tonight on kqed newsroom. as russian troops advanced into the ukraine, we get reaction from former ambassador to russia and congress members. also, how the conflict is affecting bay area residents with ties to that region. an update unmask mandates with her panel of reporters. stunts in san jose as we look at some the beautiful. coming from kqed headquarters in services go. it is friday, there were 25th , 2022.

hello and welcome to the show. this is kqed newsroom . we began tonight with discussion of the war in ukraine as russia invaded the sovereign nation this week and what is being called europe's darkest hour since world war ii. hundreds gathered in san francisco and across california last night to protest the war. california's political leaders have also denounced russia's aggression. some have called for us to welcome ukrainian refugees. we will speak with the representative in a moment the 1st to get perspective from a diplomat who represented the u.s. and russia during the obama administration. former ambassador, michael mcfall, welcome to the show. what are your thoughts, are the sanctions enough? >> i applaud the biden imagination for what they have done.

these are serious sanctions, especially the ones yesterday and now that president putin have been added on individual sanctions, that is a dramatic step. i would like to see more, my sense is the and menstruation %-ú respond to further steps in this war. i think shock and awe would've been a better strategy but i understand the logic. whether they work or t is important to understand the sanctions don't work in the immediate, i think they take months if not years to have an effect. >> do you agree with that approach that america is not going to put boots on the ground there? >> i do, i support president biden's decision on that. we do not want to have a conventional w with russia. i don't think the american people want that. that makes it all the more incumbent on the biden demonstration to increase an

increase now, military assistance to those brave ukrainians fighting today for their country. >> what is your time in russia as an investor teach you about the russian perspective on putin's invasion of ukraine? did they support his vision? >> their loss of use in russia just like their loss of use in our country. the last war in 2014, was right there right before that were started. i left moscow before putin was invading the first time. that had a lot of support because it felt like there was a coup d'etat in their perspective. they wanted to strike back. this time around, i interact with russians every day. i just gave a talk yesterday via zoom and i am watching what is happening in the news.

it is pretty clear that russians don't understand why they are going to war at this moment. what was the reason now? it doesn't make a lot of sense. there are deep, cultural and religious ties to the ukrainian people in russia. this is not an enemy that has been portrayed as an enemy before. they fought together in world war ii. it would be a bit like us invading alberta. imagine how difficult that would be for president biden to explain the threat from canada that we have to go in and preemptively attacked them before they become a threat to us. >> what else should those of us do that know about the war in ukraine? >> this is a war between good and evil. putin is completely unjustified for tech in ukraine. ukraine is a democratic society and putin is an autocrat.

i think people around the war should care about good and evil. this is a threat to the free world. it is a threat to the international system that we set up in 1945. we did that because we wanted to avoid wars of annexion and conventional wars in europe. this war is now threatening to undermine that system. if that begins to happen, a lot of things unravel, not just in europe but all over the world. that is why we need to stand with ukraine. >> speaking of those earlier agreements, what do you say to the argument thatputin makes the nato should not have continued to grow into those other eastern countries? >> first i want people to look at the historic record and no that is not what putin said. he said that russia should join nato. he said he was quite comfortable with ukraine joining nato and

cooperating with data. the salience of that issue of nato expansion goes up, not because it is a threat to russia. it has to do with decratic expansion. he does not want a democracy in ukraine next to his autocracy in russia. >> former ambassador, thank you for your insights tonight. >> thanks for having me. we turn now to our special guest this evening, congress woman. the united states dance with ukraine, we will hold putin accountable for his unconscionable, unjustified and illegal attack on the innocent people of ukraine. he is committing a crime against humanity and violating international law.

representative joins us now. i know you are running around in your district today and thank you for taking a few minutes to join us on the show. >> we will not put the american military on the ground to resist the russians. do you believe that is the right course of action, and why? >> he has handled this exactly right. putin's invasion is unjustified. he has said we will have escalating sanctions on putin and the oligarchs who are responsible for the violations in ukraine. he is strengthening our military presence in nato countries to make it clear that it will trigger a response that includes a military option.

he has said that the united states will not commit troops to ukraine. we don't want to entangle ourselves in ukraine with our troops and i think that is a wise decision. >> should the u.s. be issuing different sanctions such as denying access to the s.w.i.f.t. banking system? >> he said it will escalating if we have all of these sanctions upfront. there is no deterrent that can bring this to close. the president has offered strong sanctions already going after putin and his associates bank account. i informed going after the international markets with the s.w.i.f.t. system. i am for increasing crippling ú putin is going to face a challenge. i was just with the speaker in europe at the security conference. we met, he is a former boxer.

they are going to fight for their country. this is going to be a strong insurgency. putin has demonstrations in russia itself . he is making a gross miscalculation and hurting his country. >> russia has prepared certainly for the sanctions that were to come. do you think in the end that putin will remain in the ukraine or do you think he will withdraw russian troops? >> there is no way of predicting what putin is going to do. he is not a rational actor. it is hard to predict when someone is acting in an irrational way. what i will say that putin will continue to face hard economic sanctions if he does not withdrawal from ukraine and

continue to face the unified opposition of the united states and nato. we will do everything we can to stand with ukraine. >> there have been strong concerns about potentials retracts. what are you hearing in the silicon valley circles about our readiness to respond to these attacks? >> we are prepared. our military is very prepared for a cyber attack. we need to do more when it comes to the private sector. i worry about a launch on private companies. i worry about an attack uncritical electricity or utilities. that is read united states has some vulnerability and we need a manhattan project frankly in the united states to tackle a cyber security. it is not just our military but

all of our critical infrastructure. >> how do you think our response in america to this crisis is different than what it might have been like under the trump administration? >> with trump there was no nato allies or belief. as i mentioned , i was with the speaker in munich and we met with the president of european union in the uk foreign minister. the president has done a horrific job in getting nato aligned with the united states and having a united front against putin. president trump denigrated nato. he did not see the value. he also was not firm against putin. i think it is a night and day difference. >> adam shift joined us a while

ago and he is sure that trump will run again in 2024. do you agree? >> i do agree. i think he is unfortunately right. trump has never been stronger in the republican party. he has a lot of support there. >> the former president also launched his new app this week called truth social. that seems to be growing the echo chambers we live in. conservative voters gravitate towards the fox news channels. what chances do you see in bridging these gaps with people of different viewpoints? >> we need to have rules against data collection. we need to have rules for more competition. so we have more platforms. there are things that we can do

such as crowdsourcing news sources that will provide common information. there has to be a systematic form of social media and new roles to be able to promote and deliberate the types we built when we had the printing press. it took many years just on institutions and we now need that in the digital age. >> i want to turn to your book now, dignity in the dignity i think you do hope to heal these partisan divides, at least that is what you're talking about in your book. you wanted to do it through the use of technology. you wrote, the united states has one of the deepest partisan divides in its history. it also sees a split between those who are college educated and not. those who are white and nonwhite. those who trace their heritage back to america's founding and those who were first generation

americans. the aspiration of this book is to lessen some of the bitterness within our nation. that is a big audacious school if we ever heard of one. tell us how your hope in that technology can help to lessen these divides. >> my district and the surrounding areas have jobs that will pay $80 million, lot of black and brown communities have been left out. if we can distribute digital opportunities and have these new jobs with communities have been left out and provide people both with economic opportunity in their communities without them having to leave their home towns and create opportunities for joint works. someone in the bay area is working with the world virginia and working with different races and genders. i think that

will help lessen some of the divisions. i talk about reform that we need in terms of surveillance capitalism online and in terms of some of the misinformation online to improve the digital forms for democracy. >> you talk about been better digital citizen, what does that look like? >> we need to give people more opportunity to be empowered and have a voice. right now if you go on social media and you want to retreat something, it is often because you feel disconnected. i feel it bills online for people that can participate in the process of legislation. let's have town halls online that can have people of different backgrounds and voices participating in a civil wa the modern town halls of the 21st century. there is not been enough úthoug forums that are analog of

previous times. that is what we need to do some people feel empowered to be citizens in a modern democracy. >> and finally, we ask our viewers if they had any questions for you and a few of them focused on healthcare, specifically, why won't you force a vote on medicare for all? several people wanted to hear the answer for that as well. >> i love that passion. i am a huge supporter of medicare for all. it is long overdue and provides everyone from the day they born with healthcare. it would provide relief for small business owners. to force a vote requires us to get the speaker and the board alliance. i see that advocated. i don't have the power to set the agenda but i will continue

to organize to ask for that vote. i certainly support medicare for all. >> coress member ro khanna, thank you for joining us tonight . as we have been discussing, the invasion has met with worldwide concern. the conflict has led to a rise in the price of crude oil which topped $105 a barrel on thursday and has already led to soaring gas prices here in california. joining me now are kqed government reporter guy and senior editor news desk rachel. hello to both of you and thanks for being here. >> rachel, i want to talk to you about these california companies. there are several here in california that have ties to the ukraine and several hundred

workers who are there. what are you hearing? you have been talking with some of those countries this week? >> big and small, a lot of little companies, many of them name brands, started by ukrainians. there is a lot of educative, rlatively cheap labor in eastern europe. this is been the case for ars that silicon valley has been enmeshed in a positive sense with thousands of employees living and working in the eastern bloc. >> are you hearing from this kind to use? are they working to extract them to get them to the united states even though they are ukrainians? >> the discussion has moved in that direction. many people i talked to were not willing to get into much detail about the ukrainian workforce, primarily out of concern for their safety.

those that were willing to talk to me typically ran small businesses themselves. they were the ones that were telling me, yes, we're talking about how to move our employees and their families to western ukraine, poland, maybe even have them come here to silicon valley. >> hard decisions to make, thank you. guy, you were just at a press conference with speaker pelosi and barbara lee. everything has gone sideways this week. they made some comments about the situation. >> i think they joined in with a lot of congress members from our region from northern california condemning this invasion and applauding the sanctions taken by president biden. we saw tweets from zuckerman. basically backing up the action the president had taken condemning the attacks in

ukraine. i think what a lot of numbers are think about is at what point do they get involved in the military response? we've heard from republicans today saying the act that he took sending thousands into germany is something you should have gone to congress four. i caught up with barbara lee about this. she is the kind of democratic conscience. she said this isn't something needed to go before congress. germany is a nato ally. i think there is a level of trust with this demonstration you would not have seen in the last administration. whether it is economic aid or more. >> jackie spears has talked about the experience she's had

in the past. my prayers are with the people of ukraine, make no mistake that putin orchestrated this bloodbath and he must pay. this is a clear violation of every peace agreement russia has ever signed. we must impose the severe sanctions and do so it mentally. i think that is a question for many, are the sanctions severe enough and what sort of blowback will there be from the sanctions? when we started talking about the invasion and what could come of it, you immediately flag the concern about cyber attacks here in the west. what are you hearing in silicon valley and where does that concern stand right now? >> there is a lot of buzz in cyber security circles about bracing. shields up is the phrase i am reading. you know, here is the thing. targets like banks are likely have already been hardened years ago because we have been

in a kind of cold war with russia's state sponsored cyber terrorist probing for a vulnerability in our system. local government agencies, schools, rural hospitals, these are not hardened targets. there are a lot of professionals putting up advice on twitter, urging people to update your software on all of your devices if you haven't already. please urge everybody in your life not to click on anything. >> all right, representative ro khanna who was just on the show before you had many concerns about which targets could be hit hard. let's turn to a different target because there were a couple of new polls that about this week. one of them looked at parents attitudes about vaccine mandates and masking for

children in schools. >> this was a berkeley study that came out this week. in the le up to this we have seen a lot of democratic states move away from mask mandates. new jersey, oregon, i think the momentum is shifting. i have to be honest, the results were a little surprising. 65% of california voters saying they want to continue seem mask mandates in schools. there was wide support among parents and people who don't have kids in school. certainly a partisan divide. it asked about mandates of whether we should require it in schools. i would say dig a little deeper in those numbers. there is a chasm between parents who have some concern in the margin goes down when you look at parents responding to the poll. this did not bring up the issue of personal exemptions which is where you're going to see this

like it contentious should they get rid of a personal belief exemption for the covid-19 vaccination. maybe this changes how governor newsom is thinking. i think the momentum is to move away from the mandates. this emergency order that he has had throughout the ndemic. one thing that is not being talked about enough is the large degree of cover they have given the school boards. once the governor takes off his fit of the pedal, you will see a lot of these fights. >> is similar to the discussions we've had about business. how do small businesses keep their employees safe? one last thing. we only have a few moments to talk about it. there was a new pole that had a

look at sports scaling. >> this showed pretty large support asking about the idea of sports betting. 45% and for them. you have american indian tribal governments want in their measure on the ballots. you have gambling operators, fan dual, there can be multiple different options in front of california voters and taxing it in creating revenue. this could be a multi-million- dollar fight. >> thank you both for being with us. skateboards, scooters and bicycles try to get as much air as they can. it is one of the largest skate parks. it is our look at something beautiful.

that is the end of our show for tonight. thank you for joining us. you can find us online as well. you can reach me on twitter at priya david clemens where i host our guess and ask for your questions. we will see you right back here on friday night. have a great weekend.

captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, february 27: the world watches the russian invasion of ukraine. and cognitive neuroscientist daniel levitin learns music from the masters. >> she went with me syllable by syllable and taught me to get out of my own way. >> sreenivasan: next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter