♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, uncertainty abounds. ukrainians celebrate a day of national unity as the threat of russian invasion remains, and moscow's claims of de-escalation are met with widespread skepticism. then, recalled. several members of the san francisco school board are ousted over what opponents decry as misplaced priorities during the pandemic. and, teaching history. many black students find their stories and voices constricted amid a wave of regulations limiting how race is taught in public schools. >> black history shouldn't be ignored or overlooked, because learning about history is important, so that we can move forward instead of just repeating old mistakes.

judy: 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. the nsf, the engine that connects us. ♪

>> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems. skoll foundation.org. the lemelson foundation, committed to improving lives through invention in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfo und.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to youpbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: the u.s. says russia's

claims that it is de-escalating tensions on the ukraine border are, quote, "false." a senior administration official says tonight that russia has added 7,000 troops to the nearly 150,000 troops already near the border. the news comes as defiant ukrainians staged a show of national unity today. nick schifrin begins our coverage. nick: on a day the u.s. government feared would bring a new war ukraine celebrated a new holiday. on "unity day," ukrainians held a 600-foot long flag, and rallied around the national anthem, titled "ukraine is not yet perished." >> it signifies the unity of the whole country under our flag, under our anthem. it is no to war, yes to peace. nick: but ukraine is also readying for war. its air force released video today of russian-made jets training near the northern border with belarus, to target

practice targeting columns of tanks. and ukrainian tanks trained nearby. president volodymyr zelenskyy watched with his commanders, before inspecting american anti-tank weapons and addressing his troops. >> thank you for your skills, for protecting our country. when i look at you, i'm confident in both today and tomorrow. nick: but u.s. officials remain that -- worried that tomorrow, or any day, could bring russian invasion. just across the belarus border, russia continued its own exercises. u.s. officials worry these troops could be used to invade western ukraine. but russia says it has no intention to invade, and released video overnight of tanks and trucks today it said pulled back from forward positions in crimea, and returned to garrison. foreign ministry spokeswoman maria zakharova said the west fabricated a russian threat to punish moscow. >> they are trying to bring all weight to bear on us, having invented a russian threat and using this pretense to impose more sanctions. nick: but u.s. officials accuse

russia of inventing a withdrawal that is not actually happening. the ministry of defense said yesterday these troops were returning to their bases, but independent researchers say their bases e actually right on the ukraine border. a u.s. official called the videos "staged for deception." seetary of state antony blinken. >> unfortunately, there's a difference between what russia says and what it does, and what we're seeing is no meaningful pullback. on the contrary, we continue to see forces, especially forces that would be in the vanguard of any renewed aggression against ukraine, continuing to be at the border, to mass at the border. nick: that was echoed at a nato defense ministers meeting in brussels by nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg. >> what we see on the ground is no withdrawal of troops and forces, equipment. but actually, what we see is that russian troops are moving into position, and we saw the cyber attack. nick: that cyberattack yesterday took down the websites of ukraine's two largest banks and the foreign and defense

ministries. today, ukrainian officials told reporters the source was unclear, but likely a, quote, "foreign intelligence service." and with no evidence of de-escalation, the russian-created threat on ukraine's border remains a crisis. for the pbs nehour, i'm nick schifrin. judy: for a closer look at the ukraine crisis, we're joined by republican senator james risch of idaho, the ranking member of the foreign relations committee. senator, welcome back to the newshour. we heard antony blinken saying what the russians say is different from what they do. is that what you are seeing, the russians claim they are withdrawing when they are not? >> it's good to be with you, judy. i would put it more plainly than the secretary of state did. he is the secretary of state come of the head diplomat. the russians lie. i don't know how they can tell

the worldhey have no intention of invading and they have amassed the largest invasion force the world has seen in decades. look. the world doesn't believe it. nobody wants war. everybody would like to see and avoid it. the ukrainians i think are in a different position than they were when russia went into crimea. at that time poland was showing the ukrainian people had an on view -- unfavorable view of russia. today that is reversed. i think if they go into the ukraine, the best day they are going to have is the first day and after that, it is going to turn into a resistance movement. they have received enough arms from us and other people in other allies in europe to make this a very, very troublesome venture. judy: we heard vladimir putin say yesterday he was interested possibly in negotiating with the

u.s. on important matters. do you see any sign of diplomatic progress? >> i don't. i haven't heard of any. i think i would have if they were ongoing. i don't know what there is to negotiate. what vladimir putin put on the table were nonstarter's for us. all 29 of our nato allies, as well. he wanted to say who would get into nato and who doesn't. our nato charter is very clear that we are open to anybody wants to come in and we support any country that wants to come in if they meet the criteria. judy: let me ask about the sanctions that you end of the republicans have put forward. you made it public yesterday, to be imposed on russia. this is after weeks that you and others were negotiating a bipartisan set of sanctions. what is different about the republican only a puzzle? >> it is 91 pages long and there were a lot of portions that were negotiated back and forth.

what it came down to was, i think it was a good faith disagreement on how strong the sanctions should be. my bill, as you see, specifically states there will be secondary sanctions placed on russian banks. that brings the russian economy to a halt, period. money doesn't change hands, it doesn't move across the international borders. it would be extremely painful and debilitating to russia. on the others, they had a different view. they one of the primary sanctions, you simply seize assets in the united states. that is a good idea, we should do that but that doesn't bring the economy to its knees, which, moscow needs to understand if they invade, that is what will happen. those are the sanctions that are going to be put on. judy: with the clock ticking, the question becomes, is it possible that -- and the russians could be moving within

days, as you have said. i the time the sanctions kick in. is it worth setting up a new set of proposals when time is of the essence? and frankly, including language that democrats say is going to be seen by some of our european allies as undermining them? >> there is a lot to unpack and that question. let me say that the sanctions, there are some sanctions that could go in pre-invasion right it is primarily on individuals. sanctions against russian banks in the country and the government in the banking institutions do not go into effect until after there is an invasion. the whining that is going on about, there is a fear that it will affect other countries negatively, there are businesses in the united states and europe that would be affected. but that is why it has waiver

provisions, so it can be done surgically and hurts the people it is intended to hurt to bring down the people it is intended to break down, but to allow those that should not be hurt, to escape the sanctions. that is what waiver provisions to and they are in there. judy: president biden repeatedly said that harsh, stiff penalties will be imposed on russia if they move. why isn't that good enough? >> that is good enough. he will be reaching for my bill and the sanctions that are in my bill. if he wants to do what he has described, with those adjectives, that is my bill. judy: last question, your democratic counterpart bob menendez said today, or yesterday when he saw the republican proposal, i am quoting, it is a shame senate republicans have decided to

choose partisan posturing instead of working to reach a consensus on this. how do you answer that, at a time when we are seeing what could be russian movement any day now? >> we negotiated in good faith. bob negotiated in good faith. he previously introduced the democrat position. we were unable to come to an agreement, so i introduced what is our position. this, if moscow was listening, and i suspect they may be, this is not a republican-democrat fight. this problem is an american problem and if there is an invasion, there will be sanctions as described by the president, a described by my bill, the secondary sanctions. moscow should understand that. judy: you don't think this sends a signal of disunity on the part of the americans? >> it should not. anyone who understands how these things work will listen to what we say, and that is that there will be very debilitating

sanctions that are put on russia that will cause great difficulty for putin at home. judy: senator, thank you so much. >> thank you. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. the cdc said it's working on new guidance for mask wearing and other covid prevention measures. that word came as infections and hospitalizations have dropped, and more states and cities are ending mandates. officials acknowledged that people are tired of masking up. >> we want to give people a break from things like mask wearing when these things are -- when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen. if and when we update our guidance, we will communicate

that clearly, and it will be based on the data and the science. stephanie: new numbers from the cdc also show the country has suffered more than 1 million excess deaths since the pandemic began, most of them due to coronavirus, but also from other ailments. police in canada's capital city of ottawa began moving today to end a nearly 3-week siege by truckers protesting covid restrictions. officers in yellow vests went from rig to rig, warning drivers to leave immediately. those that don't, risk arrest and could lose their vehicles and licenses. still, some held fast. >> if it means that i need to go to prison, if i need to be fined in order to allow freedom to be restored in this country, millions of people have given far more for their freedom. and in my mind, personally, it's a small sacrifice to make. stephanie: it was unclear when the police might move in to clear the trucks by force.

rescuers in brazil searched for victims and survivors today, after a mudslide and flooding killed at least 94 people. the city of petropolis, north of rio de janeiro, was hit by the deluge on tuesday, after 10 inches of rain. today, aerial views showed whole neighborhoods in the mountainous region buried under mud. it was not known how many more people are missing. back in this country, president biden ordered trump white house visitor logs be released to lawmakers probing the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol the poor -- the former president fought to withhold the records. this could shed light on who met with mr. trump before and during the capitol riot. constitutional scholar who argued numerous supreme court cases has passed away. walter dellinger was a duke professor and dean and acting

solicitor general under president clinton. in 2012 he spoke with the newshour about his brief supporting obamacare's individual mandate for health coverage. >> every justice, every advocate, every journalist, they all have health insurance, and they wouldn't dream of doing without it. so the idea that pushing people through this tax incentive to have coverage is an incursion of liberty, seems odd. stephanie: more recently, dellinger worked with the biden presidential campaign and transition, to fight legal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. walter dellinger was 80 years old. in st. paul, minnesota, a second former minneapolis police officer testified today about george floyd's death in 2020. j. alexander king and 2 other ex-policemen face federal civil rights charges. king knelt on floyd's back while a superior officer pinned floyd by the neck. king testified that he feared being fired if he spoke up. federal investigators say former president trump's interior secretary, ryan zinke, used his

position to push a commercial project in his montana hometown. today's report said he also lied about it to an ethics official. the u.s. justice department has declined to bring criminal charges, and zinke is now running for congress. at the winter olympics in china, americans alexander hall and nick gepper captured gold and silver in slope style skiing. tonight, the u.s. womens hockey team plays archrival canada for the gold medal. and russian kamila valieva will compete for the gold medal in women's ice sking under a cloud for testing positive for a banned drug. still to come on the "newshour," new details from an investigation into russia's 2016 election interference prompt flawed allegations of espionage we answer your questions about covid amid changing public health guidelines. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from

w eta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: a school board election in san francisco is highlighting the political fallout from covid school closures, even in a city long-considered politically progressive. san francisco voters yesterday overwhelmingly recalled three of its seven school board members. stephanie sy has more. stephanie: judy, this is the first recall election in san francisco in 40 years. at the heart of this was strong oppositiono the amount of time san francisco's public school students were out of the classroom, doing remote learning during the pandemic. here's what one parent had to say. >> kids had only about six weeks of in class instruction last year, i mean before summer break, so that is a huge loss when it comes to kids who are coming from difficult

socio-what situations -- socioeconomic situations. stephanie: but the board also became the target of controversy as it prioritized equity issues, critics would say, over educational imperatives. to help us understand what's happening, i'm joined by politics editor scott shafer with kqed in san francisco. scott, all 3 school board members that were eligible to be recalled were, by more than 70% of voters, alison colins, gabriela lopez, and fawuuga moliga. was this a direct result of the length of school closures? was that a sentiment shared by a lot of the voters? >> as we have seen around the country, school district have been grappling with how quickly to reopen, how to do it safely. in san francisco we saw most cities, including many in california, doing that while we were closed in the city and that led to a lot of frustration. most people don't pay attention to school boards, but the

pandemic upended a lot of that. there was a lot of frustration from parents in terms of how they felt about their kids learning on zoom, mental health issues. so some parents, especially working-class parents, words that eager to open the classes too quickly. a lot of parents felt it is overdue. it was an underpinning of this. stephanie: as school started to reopen, parents who were worried about learning loss and getting their kids back to normalcy were focused on that, but the school board i understand decided to put ings like renaming dozens of schools on its agenda. what was behind that? why did they do that? x we should say all three of these members that were recalled yesterday ran on an equity platform. they talked, this was before the pandemic, they talked about changing polies in san francisco schools to help black and brown kids in particular who struggle, often in san francisco

schools. in a sense, they were doing what they were elected to do, but the pandemic totally upended those priorities. when parents saw the school board spending 6, 7 hours talking about renaming schools including abraham lincoln and one named after dianne feinstein , there began to be focus on the school board and what are they doing? what are they prioritizing? the mayor had a lot to say about that. that drew a lot of attention to these three in particular. stephanie: mayor london breed supported the recall of these three members. another flashpoint that i know emerged around a policy that had to do with equity was to remove the merit-based admissions to a particular public high school in the city that was highly selective, affected a lot of chinese-ameran students. this is a move progressives in cities like new york are moving towards, to promote diversity and equity. what group of parents in san

francisco really galvanized around that issue and how much did at affect the turnout for the recall? >> lowell high school is an elite high school. justice stephen breyer is one of many illustrious graduates. a lot of parents see getting into lowball is key to giving their kids a slingshot into college and life. the school is more than half, a majority asian american. often when you change a policy, people who are benefitg from the status quo don't like it. certainly, the chinese-american community in pticular was mobilized and energized, and i should say at the same time, there were asian americans to who did support those changes as well as black and brown student send organizations like the naacp. it was not uniform, but clearly the group that was most energized by this and most upset was the chinese community. stephanie: the school board politics, tell us how education

in general during the pandemic, even in the natural -- national picture, may split democratic voters. san francisco is a bastion of progressive politics. >> i think it would be a mistake to read the results of the election as san francisco retreating from its core values. i don't think voters are saying they no longer support things like diversity and equity and civil rights. i don't think that was the message, but parents were saying pay attention to our kids. that should be your priority. we want the schools reopened. we are fine talking about renaming schools and changing admission policies but not right now. we are in the middle of a pandemic. i think that is the message, do the job in front of you. when things sett down, perps we can talk about these other issues, which are important, but i don't think anyone says they are not important, it is just a matter of timing, priority and process. stephanie: scott, following a story that is being watched

nationally, thanks for joining the newshour. >> you are welcome. thank you. judy: let's look at how political debate is also impacting students and educators when it comes to teaching black history. black history month has been cebrated for nearly a century. as jeff bennett explains, this year, it comes as schools are getting caught up in political scrutiny. >> this year, black history month is unfolding alongside a coordinated effort across the country to limit the teaching of race and racism. an effort that purports to prevent the instruction of critical race theory, or crt for short, which has evolved into a full-scale political assault. crt is a college-level legal theory says that american racism is structural and woven into

social -- woven into america -- american society crt is not taught in k-12 schools, but it's nonetheless become the latest flashpoint in the country's culture wars. from school boards to statehouses. since the start of last year, more than half of all states have introduced bills banning the teaching of crt in public schools. political backlash from conservatives, who are casting frank conversations about race as divisive or anti-white. the newshour spoke to four high school students about their experiences learning about black history amid the restrictions and political pressure. tara: i'm tara grey, i'm 16 and -- >> elya vigilant, i have 15 years old, i go to arthur -- >> my name is jocelyn pritchard, -- >> miles coppage, i'm 17 and i -- >> wish people would stop viewing it as right or left or a political argument, instead of acknowledging it as history. >> what i know about it is from

headlines and social media, about how kids should be taught, the way we frame things in our view regarding black black people have been treated throughout history. >> so it hasn't exactly been discussed in my school. the knowledge that i have about it is from kind of outside researchnd learning about it in the news. and what i do know about it is that it's the study of how race and the law have intersected over the years in the united states. >> they share thoughts about the black histy month curriculum. >> i don't feel like black history is taught enough. it's taught well, and short and, like, kind of sweet, and like, put together, and then, like, packaged to you. i feel that needs to be more extensive and more broad, and especially explained like a lot more. >> i think schools in florida kind of touch over the basics of slavery, and we talk about martin luther king jr. and, you know, when you're little, you're taught, like, the "i have a dream" speech. but i feel like the way i've

been taught,t's been mostly framed from kind of, like, a white perspective, per se. i feel like we don't get to hear enough from black voices. >> we do have u.s. history, obviously, a lot of a lot of high schools probably learn that, and we have a few sections in there about black history, and about slavery and the civil war and the civil rights movement. but besides that, there's not really, like, a black history class, like we have a black literature class. i would say out about black history through talking to -- i would say i have learned a lot about black history through talking to people like my father and my grandfather, and doing outside rearch. >> black history is important. it is part of american history and it shouldn't be ignored or overlooked. learning about history is important so we can move forward instead of repeating old stakes. so we can understand how it still affects us today. >> i would say it is vital to the soul of america, for schools to teach black history because black history is america's

history, as as well as other backgrounds and other ethnicities are america's history as america, as a melting pot of all different peoples? >> we spoke with educators, too. rand miller is head of diversity, equity and inclusion at promise charter school in camden, new jersey. and dr. erick mackey serves as the alabama state superintendent of education. he says he's received calls from parents, mistakenly complaining that black history month programs constitute critical race theory. i started by asking him what those conversations have been like. >> we've had just a few of those calls. we certainly do not teach critical race theory in k-12 school in alabama. it's not in our curriculum. it's not in our textbooks. it's just not there. we have had a few calls from parents, though, who thought that having a black history program might be equivalent to critical race theory. we absolutely are committed to teaching all of history, including black history, and in this state we have done a really good job in the last two decades of really improving our

curriculum, our instruction, our standards, so that we include a much broader lens of history and we're very proud of that work and, you know, we intend to move forward and not to go back to , teaching a full and complete spectrum of history. >> you work in camden, new jersey. it is a school district, a charter school comprised of black and latino children but the faculty is 70% white. so how do you advise the teaching staff? how do you advise them to approach black history month, especially in this politically charged moment? >> so we don't have some of the challenges that other districts may have with regards to parents upset about what students are being taught based on our demographics. our faculty, they are very aware of our population, and they're very sensitive to the fact that history needs to be taught properly.

generally how i advise, as well as others in the administration, we talk about really using black history, particularly february, as an anniversary point. so it's not a point where we focus on touching on these topics this month, but we look at it as an anniversary to celebrate what it is that a student should be learning throughout the year. we -- >> i want to ask about an op-ed you wrote for the philadelphia inquirer recently. where you said that our current political climate of distrust and disdain for truth has seeped into the public education space. how is that manifesting? how's that showing up for you -- where you work? >> what i meant in that piece is that we are getting away from the idea of education. education is a place where students can explore. in my classroom, i encourage my students to explore. they explore through research. it's not about me teaching them what to think or what to say or what things are, but rather put the information out for students to grow and for students to come to understand what's happening in our world in relation to the

history that has gone forth. >> dr. mackey to mr. miller's point, teaching black history to black and latino students comes with its own issues, but we're really having this discussion generally, because it's white parents who are raising objections and because conservative media is obsessed with this sort of critical race theory issue, and conflating critical race theory with black history month. alabama, as you will know, was the site of many key events in the american civil rights movement. it strikes me that it's not just black students, it's really white students who are done a disservice if black history is taught in a sanitized way. >> we have spent the last couple decades trying to make sure that all of that is brought back into the classroom. the response has been overwhelmingly positive, positive from our state board and our legislative leadership and positive from again, you know, black and white parents because they want to see this more inclusive, full version of

history being taught. a generation or two ago, we were living this history. i think that is why our population, black-and-white, embraced it and said we have to teach the whole story of what has happened in america, but particularly for us, in this state. >> as we wrap up this conversation, what do we in the media miss when we when we have these conversations about black history, racial issues, how they're taught in the schools, how theyanifest in schools, i think there's a disconnect between what you experienced , what you both experienced as educators, and the way it is reflected and projected in the press. >> so much has to do with respect to teaching history. and here's what i'll say. i think that it's important to teach accomplishments. it's important to teach all of the achievements that are done by different peoples, black people during black history month and native americans during native american history month. it's important to do this

throughout the year. i think where a lot of people miss the mark, not just media, but also educators is that we focus on that and we don't make the connection between you know, why it is that we are where we are as a nation, and i think -- >> thank you for your insights. the alabama ste superintendent of education and the head of the diversity and equity and inclusion for charter school district in camden, new jersey. thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪ judy: a filing last week from the special counsel investigating the origins of the russia probe has ignited a misleading media firestorm on the right. william brangham breaks down the new information, and how it's been distorted. william: to listen to conservative media over the past five days, you'd think there was now smoking-gun evidence that hillary clinton's campaign was guilty of illegally spying on donald trump. >> the clinton campaign paid a

tech firm to infiltrate the servers at trump tower, and later infiltrate the servers at the trump white house. >> has anything like this ever happened in american history? not that we know of. william: this all stems from a court filing from special counsel john durham, who was appointed by former attorney general william barr to investigate any potential wrongdoing during the 2016 russia probe. the filing relates to a low-level case that durham has brought against michael sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer who'd represented the democratic party and the clinton campaign. durham alleges sussmann lied to the f.b.i. about who his client was during a meeting where sussman shared information about possible links between russia and the trump campaign. but in a few extra sentences, durham's filing mentions a second instance where sussman tried to raise concerns of a trump-russia connection, this time to the cia.

that information came from one of sussman's clients, technology executive rodney joffe. durham's filing noted that joffe's company, neustar, had an arrangement to provide security-related work on computer servers, including the white house's. but, according to the filing, joffee used that access to mine internet data, to establish an inference and narrative tying then-candidate trump to russia. joffe has not been charged with any crime. all of this has now been spun by conservative media, and former president trump himself, to say sussman and joffe were clinton operatives who were paid to illegally hack into and spy on the trump campaign and trump white house. former president trump wrote, "in a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death." in a column this week, pulitzer prize winning journalist charlie savage of the new york times wrote that "the entire narrative

appeared to be mostly wrong or old news," and its conclusions "based on a misleading presentation of the facts or outright misinformation." charlie savage joins me now. i wonder if you could help us understand just initially how we got to this point, how durham's investigation has morphed into this sort of explosive story in conservative media. >> so back in the trump administration, right after robert mueller, the russian special counsel, finished his report, donald trump shifted, tried to shift the narrative to or escalated his attempt to shift the narrative to the idea that he was actually a victim of a deep state conspiracy. and his attorney general, bill barr, as you mentioned, appointed, didn't -- appointed john durham, then a u.s. attorney, to be what became another special counsel, a special counsel to investigate the investigation. and the whole idea and expectation then was he was going to prove trump's narrative that there were high level officials in the fbi and

the cia who had essentially framed him for collusion. but we're almost three years in now and he has yet to bring any charges against the high level officials. he has developed two cases against outsiders, and one of them is this sussman case, both of these are merely false statement cases. they're not charging a conspiracy. but mr. durham has used court filings and indictments and so forth related to these cases to put out large amounts of information that are not directly related to the charges. and this information is imbued with insinuations that there is some kind of vast anti-trump conspiracy. he just hasn't been able to prove it yet or charge it. it all goes back to hillary clinton, is the implication. >> hillary clinton hired people who hacked into trump's home and office computers. >> >> despite right-wing media

claiming an illegal infiltration of computer servers, remember, durham's filing notes that joffe's firm, neustar, had an arrangement with the government to help maintain and monitor servers. in 2015, after a russian malware attack, and the 2016 russian hack of the dnc, joffee and other researchers used neustar's data and other data to monitor cyber threats. it was that monitoring, looking for suspicious russian activity, that included the white house, the clinton campaign, and the trump campaign. >> she was spying on donald trump, the president, and i think the only conclusion can be this was an effort to overthrow the president of the united states of america. >> the most important and easiest to understand fact of all of this is that the whole narrative is that, they were spying on the trump white house. they were spying on the trump white house. and this data all came from 2016. this was obama white house data. that fact alone makes the whole thing ridiculous.

but there is no accusation in the filing that the clinton campaign paid this technology company that was, had a role in helping to run the white house server. in fact, the money flow if anywhere went the other direction because the technology -- >> the wave -- the way this is being portrayed in conservative media, that this is blockbuster, brand new information that durham has finally, after years of investigation, revealed - is that true? is this new information? >> this was one of the problems that we had. the new york times, for example, had on friday night when this filing came out is, that we had reported the essence of this back in october. but it was being presented as new in the right wing media ecosystem. and then combined with that was their leaping to the conclusion, which mr. durham did not say, but maybe insinuated, that this was trump white house data. >> given the way that this thing has has sort of morphed into a completely sort of mutant story,

do you think that mainstream press ought to be covering this? i mean, do you feel like that we are doing something beneficial here by trying to explain this? or are we only adding fuel to the fire? >> there's been this repeated cycle of huge alarmism stoked within right wing, you know, pro-trump tlets that i don't really consider doing the same kind of journalism that i'm doing, sending out the message with the blang outrage, grievance stroking headlines that, "now it's been proven they were spying on president trump." and every time you look at it, you know, there's less there than meets the eye. but if you don't cover it, then that allows the sort of trump world and his allies to say, aha, you know, the media, they're in on it. they're covering it up. it's a conspiracy. they just won't tell the truth. >> all right, charlie savage of the new york times, thank you so much for helping us try to wade through all of this. appreciate your time. >> my pleasure.

♪ judy: the average number of daily new covid cases in the u.s. from omicron has finally dropped below the peak of the delta wave. but the country is still averaging more than 145,000 new cases and 2,400 deaths per day. this has left people with many questions about balancing risk and safety. john yang is here to get some answers. john: judy, today, virginia's governor signed into law a measure requiring public schools to make masks optional starting next month. it's the latest state to ease indoor mask policies. and with the cdc re-evaluating its guidance, some are asking whether covid precautions are being rolled back too soon. to address that and more, we are joined again by katelyn jetelina. she's an epidemiologist at the university of texas health science center's

school of public health in dallas, and she writes the "your local epidemiologist" newsletter. thanks for being with us. this goes right to our first question, this issue of mask policies goes to our fiercest -- first viewer. nancy asks quite simply, why is unmasking safe now when transmission is still high? >> this is such a good question. and the truth is, you know, th landscape is changing. throughout this pandemic, more and more people are getting vaccinated. and vaccines are the best tool we have right now. but they aren't perfect. and so i would actually agree with nancy that i think that transmission in the community is really high right now. in some places it's higher than the delta waves still. and we really need to slow down and wait until transmission is controllable and then community

-- in a community before we take off r masks. >> is the best advice the local advice? today, for instance, at the white house briefing, dr. walensky of the cdc talked about conditions at local hospitals being something that they need to consider when making local recommendations. >> yea i mean, that's certainly the direction that we've gone in in the united states is this local response? i certainly think though the local jurisdictions it guidance. we need to know what those metrics are so we can guide populations on when it is safe to take off masks. that guidance has not been defined. i hear rumbles that it may be defined next week, but people need to know now. and we really need to standardize this across the

nation. so that the message is clear, and people know what to do. >> we have a multipart question from niles of nebraska. could we see another variant that's more contagious and has a higher morbidity rate than what's currently out there? or is omicron essentially the watermark variant of the pandemic? if so, are we done with the waves of infections? >> these are amazing questions. and, you know, in general, we don't know what the next virus , the next mutation is going to look like. contrary to popular belief, this virus doesn't necessarily mutate to become less dangerous. the mutations are random. the only thing that virus cares about right now is surviving. so we only know that the next big mutation, if we get another wave, will mean that that variant is more transmissible.

it could be more severe. it couldn't be more severe. we don't know. it's a crapshoot. and so that's why it's really important that we prepare and we are ready. we prepare for the worst and really hope for the best. >> kelly, from texas, has this question. what do we know about helping people with long covid, specifically the smell and taste disorders that are so difficult to deal with, lasting many months? >> yeah, the first answer is we know long covid is real. there's an estimate between 10% and 30% of adults that get long covid or -- that get infected will have long covid. what that means is we are going to have clinics open across the nation and across the world to try to understand how to treat it. there is really new evidence coming out in the past week showing that predictors of who may be more susceptible to long

covid and who may not be, the more clues we can get from the science, the better. then we can treat those patients, maybe with antibody infusions, maybe with some antivirals or other medications. >> do we know whether severity of the infant -- initial infection is an indicator of whether someone will have long covid? >> not necessarily. you know, some people that have even asymptomatic disease will end up getting long covid a month or two later. and so we really think that genetics plays a role in here and even maybe some hormones, but again, we're still trying to identify who gets long covid and >> molly of boston has a question that i think is on the minds of parents of young children. when will a vaccine be available for children under age five? >> yeah, i am a mom of two under five as well and i have been

waiting desperately for this vaccine. unfortunately, it looks like we'll be getting data in about april. so maybe may maybe early summer, we could see this vaccine. what's really important with this critical -- clinical trial is that the vaccine is safe for kids, but two, the dosage is much lower than for five to 11 year olds and we really need to make sure that dosage is effective. because if it's not, then we need to figure out another plan. and no one has seen that data yet except a few select at pfizer and fda. and so we're all really looking forward to seeing that data so we can assure that these vaccines are effective for our little ones. >> so informative, as always. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me.

♪ judy: how do we remember our heroes and our nation's greatest victories? a provocative recent book examines the story of what's become known as "the greatest generation" and its impact on america's wars ever since. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> americans have their greatest generations, right? >> absolutely. >> but, elizabeth samet argues, our mythologizing of the world war two greatest generation may, in the end, have harmed us. >> i still see the backward glance at world war two preventing us from having a clear sense of what we can accomplish today in, let's face it, in many ways a very different world from the world of 1945. >> samet's book is titled "looking for the good war: american amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness."

>> somewhere in the pacific, an unnamed united states aircraft carrier prepares for action. >> this is not, she makes clear, an argument against america's involvement in world war two, or the just cause in fighting it. rather, she challenges a romanticized, partial view of that era that has influenced our actions since. >> the myth always seems to win out in popular imagination, and it bleeds from popular culture into political rhetoric as well and into the vocabulary with which we describe all the wars that have followed. >> and that's why it matters. >> that why it matters, yes. it matters because every time we go to war, we somehow seem to expect a similar result. and we seem to have an endless capacity for surprise when it doesn't work out that way. >> i think stephens is really getting at similar themes. >> samet explores all this from an unusual perch: she's a professor of english at the united states military academy

at west point. for the record, her views here are her own. >> the bottle is empty. >> for a 2007 newshour profile i'd watched her teach a class there on the literature of war to cadets preparing to fight in iraq and afghanistan. she's also the daughter of a world war two veteran, who died in 2020. he'd served as a staff sergeant in what was then called the army air corps. he didn't speak much of it in later years, she says, but he did enjoy watching war movies wi her. >> i think he liked wahing them with me because that was how we spent some time together. he was reluctant to talk about his own war experiences. he would always say to me, when i asked him for a story, who the hell remembers? it was a hundred years ago. >> all in the past. >> a in the past. and that was our ritual. >> she shows how movies in the immediate post-war period, film noir such as "the strange love of martha ivers", >> you're so sick you don't eve know the difference between

right and wrong anymore. >> you have killed. it says so when your records. >> i have never murdered. >> often portrayed disaffected, traumatized veterans. and she cites research, and books like studs terkel's 1984 oral history, that offer a nuanced view of soldiers' motives for fighting and sometimes conflicted, even oppositional attitudes on the homefront. by contrast, our prevailing view of the war has been largely shaped by movies like "saving private ryan" and bestselling books by journalist tom brokaw and historn stephen ambrose a“ -- stephen ambrose, all from the late 1990's and in samet's view, with an oversimplified view of personal and national purpose. do you not by the greatest generation idea, or even the concept of the good or? -- the good war? >> well, as my own father was a member of this generation, of course i would, the loving daughter in me would like to believe that his was the

greatest generation. but i just don't think that's a provable claim. and i'm not sure what it might mean. people joined that war for a variety of reasons, the way they join any war. and despite the fact that they made great sacrifices, and heroic sacrifices, many of them, the sense in which they all joined because they were righteous liberators motivated by ideology is a false one, according to many studies. >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, aiming to threaten the peace of the world. >> why does this matter? because, she says, political leaders and public sentiment have continued to apply this framing in very different conflicts, as in iraq and afghanistan. >> these were generations of men and women who proved once again that the united states of america is and will remain the greatest force for freedom the world has ever known. >> i think it deeply, deeply burned into the national psyche,

and it tapped into longer-standing myths of american exceptionalism, so that the figure of the gi as a righteous liberator, which is of course extremely flattering, why would we not want to believe that? became something that we would just assume would happen. and the rhetoric that we inherited from that war has shaped all other wars we've fought ever since. and of course those have not yielded victories and those were not ultimately causes of liberation. >> a deeper understanding of the past, she says, is also importt because of the strong influence of popular culture and political discourse on those she teaches at west point. do you find yourself personally in sort of a contradictory place sometimes? you are surrounded by a kind of ethos of nobility of warfare and purpose. and yet here you are writing about a kind of purpose gone awry, or a lack of understanding of what war .

>> absolutely. but i think it is necessary work. i think that anything that distorts our sense of what wars can accomplish needs to be recognized for what it is, because i think too highly of the people i know who have signed up to do this kind of work, to be casual and careless about how we send them into harm's way. >> so this began for you personally with your father, but it ultimately comes, it's still personal because of the work you do. >> i think it is, yes. very much so. >> elizabeth samet, thank you very much. >> thank you. judy: provocative. thank you for the conversation. that is the newshour for tonight. for all of us, thank you. please stay safe and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been providing wireless service to

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