to condemn trump for what trump did. i don't think we can afford to do that anymore. is this guy going to be in control of the republican party or is he not? is he going to define the republican party going forward or is he not? now is time for a clear expression on the part of republicans that this whole populist strategy that we have

been following is just plain wrong. we are going to return to the republican party that is a responsible party, a conservative party, and a party that is capable of being a national party again. judy: quickly, do you still consider yourself a republican? john: yes. i have always been a republican. i am a republican. i believe in the republican party as it has been. i believe in the party of lincoln. i believe in the party that tries to hold our country together. i believe in the party that stands for the constitution, not one that tries to undermine the legitimacy of an election or of a presidency. that to me is what conservatism is. it is with the republican party is and always has been. we have recently been on a side

from that and it is time to get back on track. judy: former senator john danforth of missouri, thank you. ♪ stephanie: good evening, i'm stephanie sy with newshour west, we'll return to judy woodruff and the rest of the program, after the latest headlines. rebuffing an effort, tonight, a majority of republicans voted to keep liz cheney in her position as the third ranking republican in the house. the final vote was 145-61 in her favor. in other news, the united states passed 450,000 deaths from

covid-19 but new infections are declining. at the same time, the head of the cdc, dr. rochelle walensky, said today it is safe to reopen schools, if everyone wears a mask and observes social distancing. >> there is increasing data to suggest schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely. stephanie: also today, the city of san francisco sued its own school system to force a return to in-person learning. we'll get back to the topic, later in the program. president biden suggested today he's open to cutting the price tag of his $1.9 trillion covid stimulus plan. he spoke virtually to house democrats, and reportedly said he is -- quote -- "not married" to that number. but, he insisted he still wants $1,400 dollar checks for most americans. later, the president called senate democrats to the white house, and said again he thinks he can win over republican votes. two more of president biden's cabinet picks have advanced to the full senate. the senate commerce committee backed rhode island governor gina raimondo to be commerce

secretary today. and, the energy committee cleared former michigan governor jennifer granholm for energy secretary. in russia, the kremlin dismissed protests over the jailing of opposition leader alexei navalny. a moscow court sent him to prison for 2.5 years for violating probation. demonstrations erupted overnight, and police in riot gear arrested more than 1,400 people. foreign minister sergey lavrov condemned the protesters -- and, outside criticism. >> the hysteria we've heard over the trial process for the navalny case is of course off the scale. absolutely, it's concealed from society that laws that regulate demonstrations and protests in the west are much stricter than in the russian federation. stephanie: the u.s. isrging moscow to free navalny and all of the protesters. police in myanmar have levelled its first formal charge against ousted leader aung san suu kyi. she's accused of possessing

illegally imported walkie-talkies, which gives the military some legal ground to continue detaining her. the democratically-elected leader has been under house arrest since the military coup on sunday. a coalition of 180 groups called today for a boycott of next year's winter olympics in beijing. the groups representhina's uighur minority, residents of hong kong and others. they cite alleged human rights abuses. the beijing games are set for next february. back in this country, defense secretary lloyd austin ordered all commanders to talk to their troops about the dangers of extremism. it's to happen over the next 60 days. the move flows disclosures that some current and former trooops were involved in the assault on the u.s. capitol. a columbus, ohio, police officer was indicted by a grand jury this evening on charges of murder. officer adam coy, who is white,

was charged with shooting 47-year-old andre hill, a black man. police bodycam footage showed hill emerging from a garage with a cell phone in his left hand seconds before he was fatally shot by coy. coy was peacefully taken into custody this afternoon as he awaits his arraignment. the u.s. justice department withdrew a discrimination lawsuit against yale university today. the trump administration had accused yale of illegally favoring others over white and asian-american applicants. a federal investigation of yale's practices will continue. still to come on the "newshour", the u-s and russia agree to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty. policy changes leave the future of fmer president trump's border wall in question. we break down the unconventional trading that has led to chaos on wall street and much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and

from the west at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: today, the u.s. and russia agreed to extend the only remaining treaty that limits the deployment of nuclear weapons. "new start" restricts strategic, or long range, nuclear weapons. today's agreement will last until 2026, but there are critics who say the treaty, and the biden administration's efforts to extend it, didn't go far enough. nick schifrin has the story. nick: they are the world's deadliest weapons, able to fly thousands of miles and obliterate entire cities. and for 10 years, the deployment of russian and american long range nuclear weapons has been restricted by new start. >> today is an important milestone for nuclear security and nonproliferation and for us-russian relations.

nick: in 2010, president barack obama and then russian president dmitry medvedev signed the new strategic arms reduction treaty, or new start. it limits russia and the u.s. to 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed land and sea-based ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers. and those warheads can be carried by no more than 700 missiles and bombers. it also includes verification measures, such as movement notifications, data exchanges, and on-site inspections. today, secretary of state anthony blinken wrote, "extending the new start treaty makes the united states, u.s. allies and partners, and the world safer. an unconstrained nuclear competition would endanger us all." >> the future of nuclear arms control must address all nuclear weapons. nick: but the trump administration called the treaty deeply flawed because it does not limit russia's shorter range deployed nuclear weapons, as former special envoy for arms control marshal billingslea said last year. >> maybe during the cold war it

made sense to talk about strategic or non strategic nuclear weapons, i would say that is not what we feel anymore, we view every nuclear warhead as having strategic implicions. nick: the trump team also tried to get russia to cap the number of all nuclear warheads, short and long-range, including those in storage, something russia has never agreed to. and it sought to incde china, as formeassistant secretary of state chris ford told me last year. >> we think it's essential that china live up to its obligation to pursue negotiations in good faith towards avoiding a nuclear arms race. nick: today, ford told me the biden administration should have demanded a shorter extension. >> i just think it's a bit of a squandered opportunity. we didn't have to extend it for five years. we could have extended it incrementally and used successive extensions as as a tool of a negotiating strategy for dealing with the russians and perhaps others. nick: ford also says biden's campaign promise to extend new start, undercut trump negotiators with the russians. >> if they wanted a full five year extension with no strings, they knew that they didn't have to talk to us at all, because biden would come into office, as

indeed it has now done, and give them precisely that. so the russians, in effect, had essentially zero reason to talk seriously with u.s. diplomats for the better part of 2020. nick: for more on all this, we turn to rose gottemoeller, who is currently a distingusihed lecturer at stanford university. during the obama administration she served as under secretary of state for arms control and international security. she was the chief u.s. negotiator of the new start agreement. welcome back. what is your reaction today to the biden administration extending new start for five years? rose: i am delighted. i think it is the right move. we are embarking on some modernization of our nuclear forces and i think we need the predictability and stability that new start will give us to keep the price tag within bounds. otherwise, we might be chasing the russians as they get new

missiles and warheads and we might not be able to have the predictable modernization programs. nick: you saw some of the criticism in that piece, saying that the administration should have tried perhaps for a shorter administration, maybe one year and that the biden administration give up leverage. rose: ah, the leverage myth. first of all, when president biden came into office, i was not at all sure he would go for the extension. people like victoria nuland saying that we should driver some leverage on this. they russians have been very clear for the last year-plus that they don't want this treaty as much as we do. that is why i call it the leverage myth. i just don't think it would have happened. nick: do you think extending new

start by five years one day after russian opposition leader alexey navalny was sentenced to prison, just two days after thousands were arrested on the streets of moscow, since the right message to the kremlin? rose: nuclear weapons are an existential threat to the united states. these long-range missiles could obliterate the united states in 30 minutes and indeed destroy the globe if we got into a nuclear exchange with the russians. that kind of existential threat says to me that we have to keep working with these problems. that in fact was a clear message from the administration, from president biden today and secretary of state blinken, saying we have to be clear eyed of the challenges from russia and really pressed them on those

issues. the cyber attacks, the alexey navalny case, so many things that are troubling. rose: --nick: we saw in the story some of the members of the trump administration negotiating team. do you think the trump administration did well to overcome some long-term demands to get to the point where start could be extended? rose: give them credit for a couple of things. one, that they established the principle that we should directly limit warheads. i think that is a good thing. that was a good principal to establish. i know that president biden plans to carry it forward. he said in his announcement today that he plans to be working next on a treaty to limit all nuclear weapons. i think that is a really good step. the other thing, and here i think it is important to say that china should be at the

table as well. president biden day said that yes, indeed, china should be part of the next phase of discussions and i welcome that news very much also. nick: beijing has said that its number of nuclear weapons would have to be somehow matched by the u.s. and russia before beijing would be willing to undertake arms control negotiatio. how can that be tackled? rose: you're right, we don't want to encourage them to build up. we have to look at some areas where there is equality of capability. hypersonic glide vehicles, these are new technologies of a new missiles being developed that are superfast and super accurate. there is some equality of capability in china, russia, the united states. here is an area where we might

have an interest in sitting down together. we might have an interest in constraining ground launched intermediate range missiles that are out there proliferating at a time that the inf treaty has gone away. we need to be ready to engage the chinese, but we need to engage them at a place where they have some interest in coming to the table, not forcing them in a direction they don't want to go. that is not go for u.s. national security definitely. judy: we have been focusing in-depth this week on president biden's plans to reset immigration policies. tonight, we hear from arizona wher communities are feeling the effects of the new

president's orders to halt border wall construction. the wall's prence has had a profoundmpact. its legacy though remains unclear. amna nawaz has our report. amna: for 125 years, john ladd's family has raised cattle in this corner of izona. ten miles of his ranch run along the u.s.-mexico border. for years, ladd says his work was made harder by the steady stream of migrants and smugglers he says regularly crossed here. >> they just cut all my fences, they cut my water lines, they chase cattle around. so there's an economic impact right there. i spend about 50 percent of my time checking fences and water lines. amna: which is why, he says, he welcomed president trump's wall construction and is worried by president biden's order to halt it. >> if biden carries through with what he's proposing. if the law enforcement is going to be under the gun. border patrol is already outmanned. it's going to be a real serious

security issue. amna: looming, gleaming, and incomplete, president trump's so-called new border wall extends 450 miles, including this stretch of the arizona desert, which advocates say has destroyed habitat for endangered species and divided cross border families and communities. much of it upgraded existing wall with these 30-foot-barriers, totaling $11 billion dollars, mostly paid for by tax dollars diverted from the pentagon. at roughly $20 million a mile, some estimate it's the most expensive wall of its kind in the world. for donald huish, mayor of the border city of douglas, arizona, those construction contracts were a boon especially after t pandemic shuttered cross-border commerce. >> we estimate between 60 and

70% of our sales tax revenue comes from the mexican side. and so the restrictions that have been put in place, we anticited roughly probably a 33% drop in our budget. that hasn't happened. and the reason it hasn't happened is the influx of what we call the wall people, the people that have been brought in from out of state to work on the wall. amna: huish, a republican, grew up here and has family on both sides of the border. he says fencing, dating back to the early 2000's, helped to cut down illegal traffic. >> it has made our community even safer pick with the new wall, it is pushed it even further. >> for the majority of our history, we have not had a steel barrier that has divided us from one another. for many in douglas, cna wall, there has to be something dangerous over there.

amna: pastor mark adams has lived here for 22 years. his presbytarian ministry -- frontera de cristo -- is a cross border community, stretching from douglas, arizona, to its sister city of agua prieta in mexico. he says the perception of safety, from an increase in security, has not meant safety for all. >> our border policy has been one that uses deserts and mountains as lethal deterrents and we've seen thousands of people die because of that. amna: for decades, successive u.s. governments have stepped up security at the border. george w. bush's secure fence act, which then senator barack obama supported. javier is is a political scientist at the university of arizona. he says there's little evidence the wall has stopped drugs or migrants from reaching the u.s. >> walls have never worked since the middle ages, right. i mean, there are always ways to breach, to go around, to break the walls. so these physical barriers are

actually not creating an important deterrent on all migration patterns into the u.s. why? because there's always a supply and demand othese human crossings. amna: those crossings, osorio says, continue. they've just been pushed into emptier, deadlier stretches, something mayor huish has seen. >> because the supply hasn't changed, what you're really doing when you build a wall is you're pushing them out into more dangerous positions, and further endangering their lives and maybe even the lives of those on the border who are trying to enforce it. do you worry about that at all? >> i do. and you're absolutely correct. and that's why i'm saying that the immigration laws need to change somehow. they need to be better set up, that we can handle those situations, that if somebody has a legitimate reason why they

need to be here or want to be here or desire to become an american citizen, then we should have a way that that can happen. and so they don't have to resort to these means of trying to get across illegally. amna: pastor adams says u.s. laws greeting people are one challenge. the forc causing them to flee are another. >> this has been the biggest death year in over ten years of people crossing the border. it just rerouted the traffic because we weren't dealing with the root causes of why people were migrating. amna: nightfall at the border. another group of migrants to put. confused, they gather free meal and try to figure out next steps. any reach out to the smugglers they hired to try to get back to the u.s. many and up spending the next few days at a nearby shelter that houses migrants.

we met a woman who is now living in the shelter, waiting her turn to request asylum. she does not want to be identified, fearful of consequences if she cannot leave. >> with the wall, we have to go over the mountains or through the desert. it is much more difficult. i hope that biden welcomes us and has compassion for those trapped here for a long time the truth is we have nowhere else to go. amna: the wall, too many, is more than a tangible deterrent, it also sends a powerful signal. >> it is not just a wall it is also a physical representation of immigration policy. amna: perla del angel is the outreach coordinator a the migrant resource center.

>> even before the new construction, we saw many people get injured who fell from the top of the wall and ended up with broken bones. there's even been people who've died from falling off the wall. so it's obvious with an even bigger wall now that these accidents are going to increase. amna: every tuesday for the last 20 years, faith leaders and congregants have gathered here on the u.s. side to remember those who die making the brutal trek across this desert. during the pandemic, only a few gather in person, the rest on zoom. >> the sister who died on or around december 10. >> the pastor notes that their lives are still part of the larger american story. >> part of our mythology is that we are a nation of immigrants. and that is true. and, at the same time, we are a nation that has typically always rejected the newest immigrants.

amna: for now, his community is divided by a wall, he says, but remains united in faith. ♪ judy: in late january, a handful of unlikely wall street stocks began tokyrocket in value. as -- it has led to big market volatility, and that will be the subject of a special meeting tomorrow with treasury secretary janet yellen and other government regulators. as paul solman reports, the spike in these stocks was driven by an unconventional group of traders who banded together on a buying spree, determined to take on the market for their own reasons. it's the latest in our economic series, "making sense." paul: the frenzy -- >> this thesis is based largely on the fundamentals. paul: internet chatters hyping and buying stock in seemingly

moribund companies. >> and you're right, it doesn't make any sense at all. paul: amc, bed, bath & beyond, and gamestop. we know what we are looking for. >> the regular joe's versus wall street. using a free app to buy gamestop , which seems obsolete now that games are bought online. yet, the stock skyrocketed last month. we are going to try to explain what has been happening with alex from the university of chicago business school and my grandson. >> there are people on this platform called reddit who decided to buy up a lot of this stock, a lot of shares. partly because hedge funds on wall street started short selling it. paul: ok, before we get into

that, joe, i remember taking you to gamestop when you were younger to buy you video games. it has kind of a nostalgic appeal? >> absolutely. i think a lot of people my age and a little bit older grew up with gamestop. i'm seeing a lot of people on these platforms, such as reddit, who are saying buy gamestop for two reasons. one, to make money, and the other to stick it to the rich elite of the hedge funds. paul: the hedge funds that have been betting against retro gamestop by shorting its stock, that is. in keeping with the retro theme, alex decided on a retro product. >> i have an ipod that i scrounged from somewhere in my basement. >> the ipad was ve popular in the 2000 a bit obsolete because everyone has music on their cell phones. let's say i am a hedge fund and i think that the ipod is worth less than what it is currently

being sold for. i go to you, paul, and i say, can i borrow your ipod? so what i do is i sell the ipod that i jt borrowed from you and then buy it back for the future price. so if the price goes down, i make money because i'm basically getting the difference between that. paul: you just want me to lend it to you? >> i'm going to borrow your ipod and i promise i'm going to give you a little bit extra money whenever i return it. paul: and to promise, contractually, to return my ipod by a certain date, or whenever i ask for it back. >> so now you get wind of this short selling, joe. and what do you do? >> ok, i grew up with this product, it's got a certain nostalgic value, so i'm going to tell lots of my friends on social media, maybe reddit, to go out and buy ipods so we can all get in on the trend. paul: what happens to you the hedge fund, alex? >> so because i am betting that the price is actually going to go down in the future, if it

ends up going up, i end up losing money because i have to buy it for more than what i sold it for initially. paul: and as you buy it, you're driving up the price even higher. and th's what's happened with gamestop, $18 a share just last month. my grandson bought one share last wednesday. and at what price? >> $293. paul: i want to point out that i did not advise on this trade. >> i'm thinking that as more people are saying onocial media that they're going to buy, the value is going to go extremely high. as well as that, i want to continue to stick it to the man, these people on wall street who have been running everything. paul: and sure enough, out on the street. >> i think it's great at rich people are losing money because capitalism is destroying this world. >> i look at the whole gamestop thing with the stocks as a revenge of the nerds kind of attack. >> this is one of the most complex attempts to coordinate on a single strategy that i think we've ever seen. paul: a sort of people's hedge fund, says imas, coordinating on the reddit forum wall street

bets, urging one another to buy with rocket ship emojis. and to hold with adiamond hands. >> we are not going to break. going to keep the price up. paul: and there's even a buy-and-hold sea shanty. >> with diamond hands they knew they'd profit if they could only hold. paul: but hold on. most wall street hedge funds aren't short sellers -- they bet on stocks going up. and in this case, some hedge funds have actually profited hugely from the so-called revenge of the nerds as have robinhood's paying customers, big investors who buy information from robinhood about what people there are trading. as for short sellers, are they bad actors? sure, they bet against apparent losers like gamestop, but also against france like the infamous -- also against frauds like the infamous enron, which short sellers helped take down 20 ars ago, by exposing its phony

accounting. financial analyst james early. >> shortsellers, they find the bad stuff, the dirty stuff, the frauds, the scams. they protect investors. paul: which brings us back to the reddit flash mob. yes, they successfully ran up gamestop's stock price, which squeezed the short-sellers. >> but this is also incredibly risky because people in the community can start selling gamestop and the prices can start going down. people who bought at the height of this thing are going to end up holding the bag. paul: this past weekend, i put two last questions to grandson joe, until gamestop a remarkably savvy investor. when are you going to get out? >> ias initially going to get out at a thousand dollars a share. however, i've revised it to four hundred dollars a share after it hasn't soared as much as quickly as i thought it would. paul: $293 is what you spent, let's say it goes back to eighteen dollars a share, how are you going to feel? >> i'm going to be honest with you. i will be pretty disappointed. however, i'll always be fairly

happy that i was able to partake in such a historical time in investing and was able to be a partf this movement. paul: this afternoon, gamestop closed at 93. for the pbs newshour, paul solman ♪ judy: the questions around when to re-open more schools for in-person classes remains front and center for millions of americans. data show about 42 percent of all students between kindergarten and high school are in virtual-only schooling right now. as we reported, there was more fuel for the debates around this today when cdc director dr. rochelle walensky said there's growing evidence schools can reopen safely. and, she said, that's even before all teachers can be vaccinated. stephanie sy has our

conversation again tonight. stephanie: judy, teachers and school staff say they need enough protective gear and safety measures in place before they return to in-person school. they also want more access to the covid vaccine. only about half of states are specifically prioritizing teachers as an eligible group for vaccines right now, although teachers may still qualify because of their age or medical conditions. last night, we heard from the head of the largest teachers union. now, for a different perspective i'm joined by christopher morphew, dean of the school of education at johns hopkins university. thank you so much for joining us. there are k-12 age students who have not been in in person school since last march. how much learning has been lost? >> first of all, thank you for inviting me. we are starting to see some evidence around a learning loss

and it looks pretty significant. last june, a colleague and i here at hopkins wrote a piece in jama and we were at that point talking about the covid slide, our prediction of what would happen as a result of closing schools during the epic. looking at a 9-10 month summer melt in students. the early findings we are seeing are substantiating just that. we are seeing evidence right now of students falling behind and, most importantly, we are seeing lots of evidence of the students who are most at risk falling further and further behind. so we are seeing evidence and data now suggesting we are seeing students behind, losing another 9-11 months. these are students who entered

into the pandemic maybe alrdy years behind their peers and learning. it is those at risk students we are worried about. we are seeing general agreement from parents and students that the remote learning is not as high quality as what had been going on beforehand. stephanie: but the loss goes beyond academics, doesn't it? these same groups, low income families face compounded threats to their physical, emotional well-being and for them, the most is at stake. >> one study i was just reading described it as a collective trauma that students are experiencing. i have two students in k-12 schools and i am seeing some of the mental health effects. we are starting to see from descriptive studies in national

polls that 30% or more of parents are reporting significant changes in mental health. findings suggest that students are experiencing the kind of collective trauma that is likely to have long-lasting impacts well past the pandemic one of the things we are concerned about here at hopkins's cases of abuse that are going undiscovered as a result of schools being closed. schools already primary and essential piece for identifying evidence of abuse. we are really concerned about is that the epic is exacerbating this in communities and homes around the country. but students are not in schools so we are not seeing this in the ways that counselors, school leaders are trained to identify. stephanie: so the priority, it sounds like, should be getting all kids back to in person

learning. you know have the nehead of the cdc saying that this can be done safely. but you have major unions in big districts disagreeing with all of that. what is the best path out of that impasse? >> i think it is realizing that vaccines are only one part of this. we know a lot more about the virus, about how to reopen school safely than we did nine months ago. the federal government needs to think innovatively and big when it comes to open schools. that means acacia districts have the resources they need to provide ppe, to engage in the a symptom we now have at hand. to step in and act to make sure that our children and particularly at risk children do not experience the kind of covid slide and summer melt we were just talking about. the fedel government really

has an opportunity here for its rhetoric to be matched by action. stephanie: christopher morphew, dean of the school of education at johns hopkins. thank you so much. judy: on the newshour online right now, singer mary chapin carpenter performs a song of -- song off her latest album, "the dirt and the stars," and talks about her ongoing, online music series, performed at home during the pandemic. you can watch on our website. pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding has been

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