♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy road rough. the horrors of war. international outrage grows over atrocities apparently committed by russian forces in ukraine. including the mass murder o civilians. . then, the tipping point. the united nations take panel on climate change calls for a dramatic shift away from fossil fuels to avoid a catastrophic global temperature increase. and, footsteps from the past. prehistoric human tracks in new mexico have the potential to abend conventional wisdom about how long humans have inhabited north america. >> it is probably the most important trackside in the americas, both in terms of

scale, but also in the tracks. that is what is really special. judy: all of that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ >> -- >> the wille and form a hewlett

foundati. advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world, at hewlett.org. the chan zuckerberg initiative, working to build a more healthy, just, and inclusive future for everyone at czi.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

judy: global outrage group today as more horrific revelations surfacerom bucha, ukraine. it have northwest of kyiv. hundreds of ukrainians died there. many apparently executed by russian troops as they retreated from the town last week. president biden spoke to these latest horrors of war this morning at the white house. pres. biden: you may remember i got criticized for calling putin a war criminal. well, the truth of the matter is this -- is he is a war criminal. we have to gather the information, we have to continue to provide ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight. and we have to get all the details, so this can be -- so we can have a ward -- war crimes trial. this guy is brutal. what is happening to bucha is outrageous. judy: the national security advisor said today the russians

are making a strategic shift to focus their military efforts on eastern ukraine and leaving the towns and cities are correct -- around kyiv like bucha. simon a straw ski and videographer? or troy enoh ski traveled to bucha yesterday to see the horfic aftermath of the russian occupation. a warning, many images in this report will upset viewers, but we feel it is necessary to show you what the russian forces apparently did as they retreated from this area. reporter: this was once a quiet suburb of the ukrainian capital. now, the town of bucha is synonymous with the death and devastation. on the w in, smashed russian columns and the body of soldiers -- bodies of soldiers who were ordered to take a kyiv, but never made it that far. within bucha itself, the russian retreat has exposed the horrors of war for ukrainian civilians.

volunteers bag the bodies of a group of men, unceremoniously dumped behind the building, presumably by the russians who used it as a base and left behind their waste and army issued food rations. >> what we have seen here is eight bodies, some of them with their handtied behind their backs. this could be evidence of war crimes. the soldiers were here with -- we are here with say they were tortured. reporter: one of the man's is shirtless. his body is bruised and he appears to have died from a bullet wound to the head. >> i know one of these people personally. i have talked to him. his wife called me and asked me to help. he dve a minibus for a company in kyiv. reporter: also shot in the head? >> yes, in the head. reporter: the local cathedral, a mass grave. we saw 13 bodies still exposed, but there are as many as 57 beneath the ground, according to a press.

in all, more than 300 civilian bodies have been recovered in bucha so far. according to the community funeral director. part of russia's response to allegations that it's forces committed war crimes has been to blame the ukrainians themselves for killing their own people after russian forces pulled out on march 31. that timeline is not supported by the evidence. bodies like these, of men, in civilian clothes with gunshot wounds to the head in a partially decomposed estate. it also does not square with the accounts of residents of bucha itself. >> they just took people and shot them for nothing. just before the flood. the last five days they were here, you could hear it. before, it was relatively quiet. you just hear their vehicles. but then there was automatic gunfire all over their place. they killed an old lady in the

school, we carried a body with a head wound out of a nine story building. . we found civilians in a garden over there. all of them straight to the head. reporter: bucha and ear pin are as far as russia's armored column made it. this is where the tip of the sphere was broken by ukrainian resistance. but we are finding now is the russians retreated, the devastation in their wake, and the civilian toll has been really high. >> he a veteran. in other words, he served for a year and defended our country. reporter: she was visiting relatives when russian forces occupied bucha where she lived with her boyfriend of three years. the man whose body was found with his hands tied behind his back. from witness accounts, she has been able to piece together that russian forces were looking for military veterans, and likely executed him when they fan -- when they found out he served in the war in ukraine in the.

>> i was told he was shot in the head. in the photos, he is face down. you can't see anything on the back of his head. that means they were looking in his eyes when they shot him. this is insane. a sane person would not do that. it is such cruelty. it is the height of cruelty. how can you do that? reporter: with the atrocities in bucha exposed tthe world, ukrainians no longer have any doubt they are fighting a war for their very survival. a war which is far from over, as russia refocuses its efforts on conquering the country's east. judy: hundreds of miles to the east of kyiv and bucha is what was once ukraine's second largest city. now it is largelymptied of its residents. while stymied from taking the city, the russians are pounding it witartillery causing widespread destruction and

sparking fires. special correspondent jack houston and filmmaker ed ram travel with fire brigades who's already difficult jobs have become more terrifying in the midst of war. reporter: that sound means it is time to go. fireproof clothes, and now bulletproof vests. it is update -- under a constant state of alarm. few have felt its urgency. like the city's firefighters. >> i throw all unnecessary thoughts out of my head it so nothing can interfere wi me. reporter: before every mission, tensions are high. it is not just fires these men have to face. >> our work has become more difficult. there was a risk before but now, it has become riskier because of incoming shells. reporter: they are on their way to northeast kharkiv. on this day, ukrainian authorities say more than 380 munitions landed on the city and its civilians.

incoming rounds have started another apartment blaze. it seems the russians are trying to smash the people's spirit. >> everyone experiences the situation in their own way. but people still do their duty. everyone is worried, but no one talks about it. we keep ourselves to ourselves. reporter: just as the firemen are starting to get this blaze under control, the area comes under renewed aack. it is the third round of artillery that we have had for the last 20 minutes. these firefighters here behind me, they are also hiding, trying

toake cover. let's get down, get down. you can hear the fizz of the shells landing. that means they are particularly close. there is a pause in the shelling, and the decision is made to pull back. it is too dangerous to operate. >> once, a shell hit 15 meters away from us. the windshield of our truck was damaged. reporter: since the start of the war, one firefighter has been killed, and at least four injured. there are more blazes than the firefighters can get to. moscow says it is not targeting civilians, but this residential district has faced heavy bombardment for more than a month. in the course of the morning, a gas main was struck, and this shopfront incinerated in the blast. an eerie silence hangs over the street.

as we film the devastation, it becomes apparent the russian guns are not done. we are having to stay on the ground. the shelling continues around us. it is very close. frankly, this is what people have to live with every day.

the relentless bombardment of kharkiv has destroyed more than 1000 homes and public buildings. the fire service's area of operation has been divided by the frontline. >> yes, rescuers are working in terrible conditions from the first day of war. so every fire warning call is like new training for our service. every fire, every obstruction, every last, every departure, is never the same. reporter: shelling forces the firemen back to base, and as it continues into the afternoon, the order is given to move underground. >> wait, i will light the way. reporter: it is a long wait for the all clear. the shift commander tells me a mixture of artillery and rockets have been mmonly used the russian forces. >> there was a hit of a grad rocket in this apartment on the ninth floor. as a result, there was a fire started in two apartments. reporter: cost of immediate --

cost of ammunitions banned in many countries. it has also be used in kharkiv , according to humans rights watch. >> this type of cluster projectile was found while putting out a fire in the city's biggest marketplace. reporter: while russian forces have moved away from kyiv, they continue to terrorize kharkiv. there is no rest for the fire service. as the city continues to burn. for the pbs newshour, i am jack houston kharkiv in, ukraine. judy: the bravery. and a note, our coverage of the war in ukraine is supported in partnership with the pulitzer center. as we mentioned, this weekend's horrific image is -- has led president biden and others to accuse vladimir putin of war crimes. ukraine's president and some european leaders even accused russia of genocide. nick schifrin looks at the different crimes and how russia might be held accounble.

reporter: today, u.s. administration officials accused russia of deliberately killing civilians in ukraine as part of its campaign, and said president biden would work with allies to determine how to hold food accountable. we turn to philippe sands, professional or -- professor of law in london and an author. welcome to the newshour. let's start by talking about what is the difference between war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes of aggression? why do you think crimes of aggression might be the most important here? >> sure. i'm sorry to join you in these horrific images, but thank you for your coverage. there are four international crimes. work times, which includes the targeting civilians. crimes against humanity, where it crosses a scale because it is systematic, essentially focusing on individuals. genocide where you are targeting groups. and the crime of aggression,

which is the waging of an illegal war. all four were installed by the famous nuremberg trial of 1945, 1946. and they are established now in international law. in the present circumstances where russia has waged a war that it had -- that is manifestly illegal, it is plain to me that the crime of aggression is being perpetrated. the significance of that crime is that it is the only one with any degree of certainty which reaches the top table. mr. putin, mr. lavro the defense minister, senior intelligence, senior political leaders. for all the other crimes, the challenge you have got is linking the terrible images we have just seen with the leadership at the top. that can be difficult. nick: but as the images show, as jack reported from kharkiv, the indiscriminate attacks on civilian neighborhoods, as we saw from simon, the horrific attacks outside of kyiv and bucha this weekend, as you point

out, international law requires protecting civilians. is the war crimes accusation not a clear-cut? >> we saw two different sets of images. one was plainly of civilian targets, buildings and apartment blocks being targeted by someone. and that is a violation of the laws of war. it is a war crime to target a nonmilitary objective. the other images were obviously appalling to look at. it looked like individuals who had been tied up, bound, hands behind their backs, apparently shot. they appeared to be civilians. that looks to me likely as a war crime, and one that is carried on systematically. there is no difficulty proving the war crimes have happened. the question is, who committed them? was it a bunch of soldiers on the run? going crazy? or was it on instructions from on high? did the leadership know about it and turn a blind eye?

the difficulty of proving what is called command responsibility, the leadership for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is well-established from yugoslavia and other conflicts. which is why i and many others say the principal objective for president biden should be focusing on the illegality of the war from which all of these other illegalities stem. that requires going against mr. putin for the crime of aggression. nick: as we noted, president biden accused putin of war crimes but not genocide. ukrainian president zelenskyy accuses russia of genocide, and gave this reasoning to margaret brennan on face the nation on sunday. >> the elimination of the whole nation of people, we are the citizens of ukraine, we have more than 100 nationalities, this is about the destruction and extermination of all of these nationalities. nick: extermination of the ukrainian nation.

do you believe that meets the legal threshold of genocide, the intent to destroy? >> look, i understand exactly what president zelenskyy is doing, and i have a great deal of sympathy in the view of all of these horrors. he is using the term genocide in its political sense, which is the killing of a large number of people. but that is not the legal sense. the lal sense in international courts and national courts is you have to prove something very difficult to prove. the intention to destroy a gro in whole or in part. courts have been reticent to do at. from what i've seen, i think it is when to be tough to make out genocide as a crime, although i think crimes against humanity are taking place, and war crimes. what president zelskyy did last night's he called for the creation of a special tribunal to target the leadership with the crime of aggression. i think he knows that genocide, crimes against humanity, tying that to the leadership may be more difficult, and he wants to

bring the top people at the top table into the dark. and i think that is what president biden needs to be focusing on. when president biden calls mr. putin a war criminal, he is probably mixing up the different international crimes. the question for the administration will be which of the various crimes do they want to focus on? nick: we only have about 30 seconds left. as you pointed out, zelenskyy called for a special tribunal. you have called for a special tribunal, even though it would not be created by the security council. could that special tribunal undercut the work of an international criminal court case? >> no. i'm very supportive of the international criminal court continuing its work, it is exercising jurisdictional war crimes, may be also genocide. i and about 100 former leaders from around the world have called for the creation of a special criminal tribunal, which would sit alongside the icc, and

investigate in parallel the crime of aggression. it is very important to support the prosecutor as the u.s. senate has done remarkably in a unanimous resolution adopted last week. nick: philippe sands, thank you very muc >> thank you for your work. ♪ judy: in the days other news, leading climate scientists warned governments are falling short on lowering the planet's temperature. instead, the united nations panel said global warming could increase this century by twice the limits agreed in 201 they called for urgent action this decade. we will get details after the news summary. senate u.s. senate negotiators agreed on a pandemic relief package of $10 billion. it would buy more tests and vaccines using unspent funds from previous eta measures.

it would not include aid for other countries. lawmakers hope to pass it before a recess in two weeks. the senate judiciary committee deadlocked today on judge ketanji brown jackson's nomination to the supreme court. democrats then moved to bring it to the full senate on a procedural vote. earlier, jackson earned praise and criticism as committee members spoke one by one. >> i nominate judge ketanji brown jackson, which embodies the highest ideals of our judiciary and the legal profession. i know that will fall on deaf ears. but some members of this committee. members who are -- who care more about seeing their soundbites on social media than seriously and respectfully question the nominees. >> i can say definitively that i like her. . i think she is a good pern. but i cannot support her. when you look at her record in depth, her consistent policy position is at the federal -- is

that the feder sentencing guidelines are outdated, too harsh, and criminals are over sentenced. and i have to say, i could not disagree with her more. judy: jackson is still on track for confirmation with the support of all 50 democratic senators, plus main republican susan collins and alaska republican lisa murkowski, who announced her support late today. police in sacramento california have made an arrest after a shooting on sunday that killed six people and wounded a dozen more. it happened in the wee hours after a fight broke out in a crowded street. at least two shooters fired more than 100 rounds. initial jury screening began in fort lauderdale, florida, in the parkland school shooting that killed 17 people in 2018. the defendant, 23-year-d nikolas cruz, has pleaded guilty to the crime. the jury that has ultimately chosen will dede if he gets the death penalty. in hungary, prime minister

viktor his nationalist party have claimed a sweeping victory in sunday's electio orban is an ally of president putin. he declared his newly won fourth term is a rebuke of liberalism. the european union and of ukraine's leader >> this victory will also be remembered for the rest of our lives, perhaps because we had to fight the biggest overwhelming force, the left at home, the international left all around, the brussels bureaucrats, the international mainstream media, and in the end, even the ukrainian president. judy: and in serbia, another putin ally, president alexander rouche it, won reelection in a landslide on sunday. in pakistan, the supreme court adjourned after a hearing on prime minister imran con's move to dissolve parliament. on sunday, khan and his allies staved off a vote of no-confidence by sending lawmakers home and calling for new elections.

the hearing resumes tomorrow. the world health organization reports9% of the global population breathes air that exceeds pollution standards. the u.n. agency blamed the problem on millions of preventable deaths. it urged more action to reduce particulate matter that damages lungs. on the pandemic, china has sent more than 10,000 health workers to shanghai, including 2000 troops as a covid-19 outbreak spreads. the workers are helping with mass testing of some 25 million residents, but streets remain desolate today as the city entered its second week of lockdown. back in this country, big tech and communication stocks led wall street higher. the dow jones industrial average gained 103 points. to close near 34,922. the nasdaq rose 271 points, nearly 2%. s&p 500 added 36.

the 2022 grammy awards are in the books, with an unexpected big winner. jon batiste took home five grammys, including album of the year. r&b duo silk sonic won song of the year for leave the door open. plus three other awards. d olivia rodrigo was named best new artist of the year. still to come on the newshour, we will break down the latest political news. ancient footprints in new mexico raise questions about early humans in north america. coach dawn staley and the gamecocks take on the women's basketball championship title. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta. judy: we returned to climate change and the u.n. panel latest

report stressing the need for dramatic cuts in greenhouse gases to head off the worst impact of climate change. william brangham has the details. william: the jury has reached the verdict and it is damming. this report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change is a litany of broken climate promises. william: in his typically blunt language, u.n. secretary general antonio guterres was withering towards the world's leaders, calling today's u.n. report an indictment of their in action against climate change. the third and final part of the latest ipp -- ipcc report written by hundreds of scientists from around the world,inds that greenhouse gas omissions from 2010-2019 were at their highest level in human history. at this pace, the planet will blow past the goal of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees celsius in just eight years.

the u.n. report argues that without substantive sweeping changes, warming will make life on earth increasingly dangerous and deadly. while the report cited some increase in positive climate policies, it said much more were needed. this report is principally focused on the concrete actions that nations can take to reduce the emissions driving climate change. those include a rapid turn to cleaner ways of generating electricity, and using it as the principal source of power in our buildings and vehicles. adapting the infrastructure of our cities, where over half the world's population lives, to make them more efficient. harnessing the ability of the land, forests, wired -- waterways, and how we farm to release less carbon and store more of it. >> human activities got us into this problem. human agency can get us out of it. it is not all lost. we really have the chance to do something.

william: given those warnings, how likely is it that world leaders will in fact do something? i'm joined by someone who looks closely at clean energy technology and broadly at the politics of climate policy. dave roberts writes the newsletter called volts, also a terrific podcast. great to have you back on the newshour. this u.n. report paints a pretty damming cture. warming is accelerating, the pledges thus far to do something about it are nowhere near enough. but they try to lay out all of these things that we can do if we really get our act together. what do you take away from this most recent warning? dave: it's interesting. there are two parallel paths going on with each passing ipcc report. on the one hand, we continue running out of time and not acting fast enough. and the sort of cliff of 1.5 degrees gets closeand closer. on the other hand, there is the

second-story running alongside witches the tools we need to solve the problem, to mitigate the problem, are growing ever more sophisticated and evermore cheap, and evermore plentiful. the need to do something and our ability to do something are both rising alongside one another. it is just the intensity of the whole message is cranking up and up and up. william: i know this is one of the things you have written about, that people don't appreciate the real revolution underway in clean energy technology. we always hear about the doom and gloom side, and less about that flowering. when you look at that landscape, what are the things i give you some sense of, you know what, this stuff really good work? dave: i would say the biggest chunk of decarbonizaon, the biggest single item on the list is clean electrification, which means cleaning up the electricity sector, generating electricity without carbon, and

then hooking up the transportation sector to electricity by electrifying vehicles and then hooking up the building sector to the electricity sector by electrifying buildg, heating, and cooling. to the extent you can, hooking up the industrial sector to electricity to use electricity for industrial heat and process heat and stuff like that. electrification is the big menu item, and the tools for electrification, which are mainly wind and solar power, data raise, -- batteries and electrolysis to create green hydrogen, all four of those technologies are on what are called learning curves, which means every time the deployment of those technologies doubles, their price drops by a predictable amount. this has been going on for decades. it is very predictable going forward. if they just stay on those learni curves that they are on now, they are going to dominate

the landscape within a few decades, purely because they will be s much cheaper than the alternatives that no one will -- the political argument around them will fade. it will be the obvious option. it is all just a matter of speed, trying to nudge that process along faster, but it is underway already. william: what are the levers to nudge those things along? are they happening at a pace that is fast enough or does this require the lever of, say, a state, a government, a nation, to push them in the right direction? dave: well, yes. they require policy. to hit our temperature targets we are talking about, we definitely need public policy to accelerate them, because we are at the point now where no market purely market substitution could work fast enough. we are talking about completely transforming several sectors of the economy, the global economy,

within 10 years. that is not something that will ever happen, no matter how cheap they get. so they have got to be pushed alonby government policy. and it has been very frustrating, government policy has not kept up, has not pushed hard enough. william: on the u.s. policy front, president biden surprised many with the build back better legislation, which had a lot of very sensitive to climate change policies. but that is thus far has been shelved, as far as i can tell. does that not make it difficult for the president both to meet america's goals, but also cajole other nations to try to do the right thing? dave: absolely. if the u.s. -- if congress does not pass the climate and energy provisions of the build back better act, which mansion says he is ok with and everyone says they are support, if we do not do that, it will be a failure, a complete failure on climate change, and we wi lose credibility in front of other nations. conversely, if we pass those

provisions, we will be almost very close to the trajectory we need to be on, and it will be an enormous boost for our credibility on the international stage. william: dave roberts of the volts newsletter and podcast, thank you for being here. dave: thanks, william.♪ judy: as we reported on capitol hill, a bipartisan deal is emerging to give the white house some of the money it says it needs for covid testingnd vaccinations. in the far northern reaches of the country in alaska, a vacant congressional seat has brought former governor sarah palin back to the national political stage. joining need to discuss all of this is our politics monday duo, amy walte of the cook political report with amy walter and tamra keith of npr. it is good to see both of you on this monday. we have a little bit of news

within the last few minutes, we have learned judge ketanji brown jackson has picked up a third reblican senate vote. that is mitt romy. it is a landslide by modern standas. it looks like she will get at least 53 votes. i just want to quote quickly, while i do not exct to agree with every decision she may make, i believe she more than meets the standards of excellence and integrity. >> this was not a very difficult thing for a member of congress, for the senate, to say not so long ago. witches, i might not have picked this person, this is not somebody that i agree with their political philosophy, but there, is a president a president gets to pick, it is our job to make sure that person is able to faithfully execute the job. that is becoming rarer and rarer. instead it is now a partyline vote. three votes now is actually os republicans, we heard

josh hawley saying yes, i like her, she is very nice, but she is completely wrong. tamara: right. three crossovers is about all we have been able to see in the senate since they went nuclear. and did away with the filibuster and lowered the threshold for confirmation. you are right. we have seen a number of republican senators come forward and say, this is a history making nomination. she has made her family proud. she has made america proud. all of these things. she will be the first black woman confirmed tohe court. it looks clear that she will be confirmed to be on the court. judy: and possibly the fact that she will not change the ideological balance of the court. tamara: it lowers the stat -- the stakes. judy: she is getting some republican votes. something else to talk about, and that is news of the covid funding bill, it is $10 billion, less than half what the white house was looking for. what does it say -- at one

point, presidents were getting all the money they wanted for covid. what is changing here? pres. biden: i think -- amy: i think what is changing his covid is no longer the top issue for americans. the issue of inflation and the economy is. pumping more money out, even though it is going directly to states and localities to handle things like vaccinations and treatments, still a lot for congress to swallow. they wanted to make sure this money was offset, you could find the money to pay for this. it is no longer just i'm writing a check saying, we will worry abouit later. it's interesting, we just noted mitt romney becoming the third vote there, mitt romney was instrumeal in making this deal happen. he has become the -- we have talked a lot about joe manchin. noon the republican side, it is mitt romney who is willing to actually cross the aisle and he is seen, by democrats, as

somebody who they can deal with and is an honest broker. judy: the administration has been sweating this. they say they will come back and ask for more because they worried about filling the needs that are out there. tamara: one of the big things this bill is lacking is funding for the global effort to vaccinate the world. it is not just producing vaccines and shipping vaccines, but it is also getting shots in arms. that has been a real problem and concern. the administration is saying some of those programs are going to have to stop right away without the funding. but what this does contain on the domestic side is much needed funding that the light has been raising alarms about. for instance, and they have not really talked about this explicitly that much, but in an interview i did with jeff zients last week, the height -- the white house covid coordinator, he explained they are getting calls from companies that make those at home rapid tests.

companies are calling saying they want to shut down production lines because demand has fallen through the floor. omicron, you could not find a test, everyone was begging for tests. now they are everywhere, you get them by the gun at the drugstore. for concern is what happens in the six months? this money will be there to prop up an industry that clearly the free market will not keep it going, will not keep those lines up. judy: as we know, there are countries that do have vaccines, whether it is china, but their protocols are so strict, that they still are shutting down major portions of that country, which has an impact on this country, with supply chains and other items we get from china. even when things are theoretically going well, which is supplying vaccines, people getting vaccinated, the rules country by country are going to impact us too. judy: so much of that is out of

control of whoever is calling the shots here. terrible. amy: didn't mean to have that pun. judy: we will just erase that. i do want to ask you both, and i will start with you, tam, and alaska, some news, the former governor, sarah palin, has stepped out of the quiet for a while to say she is going to be one of 51 people running for the one congressional seat in alaska. tamara: 51 people. but it is a really important seat. it is the congressperson for the entire state of alaska. the stakes for the pple of alaska are fairly high. what sarah palin has been doing for a while is, since she ran for vice president, didn't win, ended up quitting as governor, she has been sort of a reality tv political star for the last many years. throwing her hat in the ring immediately, donald j. trump endorsed her, several other top republicans too.

i don't know that she is a shoe in. i don't know that it is a date -- a guarantee. i don't know that it is totally great name id in alaska. judy: she is not lacking for name. amy: or ability to raise money. there is a new system now in alaska. it is ranked choice voting, there is a top four primary process. the top four candidates, regardless of party, of those 51, will go on to this runoff. this is all brand-new. this was designed, this new law passed by the voters in 2020, in many ways, to help moderates like a lisa murkowski, so that you can't win a primary or runoff just by getting a big slice of th base. you have to appeal to a broader slice. one thing i want to say about this which is interesting, sarah palin, if she were to come to congress, remember in 2008, she was an outlier. she comes to congress, she is w part of the majority. in the mccain wing of the party

has basically -- is no longer there. judy: the wing of the man who chose her. propelled her into national -- international prominence. amy: she was trump before trump. she was a precursor for all of the politics of outrage, both stoking outrage in voters and also creating outrage among liberals, and sticking it to them and raising money along the way. she really helped create this model but trump then used to get into the white house and there are numerous people using this model to raise money and potentially be the next trump. judy: it is what the party looks like mao and the sweat the -- this will get a lot of attention and we will read up on it ranked choice voting. >> we will. tamara: first time it has opened in almost 50 years. there is a lot of pent up demand. judy: don young was there for half a century. thank you both.

politics monday. thanks. ♪ judy: when humans first populated north america, and how they arrived, has long been a matter of spirited debate. as stephanie sy reports, a recent study dig -- detailing what archaeologists believe is the oldest known footprints in the united states is srking new questions and upending long-held assumptions. stephanie: within the sprawling expanse of gypsum sand dunes in dry -- and dry lake fads in white sands national, researchers have spent years examining ancient footprints. >> you can see this. stephanie: david bustos says -- is them parts resource program manager. . he and a team of scientists

discovered ancient animal tracks here over a decade ago. ancient camels and mammoths, previously buried under layer of nd and clay, the sequence of footprints called a track what were revealed after a flood. matthew bennett is a footprint expert. >> it is probably the most important track in the americas, both in terms of scale, geographical scale, but also in the frequency of tracks. that is what is really special about it. stephanie: in 2017, the team confirmed they had found human footprints. >> we are brushing out a set of sloth prints. matthew found the human print right beside the sloth print. that is what sealed the deal. yes, you definitely have that megafauna and humans together. that is where the human side of the story began. stephanie: the footprints show how humans coexisted with large, wild animals.

many are of children and reveal a story about everyday life and play. >> the stories of children in a puddle created by a sloth track, that is one of the most fantastic things. children love jumping in puddles everywhere. stephanie: one big unanswered question remained, how old the human footprints were, and whether they showed if humans inhabited north america earlier than previously thought. >> the peopling of the aricas is one of the most controversial archaeological debates, from an indigenous perspective of having always been here, from a more traditional archaeological perspective saying peopling the americas was quite a recent event. in the controversy, one of the issues is a lack of good data points. stephanie: that is where jeff peck gotti, an expert in radiocarbon dating, and kathleen springer, a geologist and paleontologist, came in.

>> we need to be able to find an area where the footprints are in the lawyers of sediment, where we can find something of date the low and above so we can constrain the age of those track ways. >> you need to carve out a big trench to what aisleways say reveal the belly of the beast. and get inside. >> it is like a cross-section. >> exactly. then, the hope is ok, we found tracks in cross-section. than the hope is, there better be something that is suitable for radiocarbon dating. stephanie: it turns out there was. layer's of seeds from aquatic grasses that grew near the track way. >> some places, there is seeds underneath these human footprints. so we know those seeds were, and those plants were actually actively living and dying there. stephanie: they used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the seats. >> if we measure the amount of

radiocarbon in a seed, and we know how fast it decays, we can calculate how old the plant actually is. stephanie: once they crunch the numbers, what they found was astounding. >> at the very bottom where people were starti to walk around, and where we have the lowest seed layer age, it is about 23,000 years old. at the top, where people were still walking around and we have the highest seed layer, is about 21,000 years old. we basically documented 2000 years of human occupation in this area at white sands and long, long time ago. stephanie: archaeologists have long believed humans arrived in north america 13,500 to 16,000 years ago, after a time of warming had melted massive glaciers opening up a land passage from asia to north america. >> this is so much older. and our first reaction is, we better check everything because these better be right. stephanie: jeff says he has a

95% confidence level in the accuracy of the dating. >> we are asure as you can possibly be scientifically, that that is actually the case. >> put the evidence is not rocksolid, save some archaeologists. >> t critical issues here are, is the dating reliable? stephanie: david meltzer is an archaeologist at southern methodist university. he believes dating seeds from an aquatic plant to tell the age of the footprints is problematic, and says it is too early to be confident. >> the people that are doing the work, they are pros. they. know what they are doing they know what they are about. nature has a mischievous streak. nature has fooled us before. the motto here is "trust, but verify." stephanie: jeff peck gotti and kathleen springer with the u.s. geological survey expected scrutiny, and are working to carbon date pollen found in the rock layer's.

evenhen, there is so much yet to uncover. >> we want to expand the story to not just occupation for 2000 years between 23 and 21, but what if it looks more like this? people were here for much longer. stephanie: if the findings hold up, it could spark a re-examination of similar dry lake bed sites in the southwest, and that could reveal even older evidence of humanity's foothold in north america. for the pbs newshour, im stephanie sy. ♪ judy: finally tonight, south carolina emerges as a powerhouse in women's college basketball. the gamecocks defeated the university of connecticut last night, largely controlling the game from beginning to end. our correspondent looks at the champions, their coach, and the

state of the women's game. reporter: uconn huskies had won 11 ncaa titles, and they had never lost a championship game once they made it to the final round. st night, the coach and the south carolina gamecocks were the ones who came out on top. staley is the first black coach, male or female, to win multiple division i national basketball championships. she won the first title with south carolina in 2017. rachel bachmann is a senior sports reporter for the wall street journal. she joints we form minneapolis. you were there last night. you watched all of this unfold. winning a title for any team at any time is a big deal. for this particular team, why was this such a big moment? rachel: this really was more than a year in the making. last year, the south carina gamecocks lost in heartbreaking fashion to stanford, the eventual champion, on a last second shot that fell out by their star, aliyah boston, who

was back this year and really was laser focused on getting back where she did last night. this time, they finished the job. >> they dominated the entire game, i think it is fair to say? they dominated much of the season, they came in 35-2, ranked number one. why are they so good? rachel: they really have an unstoppable combination of boston down low, she is 6'5", incrediblykilled, national player of the year, and they have fantastic outside shooters. including destanni henderson who had a career-high high of 26 points last night. this combination is difficult to defend. they have a great defense. they really can beat you almost anyway, and that is exactly what they did to uconn. they shut th down in every facet of the game. >> what about their coach? talk to me abo dawn stal she is a trail blazer in so many ways. she was an all-star in the wnba. two-time national championship winning coach.

is this a dynasty she is building? rachel: it is fny, last night, she was hesitant to call it that because there are teams like uconn that have 11 titles. but i think she is definitely building one. two titles in five seasons, minus the covid here. -- year. they were number one the entire year the season. i think with boston coming back, as she is next year, and the incredible recruiting she has done and will continue to do, dawn staley, i don't see any reason why they would not continue this winning stretch. >> coach staley has talked about the pressure she feels as a black coach, saying going into these high-profile games, she feels that. she knows if you don't win, you close doors for other people coming behind you. performing as she has, two national titles, what is the impact of someone like dawn staley on the game? rachel: the incredible thing about her is she shoulders that

responsibility. she embraces it. she reaches out to other black coaches. the last time she won the title, she shared pieces of the net with other black women who coached basketball. she is planning to do something similar with black male coaches, with the net she cut down last night. she really doesn't shoulder that responsibility. it is a lot of pressure, but she embraces it. she really is a path breaker. >> at the same time, she is among the higher paid coaches when it comes to women's college basketball. it does not even compare to what the men get paid. she has noted this before. she said, in the men's game, even if you are unproven, you come in making what i am making now and it is ridiculous. how are we doing on closing the pay disparity gap, in the investment gap that we know exists between the men's game and women's game? rachel: this is where it is important to point out that the women's game is nowhere. the men's championships started in 1939. the women's started in 1982.

the women still have a lot of catching up to do. that being said, tre could not be more investment this is what the coaches are saying, administrators are saying. one of the reasons why coach staley insisted on the highest salary she does, nearly $3 million a year, as she wanted to set a marker for other coaches so they could say hey, if i am close to achieving that, i should get close to her pay well. this is important in the women's game. and coaches have grown up taking what they could get. there are more coaches now who are not satisfd with just accepting that. >> coachawn staley will be one to watch for years to come, and those south carolina gamecocks. congratulations to them. that is rachel bachmann joining us tonight. thank you so much. rachel: thank you so much. judy: congratulations to that south carolina team. that is the newshour for tonight. i am junie -- i am judy woodruff. join us online and tomorrow

eving. . for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you. please stay safe. and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs nehour has been provided by. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> supported by the john d. and

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