♪ >> good, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, president biden requests from congress more aid for ukraine underscoring that the u.s. is bracing for a long conflict. with a new report showing the economy contracting, experts weigh whether this or other signs of resilience matter more for the future. and a tiny vial with big ambitions. a vaccine for the world to close the gap -- all that and more on tonight's

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by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: president biden announced a new 30 plus billion dollar proposal to help ukraine today as congress passed a bill that would make it easier to send weapons to ukraine and nato allies. two thirds of the biden request is for military assistance and the rest is for economic and humanitarian age. as the war rages on, united nations secretary general is on a week of shuttle diplomacy. he met tuesday with vladimir putin and today in kyiv, he met president zelenskyy. the meeting was punctuated by russian missile strikes. >> all that is left of ukraine's defense of mariupol. for those forest to hide for

weeks, it is terrifying. this was a makeshift hospital inside the final holdout of this deal works. the ukrainian commander from a secret location vowed to fight until the end. >> the tactic is like a medieval siege. we are in. they are conducting airstrikes. >> new sidelight imagery shows putin's plan to flatten the plant. russian backed separatists controlled the city. senior u.s. defense official said russian forces are leaving the city as russia makes slow progress. russian forces launched new attacks along the strategic frontline highway. in nearby lehman, ukrainian soldiers fear a new ground invasion. the town has already suffered

airstrikes. the airstrikes continued. she marked civilian on her fans hoping it saves her. >> there is no electricity. we live in the basement. >> nearby, a strike hit a railway warehouse part of the russian campaign to prevent western weapons. president biden promised more weapons. >> we need to contribute arms, funding, and ammunition. so ty can continue the fight and do what they are doing. >> the $33 billion is more than five times ukraine's military budget and would include weapons, a .5 million dollars and economic assistance and $3 million in humanitarian assistance. >> we have seen them leave behind horrifying evidence of were crimes.

>> and that is what the u.n. secretary general witnessed today. he toured what he called the epicenter of unbearable heartbreak and pain and envisioned his own family as victims of terror. >> what i saw, i imagin my family. i see my granddaughters running away in panic with part of the family eventually killed. so, the war is an absurdity in the 21st century. >> he walked through the secure middle of key have to meet with president zelenskyy pledging more assistance. as they met, multiple missiles blew out weapons across a city block. he warned that by the end of the year, 25 million ukrainians, more than half of the country would be need -- in need of

humanitarian assistance. president biden also announced the administration was looking at ways to convert funds of wealthy russians. new jersey democrat tom al-maliki as a cosponsor of the bill that passed the house yesterday. he joins me now. welcome back to the program. your bill is nonbinding. why do you think that you should go further and confiscate those assets and convert them to help ukraine? >> putin has caused tens of biions of dollars of damage to ukraine not counting the horrific loss of life. at the same time, the united states and our allies have frozen or blocked potentially hundreds of billions of dollars of russian assets up to $300

billion of their central bank assets not to mention yachts and villas and ex-pence of that are in fact the property of vladimir putin. it seems fitting and right that we should be willing to use some of that wealth to help the country that putin is destroying. we are not going to be returning these yachts anyway. rather than letting them sit and rot in a port somewhere, why not use them to help the country of ukraine rebuilt. >> as it possibly a slippery slope for the congress to give the power to the administration to seize the assets of a country that it chooses to confront and then give those assets to another country that that administration chooses to support? >> i think this is a very unique circumstance. this is stolen money in the first place. it was stolen from the russian

people by the putin regime. i think we also have to remember the fact that we are complicit in this corruption over many years, the united states and our european aies. we have frankly welcomed the answer of this massive wealth from russia into our real estate and banks and hedge fus. >> the aclu criticized an earlier version of your bill for not having enough due process. do you acknowledge their concerns of going down the road of the executive branch identifying people to target and taking their assets? >> i acknowledge there is a need to do this in a careful way but at the same time, i think one mistake we sometimes make is that we apply an american construct to a russian reality. an america lawyer migh look at a russian oligarch who owns a

soccer team in england and say, that guy i the owner of the soccer team. anyone that understands how russia works would say, that guy is not the owner of the soccer team, it is the russian state, it is putin who is the owner of the soccer team. these are pooled assets. let's not use our due process to protect property that was stolen without due process and is financing the war that is killing thousands and thousands of ukrainians. and let's seize the opportunity to be able to do something for the people of ukraine what the wealth that contributed to the attempt to destroy their country. >> you mentionundreds of billions and even the central bank reserves frozen. we are presumably talking about russian oligarch money. how much of that can the u.s.

seize? >> most of it is outside the u.s. maybe a few dozens of billions of dollars if you count the central bank assets available to the united states but that is not chump change. the european union has also started a discussion about embracing a similar mechanism. i think between the united states and the european union, there is a lot that we can do. and yes, i asked secretary of state blinken today whether this principle that we are agreeing on encompasses potentially central bank assets and he said, potentially yes. >> president biden sent to the hill a supplemental which is more than five times ukraine's annual defense budget. is there any number past which it is becoming too expensive to support ukraine? >> the ukrainians are not just

fighting for themselves, they are fighting for democracy. they are fighting for a set of rules and principles that protect everybody including the united states of america. it is essential they win this fight. there is bipartisan support in congress for doing what is necessary to -- with so much of ukraine's vital infrastructure targeted by russia, widespread power outages are the norm. it falls to local crews to restring pow line all the while under fire. from near the front lines in southeastern ukraine, a special correspondent and videographer report. >> he hurries his men to prepare for the day's work. they change into uniforms,

apprehension apparent on every face. he recently turned 40. for 20 years, he has not touched a cigarette. that has changed. after the war arrived in his hometown. this brief smoke break is interrupted. another incoming shall. though safe inside the shelter, the booms keep on coming. a terrifying soundtrack to a wednesday morning. no bre in the barrage but urgent repairs are required to restore power for the people they serve. >> with this kind of job, you understand that you cannot abandon your place of work. >> he is a manager of the local power company and worries about his staff. >> to lose a worker who has a family, kids, wife, this team is all young and that is the most difficult. every day when my team goes out

and they are working, i worry so much. >> for the last half an hour, the shelling has been pretty constant. as it team -- as the team goes out to prepare wires, the corol room tells us that electricity to the entire town has been cut. the engineer start packing up their gear. a band of brothers heading out not to fight but to fix the fighting's damage. on this day, the shelling is too severe for them to travel into the town center. instead, they follow pylons through plowed fields. for hundreds of miles, front lines and power lines crisscross the conflict. in their years on the job, the men have you learned -- have learned to move fast and pull hard. this job is dangerous in the best of times.

on the horizon, a plume of smoke signaling another shell. we are about to an half miles outside and tank tracks stretch off into the field. those vehicles led to this strike creature right here and the shrapnel we found inside it is what is damaging the wires overhead. the frequency of fire has left dozens of equally damaged sites nearby. back in the dispatch center, their colleagues discuss the growing list of locations they must visit. calls come in from residents reporting yet more. there is no power going through there. the mayor visits each day to warn them where they cannot safely go. >> all three times there was shelling and there was no chance to repair the wires.

we cannot get there. >> the russians have taken the area. is this the most damage to the system you have ever seen? rattling windows the new normal. you can hear it. he explains how the drumbeat of artillery has cut off all power. this is the line that has been cut between here and there. some homes already destroyed and many more abandoned except for the pets. anjali got and her husband are collecting food to feed their neighbors dogs. >> we have come together as never before. we have shown this is happening in the 21st century. the war is terrifying. >> she told us the electrical workers exemplify the solidarity. >> these guys are just great.

they keep doing their work despite the shooting. no one fled. it says a lot about them. they care for others and not just for themselves. >> despite the danger, he calls his days work a duty. >> we all understand, all of us working on the grid. that without electricity, there will be chaos at bakeries and the hospitals and at homes most importantly. so we uerstand that we have to carry out our obligation to provide people with energy. reporter: for the pbs newshour from ukraine. judy: thank you. a reminder that the "newshour" coverage of the war is supported in part by the pulitzer center. ♪

in the other news, after a year of work, the u.s. economy slowed down in the first quarter of this year appeared at the commerce department says ed shrank at an annual rate of 1.4 percent. that has not happened since the pandemic recession hit in 2020. spite the economy's retreat, wall street took heartrom strong consumer spending. in upbeat earnings reports. the nasdaq closed. nearly 2%. the nasdaq rose 382 points, 3%. the s&p 500 added 2.5%. moderna formally asked the fda touthorize its covid-19 boxin for children under the age of six. if approved, the lodo shots would be the first available for that age group.

company officials said they hoped for a decision before summer. >> this is for this -- this is for children at a higher need. i think we will have a safe and effective vaccine to offer. judy: the moderna vaccine has proved 40%-50% effective in preventing infections in young children but more effective in preventing serious illness. roughly the same as in vaccinated but unboosted adults. new research shows that a warming planet could help new vaccines spread at the next 50 years. georgetown university studied 3000 mammal species. mammals may migrate and carry new seases with them as temperatures rise. results appear in the journal nature. there were observances around the world today, a holocaust remembrance day and memory of

the 6 million jews and others murdered by the the nazis. in poland, the president joined survivors of auschwitz where more than one million people were killed. he used the occasion to condemn russia's invasion of ukraine. >> in fact, it is hard to believe it at all that after so many russian leaders held speeches here filled with pride that the red army had liberated the auschwitz camp that they dared to bomb a place where ukrainian jews were executed during the second world war. judy: in israel, drivers stopped their cars and bowed their heads . shoppers and markets did the same. as sirens blared for two-minute in an annual tradition. oklahoman lawmakers band nearly all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. it is modeled on a law in neighboring texas and will effectively stop women from crossing the state line for abortions.

the new law takes effect immediately once the governor signs it. president biden has confirmed that he is mulling whether to cancel additional federal student loan debt. democratic lawmakers and activists have urged him to erase $50,000 in debt per person. the president was asked about that at the white house today. >> i am considering dealing with some debt reduction. i am not considering $50,000 debt reduction but i am looking at whether there will be additional debt forgiveness. judy: the president says he plans to make his decision in the next few weeks. he previouslsaid he is willing to forgive $10,000 per borrower. he has also extended a pandemic cause. still to come on the newshour, a divided congress grapples with rising gas prices, covid relief and immigration.

the push to eliminate menthol flavored tobacco products. preserving the artistic and cultural treasures at risk in ukraine using tools of the digital age and much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs "newshour" from w eta studios in washington and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the u.s. economy slowed down over the first three months of the year, the first time it has contracted tents the pandemic brought it to a screeching halt. other troubling signs, most notably inflation and concerns over the rise of our wing costs. let's get some analysis on what to make of this. diane swan joins us from grant thorton. welcome back to the "newshour." last year, we saw roaring growth. first quarter this year, a slow down what is behind this? >> we saw a tale of two

economies. the domestic economy, the consumer helped by business investment accelerated in the first corridor off the fourth quarter while the trade deficit absolutely balloons. exports fell at their fastest pace since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. as everything from the omicron waved to the war in ukraine and new lockdowns in china take a bigger toll on growth abroad and at home. we saw continued double-digit gains and imports in the united states as we were trying to bring in and catch up on losses from the delta wave last summer. where we saw the strength was really the pillars of the u.s. economy, the consumer housing market although all cash buyers are pushing out first-time buyers and business investment accelerated. that resilience we saw off of

1.7 million jobs generated something like what we would do in a year in the 2010s in one corridor helped bu -- quarter helped buoy the economy. government spending also fell dramatically. defense spending was cut that we know that will reverse course soon also. judy: which indicators do we look to for the most accurate picture of what is really going on in the economy? >> from the perspective of the federal reserve, what matters most is that inflation in the data today as well hit a 40 year high at the same time as domestic demand accelerated. that is important for the fed because the resilience, as good as it is also means it is allowing inflation to continue to flare and that is something the fed is concerned about. it would like to see demand slow

down to meet a supply to do that you have to hammer demand pretty hard and the chances of getting things just right like in goldilocks and in getting the porridge just right is not as easy as moving around the table. goldilocks only exists in fairytales. judy: you mentioned inflation, or numbers are coming tomorrow. we can look at chairman jay powell and he said they may be looking at a half point increase. how much is that supposed to ow down the economy? >> we are looking to see some of the fastest rate increases since 1994 if not faster because in addition to what would be two back-to-back half percent increases in may and june, we will also see the fed reduce the mammoth balance sheet it has. that is an unknown. it is kind of like driving using

the rearview mirror. you cannot see the obstacles you might pitch. at could be the fastest tightening cycle we have seen since the 1980's to deal with 1980 level of inflation. it is really hard. we are worried the u.s. economy slows to a stalled speed in the second half of the year where we don't see the underlying domestic demand and we start to see a rise in the unemployment rate. judy: and when you say slow down, there is starting to be discussion about the prospects for another recession. what are the signals we should be looking at to see whether that is on the horizon or not? >> really, the issue is whether or not we can keep slowed down the demand for workers. it is up more than 60% since february 2020 and the supply is

not up that much. there is no way, even if we got a lot more workers participating in the labor force to get that to meet the demand. at the fed would like to do is pool the job openings to bring it down closer to supply. it is over a 5 million gap right now. i'm worried we won't be able to do that without raising the unemployment rate and increasing the supply of workers and i think the probability of recession is very high in the second half of the year and as we move into 2023. we are forecasting a growth recession which is when growth is not enough to hold unemployment down and it continues to rise in 2020 32 derail the inflation we have and get it back to being insignificant to most consumers. judy: many eyes in the meantime are on the federal reserve and what it does. >> absolutely, the federal

reserve will be dving this and it is forcibly going to be bringing inflation down. they will be committing to that again and doubling down on it next week which is an important message to watch. how progressive does the fed want to continue to be after this initial lift off which i already going to be very aggressive. they have credibility on the line. they are behind the curve and inflation. judy: thank you, diane. ♪ lawmakers return to capitol hill this week and were met with a growing list of legislative items to capital from funding for ukraine more covid relief, there is a lot they are hoping to accomplish. as the political clock may be running out. for more are -- for more on all

of this, i am joined by lisa desjardins. as we just heard from diane, there is growing concern about the economy, about growth and inflation. what does this say about what congress is looking at? reporter: this is a major issue. the problem is there is not much congress can do to change the short-term economy or address short-term crisis. democrats want to let americans know that they are paying attention and are concerned. emma kratz unveiled something they are trying to do today. the idea coming out of the house is to tackle asked prices specifical. as prices went up 20% in just a few weeks in march. look at the gas prices here, this is from california. nancy pelosi is trying to move through with her counterpart and the senate a bill that would deal with how oil and gas companies -- what they charge. they were recently accused of

prison -- price manipulation. >> there is no excuse for big oil companies to protect, to profiteer, to price gouge or exploit families. reporter: they want to get the federal government more power to look at how companies operate and how to potentially penalize them. that is another thing that would have a long-term effect. nancy pelosi does not want to change the gas taxr a raise that. there is a bill about our competitiveness with china. the senate just moved to go to conference which means we are getting closer to seeing a final bill on that. technological issue but i think we are weeks from seeing where that goes. judy: and you have the request for ukraine. we reported on the white house request today for 33 billion

dollars. where does all of that stand? reporter: more action came today. as our viewers may know, the president announced he wants dirty $3 billion for ukraine. senator mcconnell said he is likely to support that even though it is a large number for republicans. problem is democrats would also like to get the covid funding bell, $10 billion through but mcconnell is in the way of that right now. the issue is that mcconnell has not made a deal on the two issues coming together. emma kratz have decisions to make. we will understand more about this in may. judy: finally, the biden agenda overall. a number ofhings he talked about during the campaign last year including the buildinback better. reporter: so much to talk about here. let me guide this.

we are still watching senator joe manchin from west virginia. he is having talks with chuck schumer. they talked on monday. joe manchin once a bill aimed at deficit reduction. he would increase corporate taxes and he would use half of that money to reduce the deficit. saying, if you want my vote, this is what i want in return. democrats could get some of those original agenda items but this is early days on that and it is a longshot at this point on whether any version of build back under remains i think what i want to do because it sometimes hurts my own head. i want to lay out for viewers the chances of survival. we put together this graphic. it talks about the path ahead for the different issues. first of all, on the left side, more likely, ukraine funds.

add is more likely to g through congress in the coming weeks. more in the middle, talking about covid funds. that is a hot political issue. republicans do not trust democrats a politics are involved. in the middle, trickier, the china competitiveness bill and chips. unclear to see where that ends. the longshots include things that we were just talking about including the joe manchin deficit bill, building back better, there is also the potential of a climate bill that joe manchin and lisa murkowski are working on. i put those -- that on the long shot. another problem is the clock is running out. take a quick look at the congress calendar. may and june, these are the weeks that the house and senate are in session. five weeks. why do these months matter?

there -- it is a midterm election year. this is a huge election year. could our lawmakers do something in september? yes. have they in recent years? no. also in may and june, january 6 hearings in the house. there is not a lot of oxygen on capitol hill. there is a lot to do and there is not a lot of commonality and a lot to do. judy: and the january 6 hearings we think in the month of june. reporter: my sources tell me june. judy: you don't have enough to handle. [laughter] reporter: we will keep track of it. judy: thank you very much. ♪ after considering doing so off and on for more than a decade,

the fda is forging ahead with her proposal the band menthol flavored cigarettes. if finalized this summer, the move is expected to reduce has been met with praise and criticism. stephanie sy has our look. reporter: mental accounts for more than a third of all cigarettes sold in the u.s. and the cooling minty flavor is a most popular among certain smokers. nearly 85% of black smokers use menthol. more than half of all kids who smoke use menthol cigarettes. the fda said the band could prevent up to 650 thousand smoking deaths over 40 years. carol mcgruder is a cochair of the african-american tobacco control leadership council and advocacy group. carol mcgruder, thank you for joining us. banding menthol cigarettes has been discussed for years under different presidential administrations. how big of a deal is it that the

fda is finally making this move? >> this is a monumental day in public health. the day of the century. the ruling is that important. we want to make sure that people know it is not done. this is the beginning of the process. we need to participate in it and understand. the tobacco industry could also have lawsuits to block it. this is the beginning of the end d not the end but it is a monumental day and the fda is finally doing what they were mandated to do in 2009 when the tobacco control act was passed and that was to do something about menthol. it has taken a lot of push. a lawsuit on our part with our co-plaintiffs including the american medical association to get them to move. they finally have and we are very grateful. reporter: the fda statement out today explained the effects of menthol cigarettes and one fact

that i think a lot of people may not know is that the flavor enhances the addictive effects of nicotine. we also know they are the most preferred cigarettes among lack smokers which your group specifically focuses on. talk about some of the ways in which tobacco companies have pushed the cigarettes on black communities. >> through the tobacco industry's own documents that were released, there has been research papers that have come out and one is called institutional racism, the other is smoking with the enemy. it documents how the tobacco industry h preyed upon african-americans, how they had special urban programs for black people. they distributed free cigarettes in our community across the country to children as young as nine years old. one of those children was dave chappelle here he was given free cigarettes in washington, d.c. and the metro station and he

talks about how he went home and decided he was going to learn how to smoke. the feeding of these deadly and addictive products to our community has been going on for decades. while we have been fighting for civil rights, the tobacco industry has been in the background addicting us, each generation after generation in the last 20 years, there has been a million black people that have died from tobacco induced diseases. my mother died from breast cancer. we know what caused these millions of deaths. what caused them was the tobacco industry. reporter: and yet there are critics of the band. they are worried it will have unintended consequences specifically on the black community. family members of victims of excessive police force have signed a joint letter to the biden administration that says

-- our fear is that banding the manufacturing and selling of menthol cigarettes will not stop their production and purchase but will instead open the floodgates for smoke -- for smuggling. that does not match our experiences with other cigarette policies. what is your response to those concerns? >> my response is that we have a problem in our country with racism and with the policing of black bodies. and for the tobacco industry, i know that rev. al sharpton and their group received money from reynolds american which h i beee people traveling around the country with this dialogue. i rest back reverend al, he has done tremendous work in our community but on this issue, it is the tobacco industry that is behind edge. it is a group that is killed one

million black people these last 20 years. there are other national organizations in support of taking these products off the market. no one loves the black smoker than the african-american tobacco controlled council. this is not the end, to pass legislation. it is the beginning. public health is on board. this is not about criminalizing black smokers but about helping them and stopping another generation of black children from being addicted to these products. our neighborhoods do not have to be this way. this is a new day. reporter: carol mcgruder with the african-american tobacco controlled leadership council, thank you for joining the "newshour." >> thank you so much. ♪ judy: it is a tiny vial with big

ambitions to help bring an end to the pandemic everywhere on earth. the developers of the so-called vaccine for the world hope what is inside can ease the equity issues surrounding global vaccine distribution. john yang has the story. reporter: some squeezed their eyes shut as they got their shot. others turned their heads away. these schoolchildren in india were among the first in the world to get a dose of a new low-cost covid-19 vaccine called core vivax manufactured by an indian pharmaceutical company. it was developed half a world away in houston, texas, home to the world's largest radical hub including texas children's hospital at baylor college of medicine. that is where a microbiologist maria and peter hang their lab coats heading up research at the national school of tropical medicine. >> if your house is on fire and

you can make one phone call, you call the fire department. reporter: they have made the recipe for a covid-19 vaccine which uses a decades-old method available to low and middle income countries at low -- at no cost. >> we give them a box and a zoom nkli of our consumables, information, and we -- and they get access to us and our team. that is what true diplomacy in vaccine development should look like. reporter: why is another vaccine necessary? in high income countries, 71% of the people have been vaccinated with at least one dose. in though income countries, that number is 15% and many of those countries are in africa where government resources are scarce

and access to vaccines has been limited. it is a problem the head of the world health organization had foreseen. >> as we see some countries striking bilateral deals, we worn that the poorest and most vulnerable will be trampled in the global stampede for vaccines. and that is exactly what has happened. >> i remember when that covid-19 sequence came online. i called mary alayna. and i said, i think we can do this. reporter: they put their lab to work building out a decade of research on what is known as recombinant protein technology. it is used in the common childhood vaccine against hepatitis b. it involves using yeast to copy a part of the coronavirus spike

protein and teaches the immune system to recognize and fight the virus. tell me what we are seeing. >> this is our brewing room. when you use yeast, and we use the fermentation of yeast, it is the same as if you were brewing beer. the yeast grow and instead of secreting alcohol, we make them secrete our protein of choice which is our vaccine. reporter: is it finding the right recipe for this brew to grow the way you wanted to grow? >> in theory, it is very simple. it is traditional. reporter: it has been making vaccines for decades. but does it work? india's phase three clinical trial has been going on at across the country. it looks like one of the advantages of this protein-based

vaccine holds up to the variants better than most technologies. >> we have very robust immune responses. reporter: funding did not come easily. the u.s. government wasore focused on innovative technology producing vaccine doses quickly. >> they wanted to have a piece of mrna that you could make in a few days with no real situational awareness to the fact that we have a brand-new technology from that so there is a learning curve. and so, it was all about speed and innovation, un-enough to vaccinate north america and western europe and the u.k. reporter: how did they raise the money? >> texas is philanthropic like you would not believe. foundations with which we

already had prior experience for our other portfolios, they came to the rescue. tito vodka came to us. reporter: what was your reaction when you got the call from tito vodka? >> you are never surprised. reporter: part of the vaccine equity problem rests in the wide variation of costs. this no-frills vaccine which does not require special handling is being manufactured in india at a cost to the indian government of $1.90 per dose and the company can make 100 million doses per month. by contrast, a dose of pfizer in the u.s. costs the government $19.50, a price that is expected to rise. >> if you are a privileged member of society with money, you have access to health and can afford the medicine.

those that don't really suffered. i grew up in honduras. growing up, you see the impact that poor health has on a child to be able to grow, as an economic productive member of society. that has been my drive to working in this space. our revenues are how many people we can touch by bringing these technologies to those that really need it. >> i really have appreciated working with her the last 20 years because she has made me realize how global health operates along an old colonial model. that only japan, westereurope and the u.s. and canada really know how to do this stuff and australia. eventually, it will filter down. we are it hearing to the idea of

de-colonizing global health. reporter: the gift of the world has also been approved in indonesia and watts wanted with the potential to reach millions more of the and beck -- of the unvaccinated. ♪ judy: finally tonight, we return to the invasion of ukraine. there is everywhere, much of contemporary life including history and culture is documented in the digital space. with so much at risk, new efforts are taking on cultural preservation. we have a look for our arts and culture series, canvas. reporter: outward signs of distraction, homes,oads, and whole cities. efforts to protect important monuments and artworks and a less obvious different kind of

risk to the digital world. humanity specialist. >> the internet ultimaly comes down to physical things, websites live on servers. service can be destroyed just like anything else. servers capture so much of modern life. reporter: she is the head of the music library at tufts university. >> if the physical artifacts, manuscripts, books, scores were destroyed or damaged during the invasion, there would not be anything left if no one was interested or willing to secure and preserve the digital content. reporter: they are founding members of saving ukrainian cultural heritage online. focusing on the digital imprint. now at risk of damage to servers and other threats to countless websitesut cultural

institutions, libraries, schools and so much more. it is a different kind of cultural heritage existing digitally and requiring digital preservation. that is where this organization steps in scouring websites across ukraine to create a new archive kept safe and backed up on secure servers. in some cases, these are digital versions of physical artifacts like an important music manuscript at the national library. >> there are many other artifacts like that where there may not be any other copy available outside of that one library so it is really important that we are doing this work in order to help preserve and archive these materials that they can live on and others can access. reporter: matials are already digitized. important historical document such as kgb files from the soviet era. every day items like an afterschool program teaching

children about railroads. >> we have gotten some of the most obvious ones. now the harder work of tracking down the smaller archives. there is a beautiful and tremendously varied kinds of content out there that represent the lives and culture of people in ukraine. we are here to look for as many of them as we can find. reporter: multiple processes are used to save and backup this content. webse urls are uploaded to the way back machine which is connected to the internet archive, a free, nonprofit, digital library. volunteers use free software called web recorder on their own computers to crawl or capture websites. >> they have multiple virtual browsers that act as if they are humans going through the site page by page finding new pages and adding them to the list.

it goes through the site 24 hours a day until they capture every single page on the site. they create the archive file that can be saved on our servers. >> even if the site goes down or the server is damaged, you can still go to the archive and see the manuscript the way it existed. reporter: volunteers search websites like wikipedia, peru's thing herita sites and in some cases, even taking a digital walk through ukrainian streets on google maps to find heritage sites at risk. this is digital sleuthing, walking through the city itself looking for possible archives. >> people are becoming familiar with cities on the other cider the world looking for these places and trying to find some way to capture what we can. our 1300 volunteers cannot parachute into ukraine and bundle away the statues but we can protect other forms of cultural heritage. these are things that are easy

to overlook when looking at the large-scale of ukrainian cultural heritage at risk. it is something that we can help from even from the other side of the world. reporter: even children can help says dombrowski who has taught her own son how to look at websites. >> my eight-year-old nose how to do this -- knows how to do this. reporter: 3500 sites have been archived so far with lindsey moore to do. one possible use for this work is evidence, legal and otherwise. >> if there is any kind of array sure or looting of artifacts and buildings, there is the digital that exists and that can be used if there are work crimes committed or if there is any kind of erasure or silencing of the ukrainian identity. reporter: what is the goal?

what happens to the digital material? >> the best outcome is for none of this to be needed. we would like nothing more than to note that all of the servers are safe and the sites will go back up and life will continue as it did before. already we are seeing that unfortunately this is unlikely to be the case and our goal is digital repatriation. we want to give the data back to ukrainian librarians and curators who care about it and can take it forward into the future as soon as they are in a positiono rebuild. reporter: until then, preservation of digital culture one website at a time. judy: so grateful this work is going on. tonight on the newshour online, how one jesuit boarding school in missouri forest native chilen into assimilation and stripped them of their culture.

you can find that now on pbs.org/newshour. that is the "newshour" for tonight. join us online and here again tomorrow evening. please stay safe and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs "newshour" has been provided by-- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular have offered programs to help people do more of what they like. the customer service team can help you find the plan that helps you. ♪ >> the ford foundation working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. ♪ and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "newshour." ♪

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what'soming up. >> in the 20th and 21st century, freedom had no greater champion than maddie orton. >> america bids farewell to madeleine albright. we look back on some of her most insightful conversations. >> then. >> if russia gets away with this, then so goes the so-called international order. >> the u.s. digs in as russia's war intensifies. i'm joined by the u.s. ambassador to the osce michael carpenter. and as russia cuts off gas supplies to poland and bulgaria the cost of this