>> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, january 29: a weekend winter storm brings blizzard conditions to the northeast; almost a year after the military coup in myanmar, the fight for democracy is elusive; and a messageut the holocaust for futur generations. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation.

koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow cahelp you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group: retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicatend connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. a winter storm packing near

hurricane force winds and heavy snow hit the northeast today, creating blinding blizzard conditions in some areas. ten states from maine to virginia felt the effects of the noreaster, with the worst conditions along the coast. officials warned drivers to stay off the roads, including in rhode island where all non-emergency travel is banned until further notice. in several major cities, including philadelphia and new york city, residents woke up to several inches of often blowing and drifting snow. boston is expected to get hit with up to two feet of snow by the time the storm exits the region late today. according to the web site flightaware, hundreds of flights going into and out of those cities were canceled today. as of this afternoon, more than 4,600 flights were canceled nationwide. over 100,000 homes and businesses in massachusetts lost power due to the storm. governors in massachusetts and several other states declared a state of emergency. today, new york governor kathy hochul warned residents that the

danger will not end with today's snow and wind. >> the ice will take longer to go away because of the frozen temperatures, the frigid temperatures. and, again, wind chills of zero to minus ten are dangerous for people, but they're also very challenging for people to salt and get the roads safe again so they're not slippery. >> sreenivasan: forecasters warned of freezing temperatures and wind chills tonight and tomorrow extending as far south as georgia and alabama. the omicron variant causing a surge in reported covid cases is apparently slowing in some parts of the u.s. but is still setting records. the new york times" database shows a 31% decline in cases over the past two weeks, and hospitalizations are also dropping. worldwide, the virus and its variants are plateauing, but the "times" shows more than 3.3 million cases on average every day. in russia, officials reported an all-time daily record high of more than 113,000 new infections today. in austria, protesters opposed to a nationwide mandatory vaccinn policy taking effect on tuesday gathered again even

as the chancellor announced the country will ease some restrictions in coming weeks. thousands marched in paris protesting that country's vaccine pass required for many activities. and in canada, truckers opposed to a u.s.-canada cross-border vaccine requirement brought their big rigs to ottawa for a demonstration. for more on covid cases and the many different approaches countries are using to contain the spread of the coronavirus and its variants, i spoke with propublica reporter caroline chen. with this huge surge of omicron cases, are we close to that kind of magic notion of endemic that this is now in the population? >> so, unfortunately, we're not yet at an endemic state, either in the u.s. or globally. but i think it's helpful to understand what endemic actually means. you called it a magical state. i mean, i think it is. we prefer endemic to pandemic, but endemic doesn't really mean we no longer have to think about it. actually, conversely, if you think about something like the

flu, which is endemic, that means somebody is always going to have to think about it. there are scientists working around the year every year to try to come up with a flu shot for the next year. so once a disease becomes enmic, it does become part of our lives. it's controlled. we have an expected threshold that we are trying to keep, you know, deaths or hospitalizations under. but it doesn't mean like, we will never have to think about this again. >> sreenivasan: yeah, yeah. i also want to point the audience to an article that you wrote just about going home to visit your parents in hong kong and at that taught you about this. >> when i went to visit my parents, which was late november, i got off the plane and immediately went through these series of checks where i got covid tested. i had all these documents i had to prepare, which included a covid test before flying presented. and most importantly, was that i had a hotel booked because hong kong has a 21-day hotel quarantine. that was when i landed. they actually just changed it to

14 days. and then only after you get through that hotel quarantine are you allowed into the city. soust a totally different model. and this comes from the fact that hong kong is still pursuing what they call a covid zero policy. >> sreenivasan: what do they do? what kind of steps do they take when they see that there is a new infection? >> yeah. so the first half of my trip there, actually there were no cases that were in the city, so they were catching them in travelers while they were in quarantine. they test you every three days when you're in the hotel, so they're trying to catch these cases that are being imported in. and so actually, i spent christmas with my extended family knowing that there was zero local transmission in the city, which was just such a different christmas experience than a lot of the, you know, my friends in the u.s. right at the end of my trip, they did have their first local omicron case. they have the ability to do intensive contact tracing. this person went to a restaurant. they used credit card transactions to track all the diners, and they all had to go to government quarantine facilities.

>> sreenivasan: you're talking about an environment that has been created by the government in hong kong, which allows you after you get through all their checks to have life as we would consider normal. >> throughout this pandemic, i've heard so many times, why doesn't the u.s. do "x" that, you know, this other country does? there are trade offs here. you know, this has had a huge impact on hong kong's economy and its standing and reputation as an international commerce hub. so these types of restrictions, i think in some ways, if you were just to look at the death toll in hong kong and compare that to new york city, where, you know, they've got a kind of similar population to hong kong, has been in the low hundreds versus tens of ousands. so on one measure, you can say this has been incredibly successful. >> sreenivasan: caroline, when we think about a virus being just part of our society, that's dependent on it actually reaching everywhere. there's still huge sectors of

the planet that haven't even had their first shot. >> one of the things we do know is that we can shape this curve still. so ending the inequality in access to vaccines around the world will get us to a more stable and better place faster. we also know that now so many people have be vaccinated, about two thirds of the world have gotten their first shot. plus, you know, omicron infections that we are not in a 2020 state anymore. and you know, our individual bodies and st of as a population, we're better equipped to face omicron. so even though we're not yet at an endemic state, the more people we can get vaccinated, the sooner our world comes to that. >> sreenivasan: caroline chen of propublica, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: for more national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: yesterday, the united nations security council held closed-door hearings on what to do about the spiraling violence in myanmar, the result of a military coup last february

that rolled back the country's fragile democratic process. but as special correspondent kira kay and producer/videographer jason maloney report, therare few clear international efforts to help myanmar so far, which has led citizens to fight mostly on their own, both from within their country's borders and in exile. this report was produced in collaboration with the bureau for international reporting. >> reporter: on the river that creates the border between thailand and myanmar, also known as burma, a nightly ritual plays out. monks and local volunteers on the thailand side, watched by the thai army, deliver food, water and medicine to the river bank. it is then fetched by the displaced people who are sheltering on the myanmar side of the border. their villages inside myanmar were attacked by their own government in mid-december. thousands are now uprooted. it is just the latest development in a year of turmoil and violence for myanmar

following a coup by its military that has now become a civil war between the junta and its citizens taking up arms. to show us the humanitarian crisis firsthand, volunteers took us to the border. >> the fighting started in the lay kay kaw area. >> reporter: 15th of december. >> 15th december, yeah. and then, after a few days, the military used airstrikes. so, they burned all the villages around this area, so they had to flee. and the battle won't stop 'till today. >> reporter: i think we are hearing some gunshots. it's still really close, what's going on here. >> i heard the sound from this side. oh. >> reporter: this woman managed to make it into thailand with her six-month-old granddaughter after fleeing aerial bombardment. >> i want to crush the army into little pieces! this is because of the suffering

we have faced. >> reporter: myanmar had been a military dictatorship for decades, but in 2012, facing global condeation and dwindling coffers, the country changed course and cautiously opened to the world. they released democracy icon aung san suu kyi from house arrest and allowed her to run for a seat in parliament. i was given one of the first journalist visas to join her on the campaign trail. it was as if the gates had opened, with thousands of burmese flooding the streets to greet "mother suu" in person. over the decade, myanmar blossomed; young entrepreneurs sat in tech hubs pitching their ideas to funders, shuttered universities reopened, exiles returned from overseas to open newsrooms. but this opening also allowed the rise of buddhist nationalism

and intensified anti-muslim violence, particularly against the rohingya minority, that left 10,000 dead and a million more displaced, and effectively stateless. through this transition the military never fully released its grip, blocking 25% of parliament seats and reserving some top ministries for themselves. still, aung san suu kyi's party scored consecutive landslide wins in 2015 and 2020 nationwide elections. the constitution barred her from being president, so she created a new equivalent title for herself called state counselor. the military resented her success, says phil robertson of human rights watch. >> every time aung san suu ky is on the ballot, the military gets a drubbing, and i think they've decided they're tired of it. >> reporter: claiming election fraud, the military sent troops onto the streets on february 1, 2021. aung san suu kyi has not been

seen since. this is the last photo of her from a vaccine clinic visit, a fedays before. >> reporter: will we ever see her again? >> the junta has been working double time to manufacture charges against her. and these charges, all combined, which are being heard before a kangaroo court, are likely to result in a long enough prison sentence for her that we will not see her again. if the myanmar military has its way. >> reporter: the people took to the streets in massive protest, refusing to easily give up the freedoms they had enjoyed over the past decade. doctors, teachers and bankers walked off the job to cripple the country, raising the three-fingered resistance salute from "the hunger games." the military responded with brutality; activists say 1,500 people have been killed, almost 12,000 arreste leaders of the resistance are in hiding, including former politician nay phone latt.

>> we cannot say it is safe, you know, because everywhere is dangerous. i have to do it. i have a family, and i have children. we have to fight for our future and our next generation. >> reporter: a respected writer, we first met in 2015 as he registered as a first-time candidate. he now reflects on what went wrong, including aung san suu kyi's strategy of wooing the military, even defending them in international court for their attacks on the rohingya. >> we will try to work together with them, and we will try to persuade them, and we will try to change our country gradually. that is what we think. but it's not successful, you know. i don't know why they did it. i don't understand. i can't understand. are they happy now? i don't think so. the coup, it destroyed everything, everybody. >> reporter: everybody lost. >> yeah, everybody lost.

>> reporter: to counter the military control of the country, a shadow government has sprung up in exile. >> national unity government of myanmar is a legitimate government who won the 2020 elections. >> reporter: aung myo min is the minister of human rights in what calls itself the national unity government, or nug. some are still inside myanmar, others are scattered across four continents. they don't even tell each other where they are. they are trying to convince the world to recognize them. >> we are behaving like a government. we are meeting with the different governments as a legitimate government. even at the u.n., the credential of our representative proves that. but we really want to go beyond the "quasi" legitimacy status, to the "full" legitimate government status. >> reporter: meanwhile, the street protests inside the country have turned into actual combat, with young people taking up arms and training in the

jungles. in september, the nug followed their lead and declared a defensive war against the military junta, they say, so they can bring discipline to the combat. >> every defensive forces should comply with the international standards not to commit any kinds of atrocity, like the military. how to avoid the public places; religious and cultural buildings; how to treat a prisoner of war and how to protect women, children, disabled and elderly. >> reporter: the nug is also rewriting the constitution to remove the military from government and, it says, addressing aung san suu kyi's failure to protect all her people. >> you can see that there's a sign of the weaknesses of the policy, especially with the minority groups. they should have done something better. >> reporter: does that include the rohingya? >> yes. we acknowledged and noted these

atrocities against rohingya have been taking place. >> reporter: what about citizenship? what about the right to vote? >> thank you. and this is also mentioned in our rohingya policies. >> reporter: b a return home seems a long way off for aung myo min and the country's thousands of other displaced people. the military is ratcheting up its brutality, allegedly burning women, children and aid workers in their vehicles, and sentencing to death popular musician-turned-politician zayar thaw for allegedly plotting armed attacks. the u.s. government has imposed sanctions on leaders of the military, its ministries, and some of its businesses, including gems, timber and construction. but bills in congress to further punish the military sit unpassed. >> i don't see the pressure yet coming from the international community, at least of the sort of volume and with the pressure on the key points to make the myanmar military change course. we need to see action on an international arms embargo.

we need to see tough sanctions on some of the biggest money earners for the military junta. and that means oil and gas. >> reporter: u.s. company chevron has just announced it will pull out of myanmar after facing intense pressure from activists. citizens are calling for more sanctions, even if it hurts them too, says nay phone latt. >> they will pay any cost to take down the military junta. that is the decision of our country-- not only one people, two people, three people, that is the decision of all of the people. >> reporter: exiled human rights minister aung myo min says that after a decade of strong support, the world, and particularly the u.s., should not give up on mnmar. >> people will say that everything moved back to zero, but i don't agree. the support of the united states for the strengthening of the civil society is very, very positive. because of that support, whole

generations are very committed for the course of human rights and democracy. so, it's not useless. please continue your support to the people of myanmar. >> sreenivasan: this week marked international holocaust remberance day. in their video series "hear me out," the "los angeles times" studios, expand on "letters to the editor," allowing writers to share more of their stories. in this episode, trevor jackson, a photographer documenting holocaust survivors stories, meets his great aunt, who escaped nazi germany. >> reporter: when i initially got the assignment, i was going to photograph holocaust survivors as they were interviewing and tling their stories and the things that they had experienced. i had no idea that it would end in the kitchen of my

great-aunt's house. >> come on in! >> reporter: good to see you. >> good to see you. come in. >> reporter: can i get you to stand right here? >> right here? >> reporter: i didn't think we were going to look at my family and our history, but it was so similar to the stories that we were hearing, and i thought why not document and tell the story to a new generation, to my generation. >> you probably don't know half this stuff is. it's from grandpa and grandma. they bought it in germany. >> reporter: okay. >> but it comes from japan. >> reporter: it's a tusk, and we have our minitorah. >> yeah, it's a mini-torah. and this is-- they're all stuck in-- it's a horn. what do they call it, a chauffeur? >> reporter: chauffeur, yeah. betsy is my grandmother's twin sister. my grandma has since passed, and grandma betsy is my sort of link to my grandma and my history and our family heritage. oftentimes, people are surprised

when they hear that i judge a jewishrandma or german heritage, because you wouldn't know by looking at me. yeah. you are going to look at this camera, okay? >> all right. >> reporter: all right, here we go. i'll take a photo. i think it's always important to understand my roots and where i come from, and to understand just a piece of the pie, a piece of this puzzle about how i got to where i am. >> come on. i made you something. come osit down. >> reporter: what is this? >> very good. >> reporter: very good. i remember talking to grandma about what a difficult choice that was to make for your dad to leave everything behind and venture to a new world, a place he had never been. he had only read up about it. if i was in that situation, i have absolutely no idea what i would do. but it's interesting in-- >> what would you do? >> reporter: i don't know. >> huh? >> reporter: i don't know what

i would do. >> you have to think about grandpa. >> reporter: yeah. >> and he made up his mind he was going to go. 1933 is when hitler came to power, "and that's when my father became a father, you know. we were born in '33. and so, he thought, maybe i ought to make a move out of here. >> reporter: so, the family that stayed in germany, they, most of them, they all were german jews, right. all of them were sent to camps, and none of them survived. >> right. i can't in my mind really figure out how people can be so cruel to each other. it's ugly. it's unbelievable. they wouldn't let the jews have their stores. they would break downhe glass -- you know, the windows. they just didn't want them there, you know. >> reporter: is there anything that we as a younger generation can do, other than acknowledging it, but beingroactive and finding-- >> i think, number one, it's

important that it should be taught in school. it should be discussed because if you don't hear about it and you just read about it, it's almost like a fairy tale. you don't realize it really happened. >> reporter: yeah. and pretty soon there's not going to be anybody around who experienced any of it. >> no, right. and my generation is probably the last generation to be here to have witnessed it. the new generation, your generation, has to be aware of it. >> reporter: absolutely. >> yeah. >> reporter: that's what this brings up, the fact that things-- we can't change the past, but we can change going forward. >> that is a good picture of both of them. >> reporter: there aren't too many photos of your dad. he seemed to be behind the camera much more than in front of it. >> dad? you're right. >> reporter: do you want to see some of the cameras i brought? >> i'd love it. >> reporter: let's take a look. >> i know that's a roleoflex.

>> reporter: this is an old roloflex. i'm always grateful for the opportunity talk to older individuals like grandma bets or older uncles. then look back at me. perfect. i i think it is so coincidental that i countdown cameras from my great-grandfather and i got to shoot photos with that same lens of my gre-aunt and that dynamic is so funny that, you know, it has traveled across the world. it has traveled across generation and race and age, and i get to continue to add life to this lens and add life to this family story. all right, here we go. three, two, and one. >> sreenivas: finally tonight, quarterback tom brady is retiring from the n.f.l. on his company twitter account, he wrote: "seven super bowl rings, five super bowl m.v.p.s,

three league m.v.p. awards, 22 incredible seasons. thank you for it all." the 44-year-old led the tampa bay buccaneers to a super bowl title last season, but the team lost last sunday in divisional playoffs. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. 'm hari sreenivasan.?thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter undation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group: retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

>> jamie: hey! people everywhere are finally coming back together. so it's time to celebrate some of the love, friendships, and amazing moments th we've all missed out on. and what better way to show people that you care than to bring them around a table for some delicious food? so i've created easy-to-follow menus that will turn incredible dishes into epic feasts. >> life is about memories. and today we made a memory. >> jamie: and to make the most of the precious time with those that we love, it's all about getting ahead. i want to prepare a meal which is nearly all done, so when my friends and family get here, i can be spending more time with them. cheers, everybody! >> cheers! these are impressive menus made easy because i'll take you through them step by step, making them for my family and friends, so you can make them for yours. this is saying, "i love you," through food.