captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a tense moment-- the u.s. warns russia is prepared to launch a full- scale invasion of ukraine as ukrainian forces mobilize for a possible war. then, the climate crisis-- new reports indicate wildfires will drastically increase in coming years, while dangerous methane emissions from the energy sector are being significantly under- reported. and, the great retirement-- millions of older americans decide to leave the workforce early in the wake of workplace changes wrought by the pandemic. >> the pandemic has interrupted what was a decades long trend towards later retirement in the united states. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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that word came as ukraine put in force a state of emergency, and moscow said the separatists that russia backs in eastern ukraine had asked for russian military help to fend off what they call "ukrainian aggression." meantime in waington, president biden announced sanctions on the company that owns the "nordstream 2" natural gas pipeline that runs from russia to germany-- and on the company's corporate officers. nick schifrin again begins our coverage. >> schifrin: in kyiv today, all rise for ukraine's president zolodymyr zelensky. this is ukraine's national security council. and today they seemed to all rise to the challenge, and possibility, of war. >> ( translated ): thetate of emergency will be introduced across the entire territory of the country, except the donetsk and luhansk regions. >> schifrin: national security advisor oleksiy danilov announced a new war footing that could increase checkpoints and curfews, allow the

government to seize property and billet soldiers in homes, and ban demonstrations and strikes. >> ( translated ): we have said many times that the main task of russia is to achieve its goal of internal destabilization. this decision was taken to prevent these actions. >> schifrin: the decision taken by zelensky. up until now, he has downplayed the threat. but last night he called up some reservists, and today, alongside polish and lithuanian counterparts, said the military was prepared. >> ( translated ): i know clearly without any forecasts how our army will act. and believe me, we are ready for everything. >> schifrin: the u.s. fears he needs to be prepared for imminent invasion. a senior defense official says 80% of the more than 150,000 russian troops deployed near ukraine's borders, are now in forward positions, some within two miles of the border, and“ uncoiled.” a ukrainian official says the u.s. briefed kyiv on the threat yesterday, that action could start within hours. russia is already targeting

ukraine online. this is kyiv's newest cybersecurity facility. its job, investigate, and reond. >> these are the very people that deal with cyber attack. >> schifrin: it's led by victor zhora. he gave a tour to pbs newshour producer volodymyr solohub, and showed a chart of a recent spike in attacks. >> you can see critical growth of cyber security incident >> schifrin: that's a reference to denial of service attacks that crippled the websites of ukraine's largest banks and the foreign and defense ministries. the u.s. and kyiv blamed russia. today, several government websites went dark again. we spoke to zhora before today's attacks. >> we understand that we are we are facing a hybrid aggression and cyber aggression is a part of it. that means that in case of a military invasion, it can be supported with the cyber attacks. >> schifrin: attacks with which ukraine is far too familiar. in 2017, the u.s. says russian intelligence used the malware notpetya to disable much of ukraine's banking system, before

spreading around the world. and 2015 and 2016, russia targeted the ukraine's electricity. the west has spent millions to try and make power companies more resilient. >> the level of protection of energy companies. now much higher than five years ago. it's possible, partially, but i don't believe in or full blackout on the country scale. >> schifrin: and he says he has backups if kyiv itself comes under attack. >> of course we have these plans b which, will allow our team, our specialists in cybersecurity to continue doing their work, which is so important in these challenging times. >> schifrin: the man creating the challenge, today commemorated soldiers killed in world war ii. this is defender of the fatherland day. russian president vladimir putin vowed to continue the tradition. >> ( translated ): our country is always open to a direct and honest dialogue and ready to search for diplomatic solutions to the most complicated issues.

but i want to repeat that russia's interests and the security of our people are an indisputable priority >> schifrin: but it's not russia's priority to remain honest. this week the government claimed ukraine's military crossed into russia,and even released a video of the offending invading tank. kyiv calls the claim, fake. and russian media highlight supposed car bombs, and attacks inside self-declared separatist republics, that injure civilians. the u.s. and ukraine accuse russia of staging videos to justify an imminent invasion. joining me to discuss russian disinformation is nina jankowicz, she's a global fellow at the wilson center studying the intersection of democracy nina jankocz, welcome back to the "newshour". this evening, we've heard requests from the heads of the self-declared donetsk and will luhansk republics for russian military help against "ukrainian aggression." is that an obvious russian

pretext for invasion? >> it is. we've already seen more veiled attacks as you just noted to create this pretext from a shelling of a kindergarten and ukrainian held territory that russia attempted to blame on ukraine to allegations of improvised explosive devices in cars containing cadavers, and along with the recognition of donetsk and luhansk to their historical borders, that is to the borders of ukrainian held territory right now, the letters from the leaders of these so-called republics build on those allegations to formally request this help to beat back ukrainian aggression which simply does not exist. the ukrainian side has been remarkably disciplined in holding fire despite is it provocations. we have no evidence of ukrainian aggression or as putin talked about in his speech the other day of "genocide" by th ukrainian army. there's just no evidence any of this exists andt's strange credulity that after eight years of war the ukrainian would shoes this moment with 190,000 russian

troops on its borders to pick up a new aggressive offensive. >> reporter: and you and your team are tracking the movement along the borders. what's the latest you're seeing. >> since january with the information for information resilience which is the u.k. nonprofit we have been mapping out evidence of these troop movements with citizens along the border with ukraine and have been seeing them moving closure and closer to the border, moving off conways on railroads, getting set up with sorgdz, painted and moving closer to the border and we saw similar movements today. we would agree with secretary of defense austin's statement that the russian army is ready to strike and that's corroborated also by cyber attacks, by sms, psychological war fair and other evidence that we've seen circulating on social media over the last couple of hours. it's going to be a grim night for ukraine, i think.

>> reporter: there's a lot of fear in ukraine. it is going to be a grim night. and today we heard from zelensky, from ukrainian officials declaring a state of emergency. that is not the message that the ukrainian officials have been giving over the last few days and weeks. how significant is it to see that state of emergency go into effect tonight? >> well, i think it's a marked change in thinking from the ukrainian administration which has sought to kind of maintain calm, sort of a, you know, grin and bear it attitude that ukrainians have had over this past several days, but with putin's extremely aggressive speech two days ago, along with this renewed intelligence from the u.k. and the u.s., as well as this open source evidence that things are moving closer and closer and closing in on ukraine. i think the leaders had no choice but to make that announcement to prepare civilians and hope for the best at this point, which is, again, as somebody who has lived and

worked in ukraine for a country that has never done anything to provoke russia, it's a very sad evening. >> reporter: and we've seen of course disle information from russia for years and certainly in the last few weeks and months during this crisis, but it's shifted just in the last few days. how has the russian disinformation effort shifted right here, what seems to be right at the end? >> well, at the earlier part of the crisis we saw a lot more about n.a.t.o. aggression, about n.a.t.o.'s broken promises to russia and kind of categorizing this entire crisis as something n.a.t.o. could end if it kowtowed to russia's demands. along with these kinetic actions, the provocations and staged incidents, et cetera, we've seep from putin, his close officials and russian-state sponsored media as well as influencers online this idea of ukrainian aggression again bubbling up and as i've already laid out there's just nothing to close claims.

we have so much documentation of the russian forceso moving in of that aggression preparing to occur and very little on the ukrainian side. people have cell phones and are documenting things, too, there, there just isn't evidence for the claims and that the how the narrative has changed over the past couple of weeks, to pin responsibility on ukraine and create a pretext for war. >> reporter: nina jankowicz, thank you very much. >> woodruff: and now we'll take a look at >> woodruff: now we'll take a look at how other leaders in washington are reacting to the escalating crisis in ukraine. for more on this i'm joined by our congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. hello, lisa. let's start with the president's own party, the democrats. what are they saying about the president's actions? >> it's important to talk about these other leaders because they're hearing from their voters, hearing from their constituents and today we saw members on both parties agreeing the president's new sanctions on the nord stream 2 pipeline is

essentially waiving -- getting rid to have the waiver he had for those. that's a good thing. the democrats are in two camps. first the one you hear publicly, leaders like nancy pelosi, supporting president biden as mainly getting through the world, getting the world through a very tricky naftion of these issues. here's what she said today talking about president biden as someone who has unified allies even as some of the sanctions he's imposing could harm some of our european allies. >> the steps that the president are taking -- is taking are appropriate. the europeans feel the pain more than we do of sanctions. it is not without any collateral impact in their countries. >> reporter: now, there is no democrat who is publicly criticizing president biden, but speaking to senior democratic aides and members of congress, i can tell you this, there are many democrats who believe

president biden should be doing even more and that he should do it now. one democrat who we should be watching is the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee bob menendez. he said yesterday, for example, that he thinks this should not be the end to sanctions. i also spoke today to another important democrat adam schiff to have the intelligence committee, he supports what president biden has done but he says nothing else needs to happen, that russians are occupying ukrainian territory and the u.s. should impose more sanctions at any"time." one more groups of democrats, progressives. they are watching the war footing of this country, barbara lee of california is supporting president biden in gen, and wrote this -- it's important to stress any new military deployments must be done in full compliance with congress' constitutional war powers. what she's sayings we don't want anoer war. >> woodruff: manwhile, lisa, republicans are being publicly more critical of the president,

but we know they, too, are divided. tell us what you are seeing and hearing from them. >> reporter: we see in all of this the complicated nature of this situation and there is a different kind of divide among republicans. first the ones we're hearing from the most, those who again say president biden has not done enough, that he waited too long to do what he has done. i want to play sound from senator lindsey graham of south carolina speaking on this theme yesterday. >> president biden, you said a couple of years ago that putin does not want you to win because you're the only person that could go toe to toe with him. well, right now, mr. president, you're playing footsie with putin and you're losing. he's walking all over you and our allies. >> reporter: it is notable that some republicans and press releases have criticized president biden more than president putin in terms of what's been happening. however, again today,

president biden's decision to fully deploy those sanctions against that russian pipeline, that is something republicans even strongest critics like ted cruz of texas are praising. that is saying that is the direction they want things to go in. what is the divide in the republican party? with others like former president trump who are saying things that seem to be more positive. in fact, are more positive about president putin. here are words from former president trump yesterday. he's speaking on a talk show and says, putin says, you know, i'm going to declare a big portion of ukraine independent. in president trump's words, he said, you gotta say that's pretty savvy. a few other republicans are echoing the idea that perhaps president putin isn't so bad and maybe he's smart. talking to a wide spectrum of republican lawmakers, they see it as an outlier position and even dangerous. they say they are getting calls insisting there should not be

any troop movement, the u.s. should is not send troops into ukraine, that there are concerns about domestic policy. where is everyone united, republicans, democrats, that the u.s. should sent more aid to ukraine and we should be watching the next week or two to see if in fact we get a new aid bill maybe hundreds of millions of dollars for ukraine. congress is waiting on president biden to say exactly what he thinks is needed. >> woodruff: interesting and we'll see how that evolves as events move along. lisa desjardins talking to members of both parties. thank you, lisa. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, new warnings surfaced about potential causes and effects of climate change. the u.n. environment program projected intense wildfires could increase 50% by the end of the century. and, the international energy agency said energy sector

emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas, are 70% higher than governments claim. we'll examine both reports, after the news summary. a new tropical cyclone battered storm-ravaged madagascar today. it blasted the island's southern coast in the early morning hours, with winds gusting nearly 120 miles per hour. initial reports indicated extensive damage. madagascar is still recovering from three other storms in the last month that killed nearly 200 people. drug makers sanofi and glaxo- smith-kline will seek u.s. and european approval for a new covid vaccine. they say two doses proved 75% effective at preventing moderate to severe sickness. meanwhile,anadian prime minister justin trudeau revoked emergency police powers today, now that trucker protests over covid restrictions have ended.

a jury in louisville, kentucky has begun hearing the only criminal case stemming from breonna taylor's fatal shooting by police. former officer brett hankison fired 10 shots, but none hit taylor. instead, he's accused of endangering neighbors when bullets tore into their apartment. today's opening statements offered sharply different takes on hankison's actions. >> you will hear that the defendant claimed that he saw into the doorway, the front door and he claimed that he saw a shooter in there with an ar rifle. you will learn that there was no a.r. rifle in apartment 4, there was one pistol, a glock 43 x 9 millimeter. >> he was attempting to defend and save the lives of his brother officers who he thought were still caught in what they call the fatal funnel in that doorway.

brett hankison was justified in what he did and everything he did on that scene out there, before during and after the shooting occurred was logical, was reasonable, was justified and made total sense. >> woodruff: police burst into taylor's apartment on a no-knock narcotics search in march of 2020. her boyfriend opened fire, thinking they were intruders, and two officers shot back, killing taylor. the city paid $12 million in a civil settlement. new government data shows deaths of pregnant women in the u.s. rose during the pandemic's first year. the decades-long trend might have worsened as women delayed health care due to covid. the national center for health statistics reports the death rate for pregnant black women was nearly triple that of whites. a pair of prosecutors investigating former president trump and his business dealings,

resigned today in new york. the manhattan district attorney's office confirmed it. "the new york times" reported they quit because the d.a. questioned pursuing a case against mr. trump. the prosecutors already brought tax fraud charges against the trump organization. the u.s. justice department has discontinued its so-called "china initiative." a top official said today that efforts to fight chinese cyber- crime will no longer be grouped under that name. opponents claimed the trump-era initiative unfairly targeted chinese academics in the u.s. and fostered anti-asian bias. and, on wall street, stocks retreated again on fears that a russian attack on ukraine is imminent. major indexes slumped 1 to 2.5%. the dow jones industrial average lost 464 points to close at 33,131. the nasdaq fell 344 points. the s&p 500 slipped 79.

still to come on the newshour: why millions of older americans are retiring early in the wake of the pandemic. how 3-d printing could provide a potential solution to the lack of affordable housing. a new book details why the author fled racial prejudice in the united states. plus much more. >> woodruff: as we mentioned earlier in the program, there have been several alarming new reports that the climate crisis is getting worse, and coming on faster. from intensifying wildfires, to methane leaks, to rising sea- levels, the news is grim. william brangham is here to walk us through some of the latest. so, hello, william. let me start with this report

from the u.n. about wildfires. it says that we are going to see catastrophic wildfires in the coming decades. fill out more of the picture for us. >> reporter: that's right, judy. is is the first time the u.n. has looked specifically at wildfires and, as you say, they argue that, because largely of climate change, catastrophic wildfires will be happening globally and they will be ramping up in the next few decades and it's not just places that have become somewhat accustomed to them like australia and the united states, it's places not accustomed to them like siberia and the arctic and tibet. the u.s. says climate change is the main driver here. this report said the heating of the planet is turning landscapes into tinderboxes. we certainly see this here in the u.s. there's this mega drought happening out west that is the worst mega drought since the medieval times. another issue is driving this the u.n. says and that is the way wese land, agriculture

practices, forestry practices have also exacerbated this so that when a fire does start, it's worse. this is also, as we know, a huge health issue. ask anyone who has lived anywhere near a wildfire the last few years, the sky turns orange, you can't go outside, you can't breathe. we know that smoke is dangerous for human health, and that smoke travels hundreds and thousands of miles. so it is a growing, growing issue. >> woodruff: and part of the report, william, i understand, does address ways to deal with this growing threat. >> reporter: that's right, judy. as you might imagine, curtailing greenhouse gas emissions to reduce climate change is the single biggest thing we can do. less oil, less gas, less coal. but as i mentioned, with the land use issues, there are better ways that you can manage the landscape, not letting people move ino tinderbox areas, farming in a smarter way, managing forests in a smarter way, using prescribed burns in a

as a matter of factor way. so there are things that can be done. it's not hope les but we've got to start acting. >> woodruff: and then the second report, william, out today from the international energy agency, the i.e.a., on methane emissions saying that they are coming worse far larger than h been expected. why does this matter? >> reporter: it matters because methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases out there. it is much more potent than carbon dioxide. it doesn't last as long in the atmosphere, but when it is there it is much better at trapping heat. the i.e.a. report pointed out that the countries that have been trying to track their methane emissions have been underestimating thse emissions by about 70%, which is a huge -- it's not just a rounding -- that is a huge amount of methane leaking into the atmosphere that these countries and companies don't seem to be aware of. so one of the main goals in

tackling climate change is cutting our methane emissions. but if you don't know how much you're actually emitting, you can't do a very good job of that. >> woodruff: if this isn't enough, william, another report from the national oceanic and atmospheric administration out last week about sea level rise saying this is happening much faster than expected. lay out some of that for us. >> reporter: this report ha got to be setting off awe large bells in coastal communities all over the world. n.o.a.a. said that, in the next 50 years, they expect with fairly good confidence that sea level rise will go up 10 to 12 inches. that might not sound that much. it's about this much sea level rise, but just here in the u.s., major metropolitan areas, new york, miami, washington, parts of california, living at sea level rise. so 10 inches to a foot of sea level rise can have major impacts on infrastructure, streets will be flooded much

more often, not just on stormy days. infrastructure will take a big hit. and, so, there's also a concern that that report in and of itself is alarming enough, but a worry that that might even be a low ball projection because of the ongoing question as to how much global warming is impacting the ice sheets in greenland and antarctica. in antarctica there's the thwaites glacier already showing signs of trouble, holding 2 to l rise in its ice. if that were to go, we're talking about, as one researcher we spoke with saying, a global rewriting of the coastline all over the world. >> woodruff: it doesn't get any more sobering than all of this. let's hope people aren't not only paying attention but thinking about how we do something about this if we can. william brangham reporting on these distressing reports.

thank you, william. >> reporter: thanks, judy. >> woodruff: one reason the economy is dealing with a labor shortage? early retirements. economics correspondent paul solman reports on the exodus of older workers during the pandemic >> covid really pointed out to me, to me and to my wife that life was tenuous. it was fragile. >> i felt in order to preserve my sanity, i need to leave. >> my daughter asked me early last year if i would take care of her baby. >> it was like, anybody your age is liable to die if you get it. and i just was afraid of it, i said, i'm not going to stay, i can't. >> reporter: you've heard plenty, especially from

employers who can't find workers, about the “great resignation.” but here's what's also happening: “the great retirement.” since february 2020 some 2.6 million more americans than expected retired. >> the pandemic has interrupted what was a decades long trend towards later retirement in the united states. >> reporter: wellesley economist courtney coile. >> if we look at the population ages 65 to 74, the share that are employed in the last three months of 2021 is seven percent lower relative to the share that was employed in the last three months of 2019. >> reporter: so, why? a few main reasons. one: workers leaving in-person jobs to avoid catching covid 19. 65-year-old claudia mitchell was an instructional aide. >> i weighed it out and i just thought, no. i'm not going to take the risk. >> reporter: would you have stayed on if there hadn't been the covid pandemic? >> i think i would have, because

it made me feel really good going into work every day. >> reporter: john manley drove a school bus for 25 years. >> i just loved it, it was like having 100 grandchildren. >> reporter: he hadn't planned to retire, but at 77 he was especially vulnerable to serious illness. >> being cooped up in a large metal container with a whole bunch of children, 40 or 50 of them at a time, it started to look like a just not a wise thing to do. >> reporter: donna booth retired from her job managing a home for the developmentally disabled at age 74. >> i was frightened and i did have nightmares and it was it was just affecting everything about my life in terms of like, i don't want to die for this. >> reporter: yes, covid hastened her exit, but not just because of the danger. the job had morphed into more than she could bear. >> i became a first responder and i had a lot of vulnerable people and staff members working for me, and i had to keep everybody safe. the paperwork increased, the demands increased, and so it

became a very, very different job. >> reporter: 69-year-old grandmother veronica primus spent 48 years working in schools. a similar thing happened to her job. >> i could have worked longer. i feel like i'm healthy and vibrant. but it was-- it was just tearing me down. i just couldn't handle it. >> reporter: primus was working as a literacy coach until online learning drove her over the edge. >> you know, the zoom classes and see children jumping up and down on the bed while they're trying to teach the lesson. teachers can't do anything but just say, please be quiet, sit still. >> reporter: for some, caregiving needs drove them to retire. helping her daughter drew 63- year-old norma jasso from her 17-year job at san diego gas and electric. >> i was thinking, i've left two thirds of my life. i have one third to go. what do i really want to do with that time?

and taking carof the baby, helping my daughter is critical. >> if my daughter had not asked for help, i would still be working and i would have not ve known how lovely it would have been to not have to work. >> reporter: in fact we heard again and again that covid raised the big question: “what is the meaning of life?” it's something consultant tom fisher, age 57 and his wife asked themselves during the pandemic. >> it really pointed out to us that if e world were to end today and with these under these conditions, would we be happy that our last days potentially were spent in this manner? right. working hours a day, traveling everywhere. you know, so i think it really just catalyzed a reevaluation of what our ambitions and what our goals for ourselvewere >> reporter: so fisher retired and is writing a book about his grandfather. >> it's very rewarding time. you kn, it's been an incredibly satisfying endeavor.

>>eporter: fisher also sells parts for restoring old cars to supplement his savings. and how are others able to afford earlier-than-planned retirement? well, despite the stock market's recent tumult, a long run of historic asset gains certainly helped. norma jasso ran the numbers before taking the plunge. >> so i looked into my retirement plan and turns out the market was doing great, even though i didn't have a financial planner. things worked out for me and here i am, taking care of little rafael! >> reporter: donna booth and her husband took advantage of the booming house market. >> and because of covid, the housing prices just jumped up. and so we put our house on the market. in one day, 10 people came and offered us cash for our house higher than what we were asking. >> reporter: they've happily downsized to an apartment. as for veronica prymus... >> i was not a person who saved

a whole bunch of money because i had four children to raise as a single parent myself. >> reporter: still, primus is also making it work. >> i do have a retirement thanks to the state of south carolina and social security. and my daughter lives with me, with her daughters. and so we all sort of work together. >> reporter: as so many are people learned to spend less during the pandemic, says wellesley's coile. >> because they've had to live a little bit differently during the pandemic, you know, less travel, fewer meals out and so on. people have had more experience to figure out what kind of expenses might be more discretionary, and that might also affect their planning going forward, thinking about how much income they really need to have the lifestyle that they want. >> reporter: right. so i can continue to live on this reduced budget. >> because i've been doing it for two years. >> reporter: but here's a problem: “the great retirement” bad news for a labor-crunched economy. >> overall, it means that the

economy is operating below its potential because we could have a bigger labor force and we could be producing greater g.d.p. with that labor force gross domestic product. >> reporter: in normal times, about a quarter of retirees end up “unretiring” or returning to the labor force. the data are still coming in, but, says william rodgers of the st. louis fed... >> there is some evidence more people are staying retired. people are doing what we teach in public policy schools: benefit cost analysis. and right now, the benefits do not exceed the costs. >> reporter: among the costs of working: the risk of getting sick, undesirable conditions, stress. i built this little cost benefit scale. it was pretty close before if you didn't have that great a job and suddenly the cost goes like that. and now you just say i'm staying retired, is that it? >> yes. people are changing their calculus around how they want to spend their time. >> reporter: but the scales could tilt back, right? >> yes. if economic growth continues, if

we if the omicron fades away and we don't have another variance and every variant, that all those feeding together could lead to a calculation of the benefits exceed the cost. i want to jump back in. >> reporter: as for the folks we interviewed. are you thinking of going back to work at another job? >> i probably will. i just love working and i love being valuable. i love being needed. i don't want to play golf. >> reporter: but others do not plan to return. >> not full-time, because the culture has changed dramatically. >> i don't know if i would go back to a paid position. >> no, i don't really think i'll ever be back. >> reporter: so, a personal decision for every retiree, but one that could result in fewer workers, and thus dampen economic growth. for the pbs newshour, paul solman.

>> woodruff: it's often said that there's no place like home. but what if that home is 3-d-printed? only a handful of people in the u.s. currently live in these types of houses. but, some believe this will soon change because of 3-d-printing technology's potential to reduce construction times and costs. stephanie sy reports >> sy: april stringfield has been laser-focused on a single goal for much of her adult life. >> i used to work two and three jobs because i was determined that i was going to get a home. from home health care, to motel, i did a call center. i just kept my fingers crossed, kept doing what i'm doing, working hard, saving money. >> sy: with the help of habitat for humanity, stringfield, her 13-year old son azayveon, and their dog tink, moved in to a house in williamsburg, virginia two months ago. a house of her own.

>> getting something i always wanted to see a dream come true. still in shock, just a little bit. that it is finally true. >> sy: the house is unique. this is not just any ordinary home. >> right, yes, it's a 3-d printed. >> sy: a 3-d printed home, one springfield saw go up before her eyes in just over a day-layer by layer of concrete efficiently squeezed out of a printing machine pre-programmed with a digital blueprint. >> i watched it from, it was like flat land. and so, you know, building up. it was awesome. >> we're really excited to be doing these vanguard moves. >> sy: jonathan reckford is habitat for humanity's c.e.o. the nonprofit, which helps people in need build and upgrade homes has high hopes for 3-d printed houses at a time when labor and material costs are skyrocketing and affordable housing is more and more scarce.

>> our hope with 3-d printing is that this is the beginning of the curve, but will lead to learnings that could mainstream ways that could either speed up cotruction or lower the cost of construction for us. >> sy: the u.s. currently faces a shortage of about four milon homes, and, more than one in four renters currently pay more than half their income in rent. >> the best way to address that problem holistically is with robotic approaches to construction. >> sy: jason ballard is c.e.o. of icon, an austin-based company that built the u.s.'s first permitted 3-d-printed home in 2018. >> the more affordable and simplified supply chain, combined with an order of magnitude fewer humans. that's what gives you sort of this initial jolt of cost savings and improvements in speed of delivery. >> sy: but, experts say it will be a while before 3-d-printed homes live up to their promise and go mainstream. >> i would say with between five and 10 years, we may see more of it if it continues to prove to be effective, efficient means of

of construction delivery. >> sy: mark stapp is a property developer and the director of arizona state university's real estate program. he says while 3-d-printing may reduce the cost of a structure's frame-a frame doesn't make a complete house. >> you've got plumbing, electrical, mechanical, solar, air conditioning, heating, et cetera that all need to be incorporated. you have finishes the walls you've got. windows that have to now be installed, there's a whole bch of other things that: one products have to be adapted and two, you have to train the labor. >> sy: critics also say the proprietary blends of materials used to print buildings vary by project and are largely untested compared with traditional building materials. cities, such as austin, have approved some 3-d-printed homes under building codes, and icon's founder ballard, who in a previous career worked with the homeless population, says it's

only a matter of time before 3- d-printed housing is embraced widely. >> so that's what we're after a complete solution to the global housing crisis in our lifetimes. that's what we're after. i think one day sort of narrative will be how on earth can we still build with a stick frame when we know that these resilient materials are readily available. it's very much early days. but i think it's going to proceed like all revolutions, like slowly at first and then all at once. >> sy: back in virginia, april stringfield is busy making her house feel more like a home. are there any other things about the concrete home that feel different? >> no, it's only really the outside of it. you know how it was built, but the inside is just like a regular home. the home is great. >> sy: her favorite part? >> i love my kitchen. i wanted lemons, so i have lemons sort of they are here, you know, towels and stuff. >> sy: lemon-themed kitchen. >> lemon-themed kitchen. something bright, i guess.

happy color, yellow. >> sy: a happy color for a happy 3-d printed home. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. >> woodruff: jury deliberations began today in the trial of three former officers involved with the killing of george floyd. the verdict is being closely watched in the ongoing conversation around police violence, accountability and treatment of people of color. those larger questions have led some black amerins to question whether america is the right ho for them. amna nawaz has a conversation with an author about how she grappled with this very question. >> nawaz: judy, even before the murder of george floyd, black americans have considered moving abroad and some have done so - emigrating to counies around

the world. tiffanie drayton has had her own experience, one she documents in her new memoir, "black american refugee." and she joins me now. tiffanie drayton, welcome to the "newshour". thanks for joining us. i want to get to all the details in your book and the the whole story, but i want to ask you first about the title because the use of the word "refugee" for a lot of americans conjures a very specific story and i'm curious why you chose that word. >> i think the word "refugee" evokes the sense someone is running away from violence, trying to escape desperate circumstances, and that's precisely what my life had come to at that moment when i decided i could no longer stay here. as a black woman who has fought her way through dealing with poverty, violence, being in neighborhoods and environments that are constantly under policing that you watch claim the lives of people who look like you, you start to feel and recognize your life is under threat, even as you live in one

of the most -- in one of the richest countries in the world, you can still be under threat. >> reporter: let's start at the beginning for a moment in your story. you were very young when you came to the united states. you were about four years old. your mother had come previously from trinidad and left in search of better work, opportunities, saved up and brought you and your siblings over. so you settle into american life as a young child. what was it like. >> the first memory i have of the united states of america is landing in j.f.k. airport and seeing the new york city skyline, the bright lights and all of these -- like the statue of liberty and my brother said, look, they're lighting up for us! he swore it was our personal invitation to the country, and that really is that moment that asserted for me that, yeah, america was the population where dreams come true. my first experiences with america pretty much showed that. i lived in a tiny, bustling

immigrant town. it was a very safe environment. it was one to have the go out and play until dark and come back in environments for kids and it was so freeing. i was enamoured with my first expeences with the united states. >> reporter: your very first chapter has the title love bombing, which is a very specific phrase. why did you choose that? what does that mean? >> my book compares the relationship that a victim has with an abuser to the relationship black people have with the united states of america. my thesis is that black people are enthralled in an abusive relationship with america and love bombing is the first part of the cycle of abuse, where the abuser will sell you this narrative that everything is perfect, we're meant for each other and we're on our way to realizing our ideal dream of this perfect union, and that's precisely how many americans, especially immigrants, kind of come to the country with these grand ideas of how amazing and how many opportunities they're going to have.

>> reporter: there's a pivotal moment in your story, the shooting of treyvon martin. tell me about what impact that had on you. >> by the time the shooting of treyvon martin was a national discussion and there was this outcry over george zimmerman's verdict, specifically, i had already, through my own experiences and research, come to the conclusion that, look, i cannot live here, i cannot deal with this racism, and it was something i was trying to naughting navigate for myself and help other people understand. in that era, people were not open to the idea racism was a problem. the treyvon martin murder and verdict forced people to grapple with the reality they were looking at a child being killed and subsequently his murderer not facing any charges. for me, it was truly heartbreaking but simultaneously affirmed what i had known for so long, and it felt for other people to see and come to the

same conclusion. >> reporter: you made the decision to leave. what did you worry would have happened if you stayed? >> at the time i explicitly decided i can no longer stay, my family financially, we were just really struggling to get by, and my mother purchased a home, the only home she could afford in this impoverished crime-filled area. many times i walked down the street and there were drug raids. oftentimes i went to sleep to men screaming up and down the street that deemens are chasing them because they're on drugs. quite frankly, i was literally fleeing for my life because i couldn't move again, i couldn't afford a safe neighborhood anymore and i recognized very quickly that could mean danger. >> reporter: tiffanie, where do you call home? what is life for you now. >> i live in trinidad and tobago but in tobago specifically. the pandemic changed everything around the world, but one thing that hasn't changed is the sense of home, just being able to go

out into your neighborhood and walk around freely and nobody's looking at you or your children because you're people of color saying you don't belong in this neighborhood, being able to go to the park and allow my children to run around and not be afraid of stares of people who think they shouldn't be there. it's a freeing, affirming experiences for me as a black woman to be around other black people who themselves are comfortable and safe, creating that environment together. >> reporter: we should know this book grew from an essay you wrote for the niemsz back in 2020 that was called "new york times" in 2020 called "i'm a black american, i had to get out." i'm curious about the response you got from that. did you hear from others who had done the same thing? >> there was an explosive response, people firstly affirming many i decision because it was not only, at that point, not only black people were having that conversation but everybody was afraid of trump, many white people even were, like, can i live here?

am i safe here? what's going to happen with this country? so it was a very affirming moment, again, where i was able to feel finally like the world understood my position, and it continues to be something that really haunts me because it's not something that you want to be right about. you don't want to be right that maybe america is not safe for many people. you want to be proven wrong and i'm still open to being proven wrong. >> reporter: the very final line of that piece stuck with me. you wrote i admire the strength of black people who remain in america d continue to hope and endure and i hope they one day, too, will find freedom. do you believe that's possible in america? >> i've learned to believe in the impossible because, you see, when you recognize your ancestors came to a land or a region of the world in a belly of a ship and, yet, you still remain and, yet, here i am,

educated, publishing a book, these are things that perhaps if i went 300 years ago and told my ancestors i would be doing it, they would say impossible, and yet here it is. so i believe in what other people believe is impossible. there is absolutely nothing we can not do if we put our collective energy in that direction. >> reporter: the book is "black american refugee." the author tiffanie drayton. tiffanie, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you so much, it was a pleasure. >> woodruff: peter kahn has taught english and spoken word poetry to thousands of students at chicago's oak park and river forest high school since 1994. now, in collaboration with his current and former students, kahn is releasinthe anthology "respect the mic, celebrating 20 years of poetry from a chicagoland high school."

tonight, he offers us his "brief but spectacular" take on spoken word poetry. it's part of our arts and culture series, canvas. >> one of the things i love about tehing is seeing kids who didn't believe in themself develop that self confidence and then go on to do big things with it. i definitely consider myself a teacher first poet second. i use poetry as a vehicle to reach young people and adults. 30 students look at me and 45 minutes later, look to me and i'm hooked and i'm floating and anchored at the same time, for the first time. and i'm whole and broken open, and i'm spinning and stunned still. i used to hate poetry. i hated it as a student. i hated it as a teacher. i was inept at teaching it. and in the mid-90s, i brought in a former student, jonathan

vaughn to help me out. and he came in and he mentioned the idea of a poetry slam. and my students asked if we could do that. so we went ahead and did a poetry slam and the student with the lowest grade in my class ended up winning it. and everybody looked at the kid differently after that. and he looked at himself differently, more importantly, and a light bulb went on and i met up with some sophomore english teachers and we redesigned the curriculum to make it focused on contemporary poets, musical artists and getting kids writing and sharing their own poetry. we teach them some basic skills and some more advanced skills, but it's really about their voice. and it's about personal narrative and sharing with them some contemporary poets they might not be familiar with, particularly writers of color and giving them ways into their own narrative and the tools that they can write poems that they're proud of. and then on the last day of the week, it's very nerve wracking for most kids, because public

speaking and poetry that they don't think they're good at, but we get them up in front of their classes and they share one of the poems that they wrote during the week. >> all the girls whose bodies are in question, whose skin is open ended, be a bleeding bible, be the breast milk, and the be the brandy, and beyonce, be the bad, and the booty and the brain cells. oh, aren't you glad? that you're a -mmmm-cause-knock, knock -who's there? - not me no more. i'm still breathing. i'm still breathing. >> i think it's tragic how little investment there is in poetry and other arts in schools. we are so fortunate that our school has made this big investment and one of my life goals is to get this kind of programming and other schools. poetry is having quite a heyday now, in part because of amanda gorman, and spoken word poetry is becoming the mainstream as a result. because we're going through so much as a society, as a world, writing about where you're going

through is a really healthy way of doing that. so i think poetry has a primary place in the world at the moment. and i think it's going to keep expanding, and that more and more people take to writing it and reading it. my students teach me every single day. they teach me about humanity, about empathy, about courage, about standing up for themselves. they're as much of a role model to me as i am to them. myame is peter kahn, and this is my brief, but spectular take, on how spoken word poetry amplifies student voice. >> woodruff: you can watch all our brief but spectacular episodes at: pbs.org/newshour/brief. 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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