captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a critical strike-- the leader of isis is killed during a u.s.-led raid in syria. we examine the collateral damage and the future of the fight against the terrorist group. then, tensions rising-- senators weigh the need for sanctions and express concerns after receiving a classified briefing on russian aggression against ukraine. and, protesting against the taliban-- despite brutal repression, many afghan women demand the right to go to school and work. >> i want to fight for my rights. we should continue even if it costs our lives. we will not let anyone deprive us of our rights. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> 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: the united states has claimed a new victory in the long-running war on the islamic state group. the leader of isis died last night, when american commandos raided his hideout in syria. foreign correspondent nick schifrin begins our coverage.

>> schifrin: in northwest syria, this is all that's left of what us officials call isis in iraq and syria's, effective command center. and where, overnight, u.s. special operations forces conducted a raid that ended in the death of leader abu ibrahim al hashimi al-qurashi, also known as hajji abdullah. >> last night's operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield, and has sent a strong message to terrorists around the world: we will come after you and find you. >> schifrin: senior u.s. officials say when u.s. and mostly kurdish allied troops arrived, they announced their presence to capture al-qurashi. instead he detonated a bomb, collapsing the top floor and killing his family. >> building, he chose to blow himself up, not just the vest- but to blow up that third floor, rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed. >> schifrin: after daybreak, local cameramen filmed the building's second floor, where u.s. officials say a senior isis lieutenant and his wife, fought back using children as shields. landlord abu ahmad walked through the damaged home.

>> ( translated ): this guy lived here for 11 months. i didn't see anything suspicious or notice anything. he would come and pay the rent and leave. >> schifrin: during the raid, gunmen affiliated with a local branch of al qaeda engaged the u.s. soldiers, and were killed. outside the house, signs of a firefight, and the roof destroyed by al qurashi's bomb. >> ( translated ): yesterday around 1:00 a.m. we heard a loud sound. i opened the window then went outside. the first thing i thought is that it was a car bomb. but then i looked up and saw helicopters. they passed above our home and came here. >> schifrin: ahead of the raid, u.s. officials said they rejected a plan to bomb the site from the air, because it would have killed too many civilians. the u.s. blamed all the civilians killed on al-qurashi's bomb, and the second floor firefight. central command chief general frank mckenzie spoke this afternoon on a virtual briefing. >> the mission was carefully designed and we believe very effective at minimizing harm to non-combatants. but as always, we'll look into whether any unintended harm resulted from u.s. actions

>> schifrin: u.s. officials say one helicopter that took part in the raid, went down with a mechanical problem. u.s. forces destroyed it nearby. but otherwise a senior u.s. official said “everything ran according to clockwork.” officials said they confirmed al qurashi's location in december, and president biden provided the final order on tuesday morning. last night he watched the raid unfold in the situation room, briefed live by defense secretary lloyd austin and joint chiefs chairman mark milley from the pentagon. pentagon spokesman john kirby: >> they're leaderless today. and at's a significant blow. this is not something that we believe isis is just going to be able to get over real quickly and real easily. >> schifrin: al-qurashi became a senior isis leader in 2014, and took over in 2019 from abu bakr al baghdadi, after he killed himself in a u.s. raid in the same pt of syria. officials calll-qurashi a“ driving force” behind what the u.s. calls a genocide of the yazidi ethnic minority in northern iraq. he was a mysterious figure rarely seen in photos.

he never recorded messages for isis foot soldiers, and u.s. officials say he communicated by courier. but the u.s. says he personally directed operations in syria and iraq, including last week' assault on a prison in northeast syria. it was the largest isis attack in years. allied mostly kurdish troops, and american forces, had to fight back for days, to maintain control. and u.s. officials say qureshi provided inspiration for the isis fighters responsible for attacks in afghanistan, and for a resurgence in sub- saharan africa. >> i do think it makes it harder for them to come up with an integrated global approach. and i think what you're gonna see is a continued devolvement to the regional level of these organizations. when you don't have a central core that can disperse money and share money among competing franchises it makes it harder for them to be resourced.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, the biden administration made fresh accusations that russia is plotting a fake attack by ukrainian forces, as a pretext to invading ukraine. pentagon spokesman john kirby said u.s. intelligence shows moscow is willing to go to elaborate lengths. >> we believe that russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations, as well as military equipment. >> woodruff: the allegations came as ukraine's president zelenskyy met in kiev with turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan, who has offered to mediate. and, russia's defense minister met with the president of belarus, as russian troops mass the, near ukraine's border. in washington, the secretaries

of state and defense briefed congress today. we'll focus on that, after the news summary. here in the united states, much of the nation is feeling the full weight of winter tonight. millions of people from the southwest to new england are facing snow, ice and even tornadoes. nicole ellis has our report. >> reporter: crews and residents across the midwest are diggiing their way out as a sprawling winter storm pushes farther across the country. some places have reported over a foot of snow, creating dangerous iving conditions in several states. air travel has also been disrupted. more than 4,000 flights were canceled today alone. many other flights have been delayed. >> i mean i got stuck for three hours on, like, an american airlines flight so-- like while we were on the ground-- so i mean please, please no. like that was a rrible experience i would never want to repeat. >> reporter: the extreme weather also knocked out power for at least 200,000 homes and businesses, mostly in texas, tennessee and arkansas

the storm runs the gamut of precipitation: snow, rain, sleet, and combinations of all three. according to this national weather service map an intrepid motorist could drive all the way from maine to texas and still be within the storm's grasp. in austin, texas today, governor greg abbott said that mix of ice, freezing rain and wind are paicularly difficult. >> we are dealing with one of the mostignificant icing events that we've had in t state of texas in at least several decades. >> reporter: he also said the state is much better prepared than it was for last year's week-long storm that rocked the electrical grid and triggered widespread blackouts. more than four million were without power and more than 200 people died, many of them from hypothermia. the reliability and maintenance of the state's electrical grid, and the governor's record on that, was at the center of heavy criticism. >> as compared to last year, texas has about 15% more power generation capacity.

there is also more reserve power available than last year. >> reporter: even so ,tens of thousands of texans have lost power from this storm. for the pbs newshour, i'm nicole ellis. >> woodruff: at the winter olympics today, organizers of the beijing games dismissed allegations of human rights violations in china. a spokesman said all such claims are a lie. meanwhile, activists protested outside the international olympic committee building in lausanne, switzerland. they cited china treatment of muslim uighurs and of tibet. the world health organization now says europe could be nearing a ceasefire in its battle with covid. the agency's european director said today that the ongoing surge of omicron cases will actually help bring on the pandemic's end-game. >> we, here in the european region, have a unique situation. first and foremost, that once the omicron wave will subside, there will be a large capital of

immunity, be it thanks to the vaccine or due to the infection. >> woodruff: a number of european nations have dropped nearly all of their covid restrictions. back in this country, the former chicago police officer who killed a black teen-ager, laquan mcdonald, was released from prison today. jason van dyke shot mcdonald 16 times and was convicted of second-degree murder. he got six yearsnd nine months behind bars, but served less than half that due to good behavior. the owner of the washington pro football franchise, dan snyder, is facing new allegations of sexual harassment by former employees. at a congressional hearing today, one woman said snyder groped her thigh at a dinner. others talked of a toxic atmosphere, with team executives even hiring prostites after one event. >> i worked at the washington football team for eight years and i can't recall a time that i didn't experience or fear sexual harassment.

it was just a pervasive part of the culture and unavoidable rite of passage being a woman who worked there. >> woodruff: snyder said the allegations against him are "outright lies." all of this came a day after the team rolled out its new name, the "washington commanders." tesla has announced a u.s. recall, for the second time this week. this time, it involves more than 817,000 vehicles. their seat belt reminder chimes may not sound when they're supposed to. earlier this week, tesla recalled 54,000 vehicles because self-driving software can let them roll through stop signs. and, a tough day on wall street: shares in facebook's parent company meta plunged 26% after fourth quarter profits fell. that's the biggest one-day decline for any u.s. company ever, and it took e rest of the market down. the dow jones industrial average lost 518 points, nearly 1.5%, to close at 35,111. the nasdaq fell 538 points,

3.7%. the s&p 500 dropped 112 points, 2.4%. still to come on the newshour: sarah palin takes the "new york times" to court over an erroneous editorial. women in afghanistan protest, defying the taliban. what to watch as the beijing winter olympics get underway. plus much more. >> woodruff: top administration and military officials were at the capitol today briefing senators on the growing tensions over russia and ukraine. this comes after president biden sent three thousand troops to

eastern europe to bolster nato allies. for more on all this, i'm joined by our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins. so, hello, lisa. we know senators are concerned. give us a sense of the level of concern you were picking up as you talked to these senators after the briefing and why. >> what i got that was new today, judy, from these senators as they were walking out of this long hour-and-a-half--plus briefing was continued concern. but what was new was real urgency from them. i heard in this voices a sense they think time for the u.s. to really make a statement here and potentially to strategize and use leverage against putin diplomatically may be running out. and, specifically, this is as senators are trying to weigh exactly what kind of attentions package, if any, they need to pass. they're in the middle of trying to put that package together right now. there is a more broad debate over how and if the u.s. should do anything at all. some senators, dwgd p including those divided in the u.s. party say the u.s. has to act.

others say it's not the u.s.' job. listen to lindsey graham and roger mark. >> all i can say is, after that briefing, we live in very dangeroutimes, and i want the american people to know a few things, this is not our concern. >> where is the european countries and where isato? why aren't they being stronger in this situation? >> other news today, this is all happening as we see in north carolina. those first troops being deployed as part of president biden's decision to send more american forces to the ukraine region, or to the eastern europe region. this is the 82nd airborne out of fort bragg. they're leaving as part of the 3,000 troops. i want to remind people what the deployment looks like that the president is directing. 3,000 troops will be moving as part of the effort to secure nato's position in the region. 2,000 of those are headed to poland and germany, 1,000 going

to romania. this is a defensive posture. members of congress today saying it's assurance to our allies there. the timing is critical. right now, temperatures are right around freezing in that region, and there is a real sense that of course it will be easier for russia to make moves with its heavy equipment when the ground is frozen, versus later, say march, late february, it's not. >> woodruff: lisa, give us a sense of what options the congress is looking at and why they have not made a decision before now. >> reporter: it is complicated. it is a nuanced debate, actually, up here. but i think i can boil it down to sort of three options that senators are considering. let's look at this. first, they have the option to let president biden decide. he can issue sanctions on his own. he, obviously, can send some troops for some reasons to that region. but congress can reinforce that with a mandate for sanctions now. some people want very heavy sations now on russia. others say why not issue some

sanctions now, like targeted, perhaps, to putin's inner circle, and then threaten much more hefty sanctions on russia's banks, on its financial sector, if russia should invade. judy, my reporting is the two key senators involved, the chairman of the foreign relations committee, bob menendez, and bob rich, have been meeting and they are focusing on the last option, sme targeted sanctions now, and perhaps heavier sanctions later. but it's complicated, because president biden is not necessarily on board with that idea. he does not want his hands tied by congress, and then there's a third factor, germany. the german chancellor and germany are involved in a financial relationship over a gas pipeline with russia. and i am told by people here that the german ambassador was at the capitol, and this is adding another complicated dynamic to america's attempts to reinforce its allies when one ally, germany, may have slightly different opinion on the exact

sanctions that should go into place. >> woodruff: hardly a simple matter. quickly to something else, lisa. senate foreign relations committee, the republicans on that committee today issued their report on what happened in the withdrawal from afghanistan. just give us a sense of that. >> i will. you know, this was a port that was just from the republicans but it struck me as more serious in tone, not as partisan as sometimes these reports can be. they said a number of failings they found was that the administration disregarded warnings from frontline foreign service officers. and, essentially, they're saying some basic things need to go in place here, that the united states needs to be better prepared for evacuation scenarios, and the united states needs to have a better accounting of americans and its own allies in regions that ar under risk. remember, judy, when the united states pulled out of that region, there were still more than 30,000 s.i.v.s-- those are the translators that helped america, people who were ready to receive visas, that were in the pipeline for visas-- that we

left behind in afghanistan, many of them still there. this is an effort to look at what happened and how to avoid it in the future. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins reporting on all these things at the capitol. thank you, lisa. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: and now we turn to the present's deputy national security adviser, jonathan finer, to discuss both ukraine and the commando raid early today that led to the death of the isis leader. jonathan finer, welcome back to the newshour. very glad to have you. let's start with this raid in syria. we know that isis is not the great force that it once was across the middle east. we know it's an organization that's been able to regenerate itself. what is the depth of the most recent leader do to degrade its

capability. >> judy, hajji abdullah, the leader you're referencing has been involved in isis from the very beginning. he played a role not only in the genocide in 2014, but just last week in an attack that took place on a prison in northwest syria-- northeast syria, excuse me-- where isis tried to free a significant number of its senior leaders who are held captor there. this is someone who plays a significant operational role day in and day out and an organization that remains potent and that is still trying to target the yut, our people, and our allies, and taking him off the battlefield is a significant blow to the organization and a benefit to our safety and security. >> woodruff: i want to ask you, john finer, about the death of civilians involved, family members. i know the president said today everything possible was done to avoid that, and yet, the isis leader al-qurayshi, blew himlf

up. hs wife and two children died. my question i was everything possible done to avoid that? or is the decision simply made since these innocents are so close to the target, this is st part of doing business? >> well, what i can say, judy, is that from the very beginning, from the moment of the president was first briefed on this operation, frankly, from the moment the operation began being planned months ago, that the desire to avoid almost in every way civilian casualties were foremost in the minds of the planners, of the president himself and the service members who took place in the operation. this is a major parent of why this was not a drone strike that took place against this target. we put u.s. service members on the ground in harm's way to conduct this action, precisely to avoid civilian casualties. this is why when they arrived at the target, they gave the people inside every opportunity to come out of the house and be detained, as opposed to a different outcome.

and as hajji abdullah, the terrorist we were just discussing, chose to do instead was to blow up the third floor of the building where he was living with his family, caved in the roof and caused significant harm and damage to the civilians inside. >> woodruff: at the same time, jon finer, we know there has been a pattern of air strikes where civilians have died. there has also frankly been reporting of dissembling by the military on what happens in these situations. how can the american people have confidence that we're getting the straight story from the military now? >> well, i think you have seen the leadership of the pentagon stand up and talk about the issues in the past and they are taking significant steps to try to get their arms around this issue and announced some improvements and steps they're taking to make sure that these incidents are minimized to the greatest extent possible, going forward, as they were in this case. but what i can say is, the accounts we have of this incident are drawn from eye witness accounts, from the service members who were on the site-- not from people who

showed up afterwards and tried to assess what happened based on what they encountered. and i think those reports, from our most-experienced, most-professional, most-capable service members are highly credible. >> woodruff: going back to the initial question about the isis threat, where exactly is it still a major threat to u.s. interests? >> well, isis, like al qaeda, and other terrorist organizations, in large part because of the united states and our partners in the coalition fighting it have been successful in degrading it over three successive administrations. it has moved beyond its original geography, emerging first in iraq and syria, and now maintains a presence on the african continent, south asia and other places. but what this raid shows, even in an obscure part of northwest syria, a small town most people have never heard of, the united states will find the leaderships of these organizations that are targeting the united states and bring them to justice. >> woodruff: john finer, i

want to return you to ukraine. a lot of concern among senators. lisa say the sense of urgency. take us inside the thinking of you and others inside the biden administration. how do you determine whether vladimir putin is serious about his threat or what he says is not a threat, but which looks like a threat, to go into ukraine? >> so, all we can do, judy, is judge by what we are seeing on the ground. and that is a significant russian troop presence on the russia-ukraine border. tens of thousands, more than 100,000 russian forces. increasingly, a russian troop presence in the neighboring country of belarus, just north of the capital city of kyiv, capital of ukraine. so whatever russian officials are saying in public about their intentions, we he to take that with a grain of salt because of what we are actually seng with our own eyes. and becae of that, that is why the united states is being so explicit about the cost that russia will face if it chooses to launch another military invasion of ukraine. why we are laying out the fact

that they will face financial sanctions, why we are talking openly about the security assistance we are providing to the ukrainian government and military, and why we are now, as of just this week, talking about moving u.s. forces and starting to move u.s. forces into the european theater to give reassurance to our nato partners and allies. that is an important step that is just defensive and intend to reassure because of the build-up that russia is conducting. >> woodruff: i do want to ask you about those troops. 3,000 troops the u.s. is repositioning. i undersnd it's something like 40,000 nato troops can be called on in crisis situation. but you're up against over 100,000 russian troops. it looks like the russians have a huge advantage. explain why that's not the case. >> i want to be clear, judy, nato is a defensive alliance. and the president has been very clear u.s. forces are not going to be defloyd to ukraine to fight in any conflict that may emerge. that does not mean we do not have options for making this as

difficult for russia as possible, i described a few of them-- financial sanctions, security assistance to ukraine. but the president has also been clear that the nato alliance, under which we have commitments to defend the security and safety our allies, many of whom border either russia or belarus, where russia is now amassing forces, means that we owe those countries and we will live up to our commitments to make sure that their security and safety is looked after. and that's what these deployments are all about. >> woodruff: but the numbers are lopsided. >> judy, there are significant u.s. force numbers in europe, and there are significant capabilities the united states can draw on to provide defense and reassurance for those countries. >> woodruff: you mean in addition, the forces that are already positioned in western europe you mean. >> i mean, those countries should have every reason to be confident in the president's sacred commitment to defend them. this is first and foremost on what russia is doing on the border with ukraine. and the attention when it shifts to our deployment is, frankly, sometimes a tactic by the russians to take the focus off what they are doing and what we are forced to respond to.

100,000-plus troops on the border of a sovereign country that, frankly, has no desire for russian forces to be engaged in conflict with them. >> woodruff: and circling back again to my colleague lisa desjardins' reporting, talking to senators today, discussing, debating whether or not there should be sanctions now added to what the u.s. already has imposed on russia, whether it's better to impose harsh sanctions now, mild sanctions first or later. where is the administration thinki on this as of today? >> so i think we're there close consultation with a number of our friends and colleagues on the hill about some of the measures that are being debated. we have laid out what we think is an extremely strong, extremely powerful set of economic sanctions that we would take in the event that russia chooses military action and not diplomacy, which, frankly, would be our preference for resolving this situation. i don't want to get ahead of these conversations that are taking place on capitol hill, but our partnership is close, and the consultations, i think, are productive. >> woodruff: it sounds like nothing before a potential

invasion? >> what we have been focusing on is sanctions that will take place in the aftermath of russian military action. >> woodruff: we're going to leave it there. john finer, department national security adviser to president biden, thanks very much. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: today was the start of a court case in new york that will pit a republican political star against a media giant and could put the first amendment on trial. geoff bennett has our report. >> what am i trying to accomplish? justice. >> bennett: sarah palin versus the "new york times." a court case more than four years in the making. it started in june 2017, the day a gunman opened fire on congressional republicans practicing for a charity baseball game. four people were shot, including then-majority whip steve scalise, who was critically

injured. it mirrored the scene in tucson arizona years earlier when man attacked a crowd in a grocery store parking lot, killing six and injuring more than a dozen others, including former democratic congresswoman gabrielle giffords. the day scalise was shot, the "new york times" published an editorial about the connection between rising gun violence and politics.“ the link to political incitement was clear,” the times wrote, tying the actions othe tucson shooter to a facebook post by palin. in it, a map showed 20 congressional districts, all represented by democrats, underneath stylized crosshairs. they were 20 seats that palin's political action committee hoped to win back in the 2010 midterm elections. but the shooter's fixation with giffords had started years earlier, according to p and the "new york times" issued a correction, writing: “in fact, no such link was established.” palin, the former governor of alaska and 2008 republican vice

presidential nominee, sued the times for defamation. in court filings, palin's attorneys wrote the times should be held accountable for“ publishing a statement about her that it knew to be false.” and that is one of the central questions of this case: did the times act with “actual malice”? that's the precedent established by the supreme court in the landmark 1964 case new york times v. sullivan. public figures like palin must prove the statement was made with “actual malice”-- the“ knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” palin, who is expected to says the standard does apply. and that the nearly 60-year-old precedent needs updating. she alleges former times editorial editor james bennet, who inserted the disputed paragraph drawing the link, knew it was untrue, citing past coverage by the times. her lawyers will argue bennet, whose brother is a democratic senator from colorado, wanted to

hurt palin politically. the times says the mistake was innocent and quickly corrected. >> we are going to take a strong look at our country's libel laws. >> bennett: but perceived media bias has become a rallying cry for republican politicians. former president trump spoke regularly about wanting to crack down on media protections. >> our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent american values or american fairness. >> i can't talk about the case. blame that on my attorneys. >> bennett: and now, after palin's positive covid test delayed the trial for more than a week, attorneys for her and the "new york times" will begin arguments in this case that could test the limits of the first amendment. to help understand the stakes for journalists and the first amendment, i'm joined by bruce brown. he's the executive director of the reporters committee for freedom of the press, which helps provide legal resources to

reporters. it's good to have you with us. and tell us more about the standard that sarah palin's team needs to meet in order to be successful. >> well, thank you for having me. and the actual malice standard that you just referred to in the clip is real the core protection for journalists in u.s. constitutional la. it's a requirement that a libel plaintiff who is a public official or a public figure can only prevail in a case against a news organization if he or she can show, essentially, that the journalist published a knowing falsehood or an intentional lie. and it is a much more stringent standard than a mere negligence standard. and it's essential for the protection of journalism in this country that at a time when we are focused on the role that

accountability journalism and investigative reporting plays in keeping people informed that we have to have a standard that allows journalists some room, essentially to make an honest mistake. >> and the "times" notes it hasn't lost a defamation case in some 50 years because of the precedent outlined in that 1964 ruling. give us a sense of why that precedent is seen as being so important to protecting press freedoms. >> in the pre-"new york times" world, where you simply had, as i mentioned, negligence, it's the same standard in a slip-and-fall case. there was a real risk that an inadvertent error could bankrupt a news organization. and at a time when we're all relying on journalism more than ever, to keep us informed and help us make decisions in our lives, we have to have that kind of robust press. >> what will you be watching for

as this case unfolds? >> well, like any trial, it's gog have a lot of ups and downs. and the plaintiff will come, and she's got a story to tell, and she's going to try to show that the news organization came to this editorial with a preconceived idea of what it was going to say. and "the new york times" will defend itself by saying all of that is contrary to what happened, that the evidence shows that the journalists at the paper did their level best to get everything right, that there was a pressing news cycle that day, and a sitting member of congress had been shot on a baseball field. and at the end of a long day, an honest mistake was made, and they promptly corrected it. and i would say that it's important to note that the vast majority of plaintiffs who are

able to overcome this daunting bar of actual malice at trial and prevail with a judgment find that on appeal, their cases are overturned. and so while we're beginning the trial phase right now, there could be a long road ahead still for this case. >> given the ways in which politicians and public figures are increasingly attacking the press for coverage that they may not like, do you expect that we'll see more cases like this moving forward? >> there's no doubt that there is an uptick of these kinds of cases right now. but i would remind people that we've seen this before in american libel law. president nixon's good friend bb rabosa was a libel plaintiff, senator goldwater was a libel plaintiff. sid blumenthal was a libel plaintiff. we've had other eras in which

polical people have gone to court and tried to use libel law. but i think it's very important, also, to pull back and recognize that they've survived these different challenges. and justice brennan wrote that if we are to have popular sovereignty in this country, then a world in which government officials are protected from libel suits when they are sued in their official capacity, must mirrored with a world in which speakers themselves-- the citizens, the people-- are also protected from libel suits. >> bruce brown, appreciate your time this evening. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: in a moment last

august, afghanistan's women saw two decades of progress vanish as the taliban took back over the country. the group's arch-conservative interpretation of islam pushed women out of the workplace, and cast most young women and girls out of school. but as jane ferguson and videographer eric o'connor report, some women in afghanistan are not taking this lying down, and are raising their voices in protest. >> reporter: this is the last time anyone saw 25-year-old tamana zaryab paryani. terrified, pleading for help on a facebook live last month, while men try to force their way into her apartment. she had recently attended a protest in the afghan capital kabul, calling for women's rights to go to school and work. the taliban denies they are holding her. despite taliban crackdowns, women like her have persisted. they may well be the world's riskiest feminist movement. and these afghan women, among

the bravest, on the streets, to demand their rights. they are defiant, in full view of taliban gunmen. >> ( translated ): we try to find ways and make sure to film the protests, so it makes the news, and the world knows. >> reporter: these women know that as long as the cameras are rolling, taliban fighters are less likely to shoot them dead. e men here not only have guns, they now have an entire government to back them what have these women? iphones, their voices, and the hope the world hears them. >> ( translated ): when we specify a location to protest in, armed forces move to limit access to that location. we do not go there as a group. we must get ourselves to that specific location in groups of two or even sometimes by ourselves. we mtion this in the invitations that we send out. >> reporter: this is the voice of one of the protest leaders, speaking to the newshour by phone. we are protecting her identity. >> ( translated ): they wouldn't

allow journalists to cover us under any condition. the journalists have tried to photograph and film us from far off distances. so we are forced to become both the protesters and people covering the protests as well. >> reporter: in kabul, we saw this for ourselves. after getting word the women were going to launch a rally in the capital, we rushed to the area, aware they often only have a few moments before the taliban show up. they don't want them talking to us. what i'm doing is, i'm writing my number on these pieces of paper i can hand to the women to make contact with them while i'm there. as soon as we arrived, we were forced back into our car at gunpoint. one young woman who came to speak with us. >> it is very dangerous but we should do it! it is very hard for women. they cannot go to school, university, and they also lock them.

>> reporter: she barely gets a few sentences out before the tliban gunmen order us to stop filming. >> no camera! >> reporter: the women, just about 30 feet from our car, filmed this footage on their phones that day. they are surrounded by taliban gunmen, unable to move. the rights of women in afghanistan have been decimated since the taliban takeover in august 2021. education for girls over 12 is restricted, and women are increasingly pushed out of public and economic life. those fighting to hold on to the hard-fought gains they achieved during the last 20 years face international abandonment, and a violent, patriarchal movement. the united nations now calls the taliban's actions against women and girls ¡collective punishment'. >> now they are not allowed to have economic activities. not only having economic activities, they are not allowed to travel by their own.

>> reporter: storai ahmadi works for women for women international. she says the strict limits on women's businesses and professional lives is only intensifying the current economic crisis. >> it's mostly poultry that they can do from home. kitchen gardening. the tailoring that their neighbors and people in the community know about them, that this woman is a tailor or they are coming to buy their products of poultry or agriculture. >> reporter: since the fall of kabul and taliban takeover, afghanistan's economy has largely collapsed and the country has descended into the world's worst humanitarian crisis. nowhere among the people is it felt more, than women and girls. we traveled to the west of the country to herat: drought here has caused harvests to fail, making life even harder for women to feed their children.

>> ( translated ): we cannot buy anything. we cannot buy even potato. >> reporter: at an emergency food distribution set up by the world food program. we spoke with women about their gravest concerns. even as she struggles to eat, this widow mourns the loss of her four daughter's education the most. >> ( translated ): they don't have any future. we cannot afford private education. i wanted them to go to university. and get a job. we had a l of hopes, but they all vanished. >> reporter: back in kabul, the female protestors have changed tactics. after being detained and threatened after the protest we attended, they moved indoors to a book store. they invited as many journalists as they could to film and photograph their book club. today's reading? a work on protest and civil resistance. >> ( translated ): we demonstrated despite their opposition, and we will continue. our participation here today shows that we will not surrender to their oppression. we will continue our resistance. >> reporter: we met with the

sme young woman who spoke with us in our car before she was chased away. she, like many of the young women here, is a college student at a state school. only a year or two away from graduation, when the taliban took power, their dreams of finishing their degrees vanished. like this young woman, only months away from the most important day in her education. >> ( translated ): i was in the last year of university. i prepared my thesis and was about to celebrate my graduation, i wanted to take my family to the graduation ceremony; i wanted them to watch it. i wanted to celebrate that happy day. >> reporter: despite the dangers, the defiance in this quiet, the dignified gathering is intense. >> ( translated ): i want to fight for my rights. we should continue even if it costs our lives. we will not let anyone deprive us of our rights.” >> reporter: these women are the ones that stayed after the taliban took power. those who couldn't or wouldn't evacuate in the chaotic, panicked u.s.-led exodus from the country last summer.

in a matter of days, thousands of afghan women's rights activists, lawyers, and civil society leaders fled the country, at risk of retribution by the taliban. these women, some of the country's best educated and most vocal rights advocates, are now scattered around the world, trying to help those left behind from afar. like storai ahmadi, from women for women, who was forced to flee to london with her family. >> in the beginning, it was very much difficult to talk with them because i was feeling that i am not with them. i am far from them, but now when i talk with them, then i work with them, holding meeting with them, i feel like i should do a lot of work, i should do something for them, i should be very active, i should help them, so yeah its very difficult.

you always want to do something for them, to help them. >> reporter: that help must include the global community, say the women we spoke with throughout our reporting. their only hope, they told us, is international pressure on the taliban to give women greater rights. while they continue their work inside the country. >> ( translated ): our goal is to institutionalize civil activism wherever we can now. different groups have been created by the people who have the courage to raise their voices. we are hopeful that our voices are heard by the international community and the united states. >> reporter: leverage over the taliban remains limited since the u.s.-led withdrawal from afghanistan. yet, the women we met remain hopeful keeping the world's eyes and ears on their cause can make a difference. their protests, in whatever form they take, however small, a

profound danr, profoundly dangerous, their courage unbreakable remarkable. for the pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson in kabul, afghanistan. >> woodruff: the 2022 winter olympics officially kick off tomorrow in beijing. over the next two weeks, more than 2,800 athletes from 91 countries will compete for their shot at the gold. but with the excitement comes intense criticism of china, its record on human rights and the decision to host the games there. i spoke to usa today columnist christine brennan yesterday christine brennan last night, our time, abouall of this. she's the author of "inside edge," now available as an christine brennan, welcome back

to the newshour, you've covered 20 olympics in a row. you were just telling me. tell us how do these beijing olympics compare to all the rest? >> judy, >> judy, this is nothing like i've ever seen before. obviously, this is the covid olympic games, and it's even different from tokyo, japan, which viewers remember was just six months ago, this summer olympics. this is a closed loop. this is a fortress against covid. at one time inside this bubble, this closed loop bubble i can't get out. and i don't want to get out and if you leave, you can't come back. there we're using burner phones and burner laptops because our concerns over the chinese infiltrating our wireless our laptops, our phones. so we've got that concern of china's you know, awful behavior on the intert and trying to steal whatever we might be working on it. that concern and then of course, throw that on top of it the covid concern and never seen anything like it athletes testing positives are stuck in quarantine, yet they should be competing.

that's the nature of these games a real a real kind of rough, tougher edge to these games is there to begin, understandably so. that's not china's fault. that's just the nature of covid trying to put on a worldwide event 1000s of athletes, we're still in the midst of a global pandemic. taking this very seriously with their lockdowns, but as you point out, christine, the athletes and others have been testing positive. what's it meant, though, for you, trying to do your job there? we saw-- i think we saw a picture of you, and there was some kind of a robot cleaning. tell us what it's like. >> right, it's future world. there are robots cleaning, spraying sanitizing liquid in the hotel, my hotel and other hotel everyone's in hazmat suits. so every single person i run into in china is in a hazmat suit including the first two people in the jet bridge when my flight landed from tokyo and

then throughout the airport throughout any site is just people head to toe dress. again, in protective gear, which i look at is of course strange and unusual and dystopian in some ways, but also as a sign of respect for the athletes and trying to put on these games. and when you can see that there are nations where people will wear masks, and then you see this, obviously they're being told to do this, but it's also sign of how much they respect the athletes and journalists and don't want them to test positive. i have not been to the bar in the press center because of the work load, but there is a robot shaking drinks and serving drinks at the bar in the press center. there are no humans. it is just the robot serving drinks. >> woodruff: we hope you do make it to the bar, at least by the end of the olympics. but, christine, so there's so much to deal with in terms of covid. but we also know there's been

discussion since we knew china was hosting these olympics about that country's human right record and the hesitation and much more than hesitation that it caused on the part of countries, on the part of athletes. and, yet, you've written that despite this, you hope these games are successful. >> yes. >> yes, you can despise these olympic games. you can despise china for hosting them and the ultimate irony of beijing, the first city to host both the summer and a winter olympics 14 years ago were the 2008 summer games people might remember it now here we are back again. what an irony. this would be the city. this of course, china being able to celebrate the repressive, awful government of china is terrible human rights violations the way it's treat to treat so many different groups of people. genocide, so many other things. and yet they're the ones that get to have this great gift from the international olympic committee. it's reprehensible. it's absolutely reprehensible. and i'll say that every day that

i'm here, and yet it's not the athletes fault. the athletes had nothing to do with this decision. and we should i believe still celebrate them. even as we look at the awful, awful behavior of china whether it's peng shuai missing tennis player three time olympian from a few months ago, we still haven't seen her in terms of in the flesh anyone actually getting a chance to observe her. and of course now just athletes who are very concerned they'd like to speak out some examples of figure skaters did speak out about the human rights abuses in china a few months ago. and now they said they just want to focus on their, their competition, which is understandable for young athletes at the peak of their lives and the most important moment of their lives, but also the fact that they're just concerned about speaking out and causing any kind of report or any kind of issues for themselves, their teammates, the u.s. olympic and paralympic committee or other olympic committees at this key moment in their lives.

>> woodruff: we can't go let you go without asking about the competition, christine. the athletes, what are you looking for from the americans? >> you know, i do spend a >> well, younow, i do spend a little time around figure skating. and nathan chen is a name that people should know if they don't know. nathan chen is 22 years old, he came here four years ago the medal favorite. he bombed in the short program, and he really, you know, it was, obviously, did not win a mdal, won a team bronze medal. but it was a disappoint, and for the last four years he'd been building, building, building. three world champions, four national championships. she is the quadking, ands in the men's god medal for him to win. if he makes and this is his gold medal, the men's gold medal for him to win. he makes a mistake he might not win and there's great competition. but nathan chen from the united states is the gold medal favorite and the men so then otherwise for the women in figure skating, not so much we're not used to these are not the peggy fleming or dorothy hamill days for u.s. women, ice dancing, you should win a medal as well for the united states. and then makayla shiffrin, the

great skier 26 years old coming back after winning two olympic gold medals and previous games. there she is, she's going to try all five of the alpine events of skiing and those are that that again, like skating that that's one little slip that centimeter off and everything changes these games on ice and snow and slippery sports. and so shiffrin is back she had covid a couple of months ago, as many as six weeks or so ago. she's back. e said she's healthy, she's ready to go. also u.s. women's ice hockey. here's a prediction for you. when all is said and done, there will be the u.s. against canada or the gold medal in women's ice hockey. i edict that not because i'm clairvoyant, but because that's always the game to win the gold and it's also one of the great matches in hockey men's or women's every four years and so the u.s. women get started here soon and watch them in ice hockey as well. >> woodruff: so much to look forward to. chriine brennan, and we will

be talking to you again from beijing. thank you so much. the olympic reporter like none other, christine, thank you. >> judy, thank you so much. take care. >> woodruff: online right now, with booster shots available to all adults and many children in the u.s., some are questioning whether it's time to revisit the definition of "fully vaccinated." we take a look at the science behind the debate, at pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow 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, welcome to "amanpour & company," sheer what is coming up. normalizing a brutal dictator as syrians continue to suffer under bashir assad, i ask why world leaders are welcoming him back into the fold. then -- an emotional reunion after chaotic withdraw, talk to u.s. army vet who refused to leave afghan counterpart behind. >> showing you how to survive. >> bear grills