captioning sponsored by wnet sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, march 6: the russian vasion of ukraine continues as a second attempt at a limited ceasefire and evacuations fail. a look at how the war is playing out globally. and taking stock of ways to help reduce methane. wshour weekend.”xt on “srcent. >> "pbs newshour weekend" is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. leonard and norma klorfine.

the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in fr at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract, wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you.

>> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. an attempt to evacuate civilians during temporary ceasefires in ukraine failed for a second day when russia again launched attacks, killing ukranians trying to escape, and as president zelensky called on world leaders for more help. the eleventh day of russia's invasion brought more destruction and devastation. in irpin, a suburb of kyiv, buildings burned as civilians tried to flee to safety. ukraine claimed it was holding back russian troops north of kyiv and in eastern parts of the country but there was fierce fighting. in russia today, thousands of anti-war demonstrators took to the streets. lice were seen beating a protester. the demonstrations took place in 49 russian cities and there were more than 2,500 people aested according to o.v.d info, a human rights group. in ukraine, president volodymyr zelensky pressed his appeal for a no-fly zone, something the u.s. and other nato countries say would trigger a wider war. >> we are people and this is your humanitarian duty to

protect us and to protect people. you can do it. >> sreenivasan: zelensky's plea came as secretary state antony blinken said the u.s and its allies are considering expanding the economic response to include a ban on the import of russian oil. "newshour" defense and foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin is in ukraine and he joined us earlier today from lviv. nick, for days you've been talking about the growing humanitarian crisis. give us an update. >> yeah, so we are now seeing 1.5 million people flee from ukraine, families choosing to leave their homes with only what they could carry, drag their children across borders. 900,000 of them have entered poland. and what we're also seeing is something extraordinarily difficult to watch-- families who are leaving their homes getting shelled by russians as they are fleeing from their homes. there's a suburb in kyiv that has been the epicenter of some of the attacks around the capital, and there are families who were hit by mortars,

children, mothers killed today. these are famies who were trying to flee. some of the biggest bombardments get into kyiv and then therefore head to the west, where we are and out to safety. they never made it, unfortunately. >> sreenivasan: how long is volodymyr zelensky planning for this to continue? >> unfortunately, the word out from most of western officials is that this will take months, if not years. those are the words from the deputy prime minister of the united kingdom, dominic raab, speaking this morning on sunday talk shows, and what you are seeing is an expanding war effort from russia. an airport in southwestern ukraine were hit by russian missiles, and zelensky today is warning of an attack on odessa. that is a city of more than a million people on the coast of the ack sea. although ukrainian forces managed to repel russian troops about 90 to 100 miles away in

another city that russian troops would presumably have to control in order to get to odessa. and zelensky again is calling for no-fly zones over ukraine. hari, as you and i talked about yesterday, that is something that the u.s. and nato simply are not willg to entertain. >> sreenivasan: what is the u.s. state department, what are our allies willing to entertain now? >> so secretary of state antony blinken made the rounds on the sunday talk shows this morning, and he made two main points, one that the u.s. is "very, very actively" considering an effort to get soviet era or russian made planes that are currently inside eastern bloc nato countries, mostly poland, into ukraine. and those are the kinds of jets that ukrainian pilots are already trained on. so, blinken basically admitting that that was the plan. he also said something that the u.s. hasn't explicitly said so far, which is that the u.s. and europe are considering banning russian oil purchases. that is a step that the u.s.

frankly almost said that it wouldn't consider just a few weeks ago and certainly one that europe wouldn't consider. it would absolutely drive up gas prices in both europe and the united states, but clearly the mood has shifted in brussels and washington and both capitals willing to consider that now. >> sreenivasan: nick, we've seen reports that the israeli prime minister is trying to engage with vladimir putin. what do we know? >> prime minister bennett flew to moscow yesterday during the sabbath, so that was remarkable, according to many officials i've spoken to. he returd to jerusalem to speak to the cabinet today, and he said that his trip was worthwhile, "even if the chance of diplomacy is not great." bennett and putin talked about trying to reduce civilian casualties in moscow, but they also talked about, hari, the iran nuclear deal, which u.s. officials have hinted is on the verge of being signed. and that is something that the israeli prime minister doesn't

want to see and the russian government has a lot of influen over. there are other diplomatic efforts as well. putin talked with macron today for two hours, but french officials again said that there was no progress in trying to convince the russian leader to back down on some of this indiscriminate shelling we're seeing in ukraine. and finally, hari, there will be a third round of talks between ukraine and russia tomorrow. so far, those talks have only produced ceasefires that actually haven't been respected by the russian government. so not very high expectations, but still a third round of talks scheduled for tomorrow. >> sreenivasan: newshour's nick schifrin joining us from lviv tonight, thanks so much. >> thanks, hari. >> sreenivasan: for continuing news on the war in uaine and more national and international news, visit pbs dot org slash newshour. president putin's invasion of ukraine and the reemergence of war in europe is sparking global outcry and response. but it is also testing post-war

rules and the challenges to the institutions of democracy. i recently spoke with anne applebaum, staff writer at the "atlantic" and author of "twilight of democracy: the seductive lure of authoritarianism." well, there's a lot of speculation on what causes putin to do one thing or another. what can we know about the state of the world and the balance of power from what has alread happened, that's not speculative? >> actually, we know a lot about putin. we know a lot about how he thinks and we know what his goals are because he's told us and he's told us over and over again over many years. he has told us that he believes the destruction of the soviet union was a terrible mistake and a disaster. he's told us that he thinks democracy activism and democracy movements of the kind we've seen in russia and ukraine and elsewhere around the world are fake.

he thinks they're an element of a tool of western foreign policy. they're not authentic. and we know that he thinks ukraine is not a real country, that it's a fake state that needs to be dismantled and it should be part of russia. and all of those things together should help us understand both what he's doing right now and also what his goals are. his goal is the elimination of the ukrainian state. his goal is to push back and if he can, to dismantle democracy and democratic activism in his immediate area and then if he can, elsewhere as well. we know that he wants nato broken up. he wants the european union broken up. and he wants to retake the territories that russia, as he sees it, as russia lost in the early 1990s. so i don't think his goals are that mysterious at all. >> sreenivasan: but what do you think a level of success would be for putin or has this already been a success? >> putin has already said that success for him is the occupation of ukraine, which in

fact means the death of many millions of people because the occupation of ukraine will require the slaughter of many ukrainians. >> sreenivasan: does he stop at ukraine? >> i doubt vermuchhat putin will stop at ukraine if he manages to conquer ukraine, which is, of course, not a not a foregone conclion. in his view, he will continue to see provocations to his occupation from the countries around ukraine, from poland, from romania, from the baltic states. and he will continue to perceive western support for ukraine, you know, in germany, in france, in britain and the united states as an ongoing threat to him personally and to his power. so no, i don't think he stops in ukraine. >> sreenivasan: does this empower other, well, dictators or authoritarians? >> other authoritarians are watching putin very closely right now. they're watching his reaction to sanctions. they're watching his reaction to nato, nato assistance or nato country, rather, assistance to

ukraine. and they're gointo watch very carefully how the west deals with this because they're going to take that as a sign for how the west would deal with similar assaults and similar attempts to change borders or to occupied territories in the future. so i do think one of the reasons why the biden administration has been as forthright as it has en about this, about the russian invasion is that it knows this is an example. it knows that autocracies now work together. they watch one another, they copy one another. and what happens here will will have ramifications all over the world. >> sreenivasan: do you see kind of a realignment of global power? >> i don't think what we're seeing right now is so much a realnment of global power as rather a realization that autocracy the autocracies because they often work together are genuinely dangerous to democratic states. so it's, you know, the corruption and kleptocracy in russia, in china aren't just

confined to russia and china. they can also infect our societies. they can undermine our political systems and the violence that's encouraged by a putin or by a xi, and the violence that they use against their own people won't necessarily stay contained inside those countries, that eventually it can be turned outwards towards others and maybe even eventually towards the united states or towards our other allies in the world. >> sreenivasan: the economic sanctions, the raft of different measures in so many countries have been taking and the pressure that's been applied to russia militarily, there is the opposition inside ukraine. but we don't have the entire world sending troops on the ground to try to battle in these cities street by street. >> the rationale behind the economic sanctions is that they should force the russian leadership to change course, that they will be harsh enough this time and they are very harsh this time. they will be harsh enough to make them think twice and

withdraw their troops. whether that will happen and how that will happen, nobody can really say rightow. putin continues to repeat that his goal is to conquer ukraine. in other words, it's not just about a little bit of territory, it's about changing the regime in kyiv. he keeps repeating that if he sticks to that as his goal, then it will be very hard for even economic sanctions to make him change. much depends on what people around him say. much depends on what conclusions he can draw from the events of the next days and weeks as the russian economy begins to contract and his businesses leave the country. the hope is that this will help him change his mind. but, of course, we can't guarantee that. >> sreenivasan: people are watching this war unfold in real time on social media in a way that we haven't experienced before. and i wonder what that does to our perceptions of international institutions like nato or like a united nations, because most people watching this just want

the killing to stop. and they wonder, well, why aren't these international organizations able to exert some sort of power? >> in fact, there was a kind of dress rehearsal for this war in syria. the syrian war was alspossible to follow on social media. people were so tweeting from inside the rubble of buildings. and when they were under attack, there were enormous number of video that was sent out from syria. most of it had relatively little impact. it didn't cause international organizations to galvanize. it didn't create any alliances. and i think actually the russians learned from that or thought they'd learn from it that there would be no western response this time, either. a lot of things are different this time. the lines for many people are clearer. the story it makes more sense and the way in which the ukrainians have learned to use social media, i think has galvanized people more than in

the past. but yes, of the things that i i hope that the social media presence of the ukrainians will do is remind people of the realities. you know, look, we live in a world in which brutal, vicious countries are seeking to conquer innocent neighbors. and it will make people wonder, so why can't international organizations do something? maybe there's something wrong with them. of course, there is something wrong with them, and it's time that we face up to that. >> sreenivasan: in a recent column, you said that our assumptions about the world were unsustainable. what did you mean by that? >> for 70 years, more than 70 years, we have assumed that it is impossible for a european country to change its borders by force, to invade a neighbor, you know, for a large country to gobble up a small country that that just couldn't happen anymore, that we disinvested that kind of conflict. we haven't disinnted it. you know, actually, russia has made clear for some years that it believes that kind of conflict is possible.

i do hope that this moment causes us to reflect, to rethink our international institutions and to rethink our military arrangemen so that we can be prepared for this new world. >> sreenivasan: anne applebaum, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks so much. >> sreenivasan: livestock production is responsible for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. the majority of that is in the form of methane, which is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. most of that methane is a natural byproduct of how livestock-- particularly cows-- process food. but as "newshour weekend's" christopher booker reports, scientists are hoping that small tweaks in what cows eat can dramatically reduce a major source of these climate change-causing emissions. this segment is part of our on-going series "peril and promise: the challenge of climate change."

>> reporter: at the university of california at davis, 18 cows are cordoned off from others on the campus's dairy facility. they are part of an ongoing series of studies to dramatically reduce the climate impact of dairy and beef production. (cow moos) globally, cows and other livestock are responsible for about 40 percent of methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. in digesting their high fiber diet, cows emit methane as a byproduct, making them one of the least climate friendly sources of food on the planet. >> the idea was to try to see if we can do something about the way in which the methane is being formed by giving them some additives. >> reporter: ermias kebreab is a professor at uc davis, and he has been studying how dietary supplements affect the amount of methane a cow emits, almost all of which comes out of its front end. >> about 89 nine percent of the methane has actually been formed in the gut of the animal. and almost all of that is th irradiated out or belched out from the animal. so the nostrils and the mouth. we don't care about the back end.

>> reporter: kebreab's research has shown that it doesn't take a lot to dramatically alter the amount of methane burped out. in a study that was published last year, his lab found that adding just three ounces of seaweed each day reduced methane emissions by 82 percent. >> i've been in this business for about 20 years or so, so having this amount of impact, it completely blew my mind. i didn't even believe when i saw the results first. i, i did not expect it at all. >> reporter: those results have since been replicated, and kebreab's lab is now testing other kinds of methane-reducing additives that have shown promise in lab tes. >> cows are creatures of habit, so they don't like when you change things on them. >> reporter: mallory honan is a doctoral student at u.c. davis, and running this 12 week experiment testing a new microbial probiotic additive called amplio. >> i will sample their milk as well as their blood. i weigh them weekly just to make sure that we're not compromising any of their important production parameters because if we feed an additive that

reduces methane, but then it compromises all these components that the farmers are paid for, then it's not really actually helping. >> reporter: measuring the methane requires a special stall called a greenfeed machine that delivers little treats lled cow cookies. while the cow is inside the stall eating, data on methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen are collected. >> they have access to the greenfeed all the time because methane isn't emitted at a constant rate. so if you measured methane from a cow right at this moment, that's not necessarily what she's emitting all day because it's very much linked to their feed intake. so we want to be measuring methane over a 24 hour scale and getting as many data points as possible. >> reporter: testing the impact of these additives requires meticulous control of the cow's diet. each animal's total feed is carefully measured and electronic collars ensure that each goes only to its own stall. the additive being studied, and a control placebo, are also carefully measured. >> these trials are really proof of concept to make sure that they're eating the full dose and that we're seeing the

effects from that full dose. because when you scale this up and go to a bigger commercial farm, they're not going to be able to measure everything so individually; we're going to be seeing everything at a herd level. so this is our opportunity to see the effects that it has on an individual cow. ditives are not commerciallyhese available yet, kebreab hopes the costs will be minimal, and might even be offset by farmers selling carbon credits for the amnt of greenhouse gas emissions reduced by the supplements. >> in california, we are even especially incentivized because we have on the books legislation to reduce methane emissions by 40 percent by 2030. >> reporter: kebreab says interventions like the one he is studying are key to feeding the world without worseng climate change. >> there's always going to be more demand. come countries, the demand is owing. so we're trying to to come up with solutions that is applicable around the world and try to sustainably produce animal source food. so solving this or reducing it significantly by additives, by different methods, that

would really help us into going into a carbon neutral livestock production system. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, tomorrow marks the 57th anniversary of “bldy sunday”-- the day hureds of black voting rights activists were violently attacked by white state troopers when they attempted to cross the edmund pettus bridge in selma, alabama. this afternoon, vice president kamala harris and members of the biden administration joined civil rights leaders to commemorate the day. the attack on peaceful protesters, which injured dozens including the late congressman john lewis, led to the passage of the voting rights act of 1965. in his state of the union address last week, president biden pressed again for passage of a new voting rights bill known as the “freedom to vote: john r. lewis act,” which is stalled in congress. that's all for this edition of“ pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour.

i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your

pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. you're watching pbs.

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