caioning sponsored by newshour productionsllc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, stalemate-- president biden's agenda stalls in congress amid disagreements ong democrats over his $3.5 trillion spending plan. then, the end of an era-- angela merkel's 16 years as chancellor draws to a close, with german voters uncertain about the country's future. >> ( translated ): angela merkel, i think she did a good job overall, but we need to do something different. >> woodruff: and it's friday... >> woodruff: ...we celebrate david brooks' 20 years on the program, as he and jonathan capehart consider the divide among democrats and the looming debt ceiling deadline.

all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: major pieces of president biden's ambitious domestic agenda are at risk tonight amid infighting among members of his own democratic party. hanging in the balance: the

bipartisan infrastructure bill, and his $3.5 trillion spending package to address health care, child care, the environment, and more. the president spoke about the status of negotiations earlier today. >> we're at this stalemate at the moment. and we're going to have to get these two pieces of legislation passed. both need to be passed >> woodruff: and amna nawaz joins me now. so, amna, tell us more about the stalemate the president is referring to. >> reporter: it's a big acknowledge buhe's been building his language towards this and it's indicative of where they are now. talking about two major bills central to the president's economic agenda, the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, they are locked up in an intrademocrattic battle now. centrists want the bipartisan bill to move forward through first alone. already passed the senate.

they have sticker shock when it cops to the reconciliation bill and both parties want both moving through together. president biden, this week, has been working to unite both sides, figure out where the common ground is. his language is reflective of where they are. he ended with hope and optimism they both need to be passed. note clear where the common ground is moving forward. >> woodruff: where to go from here? >> reporter: the leader of the house congressional caucus doubling down, saying we are note going to leave behind childcare, education, climate change, so on, the human infrastructure bill. she had tough words for moderate centrists who said you drafted the infrastructure bill without input from us, we drafted the reconciliation bill, you need to come along. this week, president biden said what would it take to get your support on this bill, please continue to work on this.

that's where we could see agreement if they could compromise on the number. but the house will continue to work through the weekend. speaker pelosi's office told us the budget committee will continue to mark up the reconciliation bill tomorrow, then to the rules committee. a source in their office they they are moving forward but in her latest letter to democratic colleagues she said, as negotiations continue, there may be changes. so bracing members of her caucus that some of the contours or details of the bill could change. speaker pelosi plans tomorrow forward next week with two bills, both infrastructure and reconciliation. monday, the senate is also likely voting on continuing government tuned ping and raising the debt ceiling so all the things happening monday. >> woodruff: all of it is happening at one time, and we'll see what happens. it is going to be a full weekend. amna nawaz, thank you very much. >> reporter: thanks, judy.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, millions of americans who got pfizer's covid-19 vaccine are now eligible to receive a booster shot. that's after the c.d.c.'s director, dr. rochelle walensky, signed off on her agency's advisory panel recommendations for extra doses for older and high-risk americans. she also overruled her advisers to expand eligibility to include frontline workers, to side with the f.d.a.'s recommendation. president biden praised the decision, and pleaded with americans who have yet to receive their first dose. >> listen to the voices of the unvaccinated americans who are lying in hospital beds, taking their final breaths, saying and literally we have seen this on television, "if only i had gotten vaccinated," please don't let this become your tragedy. get vaccinated. it can save your life, your

life, and save the lives of those arnd you. >> woodruff: vice president harris had her own covid scare today, momen before an interview with abc's "the view". two of the show's hosts, sunny hostin and ana navarro, tested positive for covid. they were pulled from the set in front of a live audience. the vice president, who was later interviewed remotely from another room, did not have any contact with them. a migrant encampment in del rio, texas where thousands of haitian migrants had converged this week has now been cleared. homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas said some 12,400 were allowed into the u.s. to seek asylum. >> the images horrified us in terms of what they suggest and what they conjure up in terms of not only our nation's history, but unfortunately the fact that

that page of history has not been turned entirely. and that means that there is much work to do and we are very focused on doing it. >> woodruff: mayorkas said the the u.n. now says the death toll from the syrian civil war is far higher than it previously believed. its human rights office has documented morthan 350,000 civilian and combatant deaths during the decade-long conflict. but it acknowledged the true toll is likely much greater. >>t is not and should be not seen as a complete number of conflict-related killings in syria during this period. it indicates a minimum verifiable number and is certainly an undercount of the actual number of killings. tragically, there are also many other victims who left behind no witnesses or documentation as to

their death. >> woodruf the u.n.'s death toll numbers are still far lower than the tally from the syrian observatory of human rights, which estimates more than 606,000 people have died. ex-minneapolis police officer derek chauvin plans to appeal his convictions and his 22-and- a-half year sentence for the murder of george floyd. in documents filed thursday, he argued the judge abused his discretion and erred multiple times during the trial. chauvin is representing himself in the appeals process after he was denied a public defender. president biden will not invoke executive privilege to shield former president trump's records from the house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection. white house press secretary jen psaki said they'll cooperate with congress to help get to the bottom of what happened that day. the audit of 2020 election results in arizona's largest

county, by the state's leading republicans, has confirmed president biden won the state. the findings released today further discredit former president trump's claims of election fraud. meanwhile, texas election officials said that they will conduct an audit in their own state. we'll return to arizona's audit findings, after the news summary. the u.s. house of representatives approved a bill to protect a woman's right to an abortion. it was in response to a highly- restrictive texas law that went into effect earlier this month, that has the effect of banning most abortions. house speaker nancy pelosi celebrated today's vote. >> this is about women's right to choose, yes, but it's about freedom, freedom of that choice, and freedom from the vigilantes, the bounty hunters that the texas government, legislature has set in motion. >> woodruff: the bill's passage in the house is largely symbolic, since it's not likely to get the support it needs to

advance in the senate. the senate's oldest republican, chuck grassley of iowa, announced today that he will run for re-election next year. the 88-yeaold has held his seat for four decades. his announcement gives senate republicans more hope that they'll beble to hold onto his seat in next year's midterm elections. the chief financial officer of huawei has reached a deal with the u.s. justice department to resolve criminal charges against her and allow her to return to china. meng wanzhou admitted to misleading a bank about the chinese communications giant's business with iran. she's been in canada since her 2018 arrest on a u.s. warrant. and, trading was light on wall street today, after a volatile week. the dow jones industrial average gained 33 points to close at 34,798. the nasdaq fell four points, and the s&p 500 added six.

still to come on the newshour: a controversial republican-led election audit in arizona confirms biden won the state in 2020. german voters chart a new future as the angela merkel era draws to a close. the jury begins deliberations in the trial of embattled singer r. kelly. and much more. >> woodruff: a widely discredited election review in arizona may be winding down today. but more than 10 months after the 2020 election, there is growing alarm about other efforts, launched with no credible justification, to sow doubt about elections past, present and future. william brangham begins there. >> brangham: it was republicans

in the arizona state senate who commissioned this review of ballots in maricopa county, even though election officials in the state said there was no large- scale fraud in the 2020 election. but a partisan group called "cyber ninjas" undertook a controversial review of the vote, and affirmed that joe biden won maricopa county, and arizona. and here with us to look at the larger context is nate persily, a scholar of election law at stanford university law school. the "newshour". i hesitate to call this an actual audit, what this organization did in arizona, but they affirmed what we already knew, that joe biden won maricopa county and heon arizona. but what do you make of this when you look at this process? >> you're right to hesitate in calling it an audit. audits are good things. we know how to do election audits. every state should audit its

elections but this is not what this was. this was part of a coordinated disinformation campaign to undermine a legitimate election and we should not put too fine a point on it, that the whole goal many month after the effect, almost a year after the election, was to cast doubt on the machinery of this election. as we've seen in the public reception of this draft report, the fact that cyber ninjas did not find that it affected the outcome hasn't sort of decreased speculation or this lack of confidence that the whole audit process has generated. >> reporter: for people who haven't been following this rather circuitous process they took, this was a very bizarre process, they had no experience in election law, they were looking for counterfeit chinese ballots, the whole process seems bizarre is the official term i think for this. >> well, one of the problems is that we don't really know what

the bakes allegation was as to why there might have been fraud, whether in arizona or elsewhere. throughout the last 10, 12 months, you know, what we've seen are allegations, again, of chinese ballots, as you're saying, in arizona, of italian satellites as having manipulated voting machines, of dominion voting machines not be secure, dead people voting and the like. there is this very heterogeneous set of complaints. what cyber ninjas was doing was going on a fishing expedition to find out if there was anything that implicated the outcome. now, they didn't find the results would have been different. in fact, from their results, they suggest that joe biden actually increased his vote totals through their audit than what was found on election day, but the fact that it might have coirmed the results should not be any solace to those who worry about the lack of confidence that this type of prcess has engendered among the mass public. >> reporter: and as you say, if this were just arizona, that

might be one thing we might be able to put this behind us, but this was going on in multiple other states now. >> that's right, this is now a play book for other states. if you are sort of a disgruntled politician or one trying to make a name for yourself, whether it's in pennsylvania or wisconsin or other states, georgia, now this is the pathway that they've chosennen. now, again, recounts and audits are a process that we want to encourage the month or so after the election because we wanted to know if the machinery is working. but a year after the election, all this is trying to do is undermine confidence in the result. >> reporter: sounds like, on some level, the perpetual argument made is having an efct. a monmouth university poll was out a month or two ago that show a third of americans believe president biden was elected only because fraud and that donald trump should have properly won the election. from an election add

administrator standpoint, if a third of the country thinks you're engaged in a widespread fraud, what does that do to their ability to run elections safely and soundly? >> this is a very dangerous period i think for our democracy that we have not seen this erosion in confidence in the basic infrastructure in america of the elections in our history. we see lots of retirements among these veteran election officials, we see many feel they're taking their own lives in their own hands because of death threats and the like. these are challenges we have not faced before and they're a direct result of the concerted disinformation campaign designed. >> reporter: nate persily, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. >> woodruff: germany is one of america's most important allies. and nearly every american

president since george w. bush has worked closely with german chancellor angela merkel. but for the first time since 2005, she will not be a candidate when germans head to the polls this sunday, to vote for her successor. special correspondent malcolm brabant is in berlin for us tonight with a preview of the upcoming election. >> reporter: judy, it's the end of an era. angela merkel is slipping away from the political stage with minimal fanfare, which is entirely consistent with her modest, understated style. she has huge shoes to fill, and it's a very tit race to decide who is going to replace her as chancellor. for 16 years, angela merkel has led germany and been europe's most dominant politician they call her mutti or mom. now as mutti is leaving the chancellery, germany is out of its comfort zone. >> i think she'll be remembered as a very important states person who kept europe together. >> reporter: peter neumann is a senior advisor to merkel's centre right christian democrat party.

>> history will remember her as a successful chancellor, a popular chancellor, as a chancellor that brought germans a great deal of prosperity >> reporter: president biden saluted the shy research scientist who became the first east german to assume he nation's highest office since reunification. >> on behalf of the united states, thank you angela for your career of strong, principled leadership and thank you for speaking out for what is right and for never failing to defend human dignity. >> reporter: in 2010, merkel saved the euro currency by coordinating a financial bailout for greece when it went bust. there were fears that other weak european economies would collapse and the euro would tank. >> ( translated ): europe fails when the euro fails. europe wins when the euro wins. >> reporter: merkel's most controversial unilateral act was

to throw open germany's borders to syrian refugees in 2015. in all, germany granted asylum to over a million in that first year of europe's migration crisis. >> ( translated ): and i have to say quite honestly, if we now start having to apologize even for showing a friendly face in emergency situations, then this is not my country. >> reporter: people across the developing world saw this as an invitation to enter europe. only sweden emulated germany. partner nations resented being pressured. hungary erected a border fence, wrecking the e.u.'s commitment to open internal frontiers. six years on, the flow of asylum seekers into europe is still strong. sonya sceats runs a london based pro refugee nonprofit. she thinks merkel was right. >> germany and sweden tried to start a grown up conversation, you know, with other european states and other european states weren't willing to step up to the plate. >> reporter: the influx caused a

backlash at home, and as peter neuman explains, led to a resuence of the far right in east germany. >> significant parts of the electorate didn't like it all and especially the east, where she's coming from was very aggrieved about it and still holds it against her. i think that's the point where she lost the former east germany. >> reporter: since merkel's controversial move in 2015, european right wingers like french presidential candidate marine le pen, have secured a stronger footing with their anti migration rhetoric. >> ( translated ): all the migrants who didn't stay in germany went off amusing themselves in other european countries without asking for our permission. those who didn't remain in germany went to sweden, italy, france, weighing heavily on our finances, and creating conditions for conflict. >> reporter: unlike last time, when immigration dominated, climate change is this election's hot issue. polls suggest germany is steering to the left.

most germans expect social democrat olaf scholz to replace merkel. as finance minister in merkel's coalition government, scholz is a known quantity, if a little dull. his main rival, armin laschet, who replaced merkel as head of the centre right christian democrats, is also charisma challenged. but that's not a disadvantage in germany. the main outsider, annalena baerbock, of the environmentalist greens, is predicted to be kingmaker in the next inevitable coalitio >> ( translated ): many citizens can see me as the next head of government, the next chancellor. and i make nsecret that above all, i would like to create a government in alliance with the greens. >> reporter: laschet is promising merkel-like stability. >> ( translated ): the cohesion of europe in these difficult times, a climate-neutral industry and strong economy, and a clear course for national security. >> reporter: baerbock wants to force the christian democrats into opposition.

>> ( translated ): i stand for no longer using half measures to protect the climate, a policy that finally brings children and families to its core, and a human rights-led foreign policy in the heart of europe. >> reporter: devastating floods caused by unnaturally heavy summer rain pushed climate change on to the election agenda. the death toll is still unclear, but could be as high as 300. restoration could cost $30 billion. activist jacob heinzen has gone without food for three weeks to highlight climate change. at the hunger striker's camp, spokeswoman helen luebbert had harsh words for the greens. >> ( translated ): they are not the solution. even their program is not enough and therefore i think it's important that they are part of the coalition. they do everything they can within the political spectrum, within the parliament and then we definitely need opposition from without the parliament. >> reporter: facing possible defeat, centre right parliamentary candidate klaus dieter groehler was trying to woo votes with bratwurst and beer.

>> ( translated ): people are asking critical questions but i'm not getting the sense that they are really interested in a change of government. >> reporter: that's not what the polls say. this voter won't be swayed by a sausage. >> angela merkel, i think she did a good job overall, but we need to do something different. >> reporter: as election day approaches, the party of angela merkel is hoping germans will avoid change, and play safe as they have done so often in the past. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in berlin. >> woodruff: a jury began deliberations today in the of federal trial of singer r. kelly. the r&b artist is accused of kidnapping, bribery, sex trafficking, and racketeering, among other charges. amna nawaz has our look at the case.

>> nawaz: judy, this is the first criminal trial kelly has faced since being acquitted of he has faced allegations of sexual abuse for more than two decades and has settled multiple cases. faced since being acitted of child pornography charges in 2008. over this five-week trial, prosecutors brought 45 witnesses to prove racketeering charges. they argue kelly oversaw a criminal enterprise, with associates helping to lure underage girls, boys, and young women, whom he sexually assaulted and imprisoned. kelly pled not guilty. emily palmer is covering this for the "new york times." she joins me now. emily, welcome to the "newshour". you have been listening to those witnesses as they're shared their testimony, horrifying details, tell us a little bit about who we've heard from and what they've said. >> this case is built on the stories of six women, five of them testified, and the first woman to take the stand, the first woman to ever actually take the stand and testify

against r. kelly was a woman named jeronda pace. she was nine months pregnant at the time and she took the stand and, over the course of two days, she delineated what she says was a system of abuse that began upon her first meeting with r. kelly when she was just 14 years od and attended his chchild pornography trial in chicago. two years later she met up with the singer again and he began having sex with her almost from the outgo. she outlined horrific detailsf sexual and physical abuse. and from there, the trial just sort of pushed forward. we heard, also, from a woman named stephanie sonia, a woman who testified under the name of jane and another faith, ey all came forward and talked about the same thing. they had testimony that stretched back into the 1990s all the way into just a few years ago and they were saying the same story over and over again. >> reporter: prosecutors say it wasn't just about the

predatory actions of one man, that there was an entire network of enablers around him. tell me about how they made that case. >> absolutely, that network of enablers is the whole reason we're in federal court right now. the racketeering charge they put against r. kelly allows them to go -- stretch all the way back into the 1990s and bring these stories of horrible things that happened to women like the r & b singer aaliyah that would normally be too old to actually prosecute, but by charging him with racketeering, used against mobsters, we're talking about an enterprise designed specifically to allow r. kelly to, you know, switch up his -- sorry -- we are talking about an enterprise that allows r. kelly to cash in his fame and stardom so have sex with underage women, girls and even boys.

>> reporter: emily, kelly pled not guilty, denied all the accusations against him. tell me about his defense team. how did they answer some of these allegations and handle the witnesses? >> his defense fom opening arguments through cross-examination of 45 witnesses through their own five witnesses that testified earlier this week through closing statements have kept to a very specific story. they say this is a complete conspiracy to undermine a successful r & b artist who, you know, enjoyed younger women, but there was nothing illegal about it, they say. they say these sexual acts were completely -- they say tha the women were -- were happy to indulge r. kelly, were ns, even superstalkers at times, that they wanted into the relationships and then they became jealous and hurt and upset and they were coming after his money. >> reporter: emily i think a

lot of people will listen to this and wonder how long did this go on so long without charges of this kind being brought? >> it's really important to look at the people who ar accusing r. kelly, and most of the people who have taken -- a majority of people who have taken the stand are black women who have historically not been heard, especially in cases like this. and this is really a huge moment in the #metoo movement. we've hather trials, we've had bill cosby and harvey weinstein, but this is the first big high profile case where the majority of accusers are black women and it's really going to be interesting, as the jury continues to deliberate, because, you know, for many, many years, people knew what was going on -- his employees knew, even to a certain extent the public knew, and yet nobody did anything. >> reporter: and we'll be waiting and watching for the verdict.

emily palmer of the "new york times" covering the trial of r. kelly and joining us tonig. thank you, emily. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as democrats try to secure their agenda through the build back better plan, the president has run into another unexpected issues, turmoil on the southern border. luckily to help us make sense of what this means, were joined by our regular friends, brooks and capehart, that's "new york times" columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, columnist for the "washington post." hello to both of you. very good to see you. >> you, too. >> woodruff: on this friday, and there is so much to talk about. david, it does look like there's real trouble for president biden's domestic agenda, and it's not the republicans this time, at least on the part that he's run into head winds this week, it's his own democratic colleagues.

what is behind this? >> it's just an intellectual difference, and what strikes me is how so many people are drawing red lines. the progresves are saying we want 3.5 trillion, we're not going under. manchin and others say 1.5 trillion, we're not going over. that's a gigantic gap. they can't agree on what to vote on when and why. the progressives say we're a nation of decline and lot of people have been left behind in the economy and they're right to do something to jolt us back to community. the moderates are right in that we're not going to have a welfare state. we're an individualest country, we like to tie benefits to work and have a work obligation. we're never going to give away as much money in taxes as the europeans, the norwegians give about 46% of their g.d.p. to taxes, if this passes this would get us up to 19. we're just not that kind of

country. if you take the scope of the progressives and values of the moderates, you can get a deal but they're pretty far away from it now. >> woodruff: they both may have a point, jonathan, but the future of the president's term in office could be in the balance here. >> sure, it could be in the balance, but we don't know. i look at this as being the storm before the calm. david's right, a lot of red lines are being drawn, and they seem to have been being drawn since wednesday, since they all wwent to the white house and had their respective meetings with the president and then come out and stayed their positions again. but i have been paying close attention to the language they have been using. they're being very firm about what they're for and not for. they're not attacking each other the way they were during the summer, and, so, i wonder if this is the usual washington theatrics of doing all this performance and then at some

point when we least expect it, breaking news, announcement, here's the deal. this is a different washington. who knows that moment will come. i pray it does. one because what they're arguing over is were very important for the american people. two, if they don't come to some deal, the prsident biden's agenda goes from stalled to dead and, three, it means, finally, that washington iscompletely broken if they can't come to some agreement here. >> woodruff: well, it's a different -- and meantime, there's another massive headache the president has, i don't know whether it's another washington performance, but it's over the debt limit, david, and this one is between the d.m.s and the republicans, and -- between the democrats and the republicans and the republicans are saying no way. >> woodruff: when the shoe was on the other foot they wanted the republicans when they were controlling to take it. what's changed is ten years ago people cared about debts and ficits. it was a major issue among americans. now for maybe dubious reasons,

nobody cares. maybe low interest rates. now much tolerance amongst democrats and republicans to run up the debt. so i wish they'd do away with the whole thing. >> woodruff: with the debt limit. >> yeah. we've committed to spend the money. the debt limit says we're going to borrow the money to spend the money we're committed to. they should raise it to a gazillion dollars and we would never approach the limit. it's a bit of ballet we don't need. >> woodruff: gazillion? what do you think? >> yeah, gazillion is a great numerator. this is super important for the american people to understand is raising the debt ceiling is not giving washington the blank check. it is allowing washington to pay for the things that they've already bought. if the government does not raise the debt ceiling, bipartisan policy center this morning put out their charts and they're

turned them into a huge debt ceiling nerd. starting back in 2011, when jay powell with the bipartisan policy center then put p this together, he is now the fed chairman. i want the american people to understand, if the debt ceiling is not raised and the government don't borrow any money, it has to use the cash it has on hand, and i have this chart here, i don't know if the camera can get it, but i'll talk it through, that on october 15, which they they might be the first day that we use the x date, government will bring in $27 llion in revenues but we'll have $43 billion in expenses, and that's just on that first day. all that debt that -- all those things that aren't paid caries over to the next day. i don't even have upnuff time to tell you the avalanche of harm that would come to the american people, to the federal government and the global economy if that debt ceiling isn't raised. >> woodruff: and government

shutdown on all the quenlses of that. >> both the topics we've talked about so far, the consequences of failure are cataclysmic. so i presume in a normal functioning democracy that we don't walk over those cliffs, but who knows. >> woodruff: well, i'm just taking a deep breath here. (laughter) another, of course, major issue the president had to deal with this week, again, jonathan, was the southern border. in addition to what's already been happening there, and the haitian migrants were starting to gather in the past week, these images of border patrol using reins or other whatever, belts, to go after the migrates, president biden has come under enormous criticism from fellow democrats over this. here's how he chentd this morning on what happened. >> of course, i take responsibility, i'm president, but it was horrible what you saw to see people treated like they

did, horses nearly running people over, people being strapped. it's outrageous. i promise you, those people will pay. there's an investigation underway now and there will be consequences. >> woodruff: today, we reported there are no haitian migrants that particular place, we don't know whether more will be coming. jonathan, how is the president handling this, and how much of a political hit is it for him? >> i'll take the political hit first. it's a huge hit and it's a huge hit, one, with immigration, you know, the president was already on squishy ground with the american people, but those images that came out affidavit men on horseback and black people running, it was just -- it was a little too close to home for a lot of us, and for a president who campaigned on a more humane immigration policy, for a president who, on election night, said to african-americans

you brought me here, and i will not forget it, that's why you had a lot of democrats, particularly african-american democrats, saying to the president what is going on here? you must do something about this. then on top of it, what made it even more inhumane is that the president -- or the administration deported hatians who had not lived in haiti for more than ten years to a country that is still dealing with an earthquake that happened and a presidential assassination. >> woodruff: how can immigration -- every president, counting back as far as we can count, this has been a tough issue. where do you see this going? wemplets had the last successful comprehensive immigration bill under ronald reagan. that was a long time ago. he inherited a mess there's no

solution for. briernd did make it worse. the problem was on day one they promised to reverse all trump rules, good idea, but doing it all at once on day one, people in the transition in the white house were warning about that. they were saying, we'll be overwhelmed, it will be a big open door situation and we don't have the facilities to handle it. that turned out to be true. what bothers me is it seems to be arbitrary, who gets sent where? who knows who's being decided. there's no methodology or procedure for a lot of people. so we're just overwhelmed right now and it's disturbing we're overwhelmed after basically 40 years of this mess. >> reporter: it's hard to see how this is an issue that gets resolved anytime in the near term. so the last thing we want to bring up is it was september 251, 2001, just a week and a half after the 9/11 attacks, and here was the

beginning to have the "newshour" that night with jim lehrer. >> and that brings us to shields and brooks, syncated columnist mark shields join by his new regular partner david brooks of this standard. welcome. >> thank you. >> woodruff: been here many many times before. >> woodruff: that man has not changed one iota. >> i wanted to point out i was 12 then. (laughter) >> woodruff: david, you joined this program as a very sobering, difficult moment for this country. it was, what, ten days after 9/11 and you have been through ups and downs with the country ever since. talk about what it's meant for you to be here at this table every friday. >> it's the end of the week, often i'm tired, sometimes i'm under the weather, stressed, i come in here a little low, i

walk out of here an hour later super charged up and happy because i get to work with the people i've worked with, not only the people on set, but leah in makeup, charlie our lighting guy, and you feel offlifted when you walk out. when you think about 20 years, i think about the time in 2004, 2005, mark and i were on with jim, and we showed a marine funeral just before our setting, and jim started crying. and mark and i gave ten minute answers so jim could compose himself. that's something we're going through together. i hink about sitting with mark and jim when barack obama gave his 2004 speech, that first big speech, which is watching a star appear, but it's also about a version of america that he was describing. i think about the day gwen died, and i go through all the e-mails that she sent me over the years and some were just about our friendship, but a lot were tough, like, gwen demanded excellence and if you didn't show up, gwen was, like, show

up! and then working with you, you're the hardest working woman in show business. you've not had a day you don't completely show up for this thing. so you get a sense of people who respect the job and mostly respect the audience and out of that derives a kind of patriotism. and other networks talk about patriotism, but i think we try to serve a certain kind of america, and we try to exemplify that service in the way we do things in the culture around here, and it's just been an honor to be part of that for 20 years. my next 60 years will be just as good. >> woodruff: next 60. (laughter) the "newshour" has been just incredibly fortunate and honored to have you with us and, of course, mark for all those years and then jonathan joined us almost a year ago. jonathan, you get to sit next to david on friday nights. it's not exactly like every other television show.

>> woodruff: no, it's not like every other television show. this was an important job to get, succeeding mark shields. the e-mails saying, oh, my gosh, mark shields is gone, i'm so sad and upset, but i'm glad you're there, it was then i realized how important this job is, how important it is what we do, but what makes this so much fun and why it's so wonderful to celebrate david is weave been doing this in other venues for a few years, now, and i always look forward to being with david because you're to the right of me, i'm to the left of you, we're completely different backgrounds, and, yet, when i sit with david and talk with david, i feel -- i feel like i've learned something, i'm smarter. the way david speaks about all the issues, it's inviting, and that's what makes brooks and

capehart, shields and brooks, all the other iterations so wonderful, we come to bring news, educate the audience, but the do it in a way that invites the audience in. >> woodruff: there's clearly some magic happens here and we are grateful to you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: to jonathan capehart and david brooks, congratulations on 20 years. 40 years more coming up. >> shoot me. (laughter) >> woodruff: whether teaching n.y.u. marketing students or co- hosting the podcast "pivot," scott galloway rarely misses an opportunity to share his insight on the effects of big tech. tonight, he shares his brief but spectacular take on this country's response to the pandemic. it's also the subject of his latest book: "post corona, from crisis to opportunity." >> within seven da of pearl harbor, chrysler converted its

largest factory to a factory punching out n-1 bradley tanks. what company has totally pivoted to fighting this virus? if walmart stock had been down 30% and if amazon stock had been down 60%, instead of up 30% and ile, rolling into my driveway, delivering my nespresso pods would have had someone jump out and jab me and my family. this virus has not seen what america is capable of when it has a full throated capitalist response. the bottom line is if you're in the top 1%, you are living your best life. that is the dirty secret of this pandemic. this pandemic for the shareholder class has meant more time with netflix, more time with family and your wealth has skyrocketed. so for the wealthy, this has been “stop, stop, it hurts so good.” this disproportionately impacted people of color who live in food deserts. this has been an enormous

tragedy across senior citizens in nursing homes. what we have is the worst of both worlds. capitalism on the way up, socialism on the way down. that's not capitalism, that's cronyism. we need to be more heavy handed with corporations and more empathetic and loving with individuals. the biggest mistake we made in this pandemic was we should have been protecting people, not american airlines. there is a danger here, and that is the dispersion of headquarters to our homes, the ugly stepchild of dispersion is segregation. when you don't see the homeless veteran on the, on ramp or the off ramp to work, when you don't see people of different ethnic groups and different income classes, you begin to resent them. so the enduring feature of covid-19, it will be seen as an accelerant more than a change agent. online grocery delivery accelerated eight years work from home accelerated six years. income inequality took an economy that was dysfunctional and turned it dystopic. so take any trend in your life personally or professionally, take it out 10 years.

and there's a decent chance that we're here, there, now. i worry that today's youth doesn't have the connective tissue that some of our leaders had in the past. they were americans first, before they were red or blue. and a way to get that back might be some sort of mandatory national service. it might be building housing or a corona core that helps people, where kids get a chance to meet other kids from different backgrounds and feel like they have a shared experience such that maybe there's more cooperation as they get into positions of power. some of the greatest periods of prosperity have come out of crisis. and that's the opportunity here. so ask yourself three questions. one, is this an opportunity for you to become a caretaker for someone? do you have the relationship with your siblings that you want, if you were forced to say goodbye to someone over facetime? have you made the requisite investments in friendships to ensure that you maintain those relationships? are you willing to show the type of grace, and courage, and forgiveness, such that you can cement and repair the most important thing in respect to our happiness and that is your

relationships. this is either going to be the best year in the history of america, or it could be the worst. it's up to us. my name is scott galloway, and this is my brief but spectacular take on post corona from crisis to opportunity. >> woodruff: now, an artist straddling worlds and using her art to examine how we see the past and present, east and west. jeffrey brown has the story from new york for our art and culture series, canvas. >> browndancing women from a south asian painting tradition. a headless western-style "venus." and, what's a fighter jet doing there? ask the woman with the ornate ram's horns-- the artist herself, shahzia sikander.

>> i see myself as somebody who's interested, like a detective, to look at how to connect the dots, how to find where the material is, and to also examine sort of like, my own relationship with it, but also how some of the stories, what are the archetypal stories within the medium itself? >> brown: sikander, born in pakistan and living in the u.s. since 1993, is known for examining and breaking down familiar archetypes and stereotypes of art history, and questioning the assigned roles of women and simplistics notions of an east-west "divide." she began in art school in lahore, studying the refined tradition of persian and indian manuscript, or "miniature," painting, dating to the 16th century, and then began to play with it and make it her own. adding the image of a friend, for example. >> this took me almost two years. >> brown: really? >> yes. >> brown: in her most renowned

early work, called "the scroll," she captured her own life within this history. that's her, a ghostlike presence throughout the scene, which can be "read" left to right. >> at the end you also see her. she's painting herself, but you never really get to see her face. >> brown: in fact, the entire exhibition, titled "extraordinary realities" and starting at the morgan library and museum in new york, is a kind of portrait of the young artist. mostly paintings from sikander's first two decades of work in the 1990s and early 2000s. a chance for us-- and her, now 52-- to look back, but also see continuing connections. >> i was interesd in examining some of those projections. like, what is "tradition?" how do we define tradition? how is tradition performed? d those ideas captured my imagination as a young artist.

who dedicated when and what in time is "old" and what is "avant garde?" and the more i examined it, the more i felt that there was room to reexamine, to reimagine. >> brown: she began to layer image upon image, sometimes adding fantastical creatures, and abstraction over refined details. she packed different kinds of "information" into small paintings, often using humor and wit-- angels with american flags for wings, in a reference to u.s. military interventions in the muslim world. in 1999, she did a painting titled "the faces of islam" for the cover of the "new york times" magazine. what is the role of art that you see for addressing or responding to those kind of stereotypes? >> the work was always resisting that type of fetishization, especially about the muslim woman as needing to be saved.

especially in how it gets played up in hollywood and media, in tv and in this, and it has a deeper history of the representation of the veil in european colonial imperial history. and it counters it with other types of narratives, where the joyousness of the femine, the inherent female agency, its autonomy, its ability to be creative and, you know, its inner strength is very present. >> brown: that shows itself especially in sikander's first sculpture: two women-- a classical "venus" and hindu "devata"-- intertwined. both, she says, in a position of power. in recent years, sikander has worked in new forms and larger formats, including massive billboard projections in times square, and a 66-foot glass and ceramic "scroll" for princeton university. >> i made this. i basically took elements from some of the paintings and incorporated them.

>> brown: she created a new installation for this exhibition. long strips of paper that bring her small painting and imagery to three-dimensional life, and draw in the viewer. regularly "defined" hersel- as south asian, pakistani, muslim, and more-- she's determined to break out of the "boxes." >> the more categories, the merrier! ( laughs ) so for me, if the wok can speak to asian american-ness, fine. muslim american-ness, fine. female artist, fine. artists, great! all those categories and boxes are fine, as long as one is not restricted to operate within just one or two. and when we talk about that, we are talking about the agency of imagination, and that's the best part of being an artist, is that you can really soar. >> brown: shahzia sikander's exhibition, "extraordinary realities," moves next to the rhode island school of design museum in providence, and then

to the museum of fine arts, houston. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the morgan library and museum in new york. a new app to help people overcome fear of spiders, cows to protect the environment and invasive bugs threatening america's trees, those are among the five stories you may have missed this week we are lyinglighting online. you can find all that and more on our web site at >> woodruff: be sure to join my colleague, moderator yamiche alcindor tonight on "washington week." she'll get insight and analysis of the week's big stories from an all-star panel including bob woodward and robert costa, authors of the bestselling book, "peril." they'll talk about the latest and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here on monday evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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hello, everyone and welcome to "oamenpour and company". >> the clock is ticking ahead of a deadline to keep the government open and pay its bills. we break down what ts means and how it's all paying out globally with former congressmantia laila and former economist, betsy stevenson. then, ping's not so quiet revolution. how the chinese leader is rapidly turning the country back to its socialist roots, just as one of its largest companies is on the brink of collapse.