♪ judy: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, price spikes. inflation rises faster than expected, pinching pocketbooks and spooking the markets. then, the hearings began. the house committee investigating the capital insurrection formay accuses former president trump of attempting a coup as witnesses testified to the violence of that day. and, it is friday. david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the hearings and the push for gun safety legislation in congress. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪

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♪ this program was made possible for the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: new inflation numbers are out tonight and show the pain has not peaked but is still getting worse. the u.s. labor department reports consumer prices rose 8.6% in may compared to a year ago, marking the biggest increase in 40 years. going back to december of 1981. president biden focused on inflation as he toured the port of l angeles today and acknowledged the problem is still not under control. president biden: i understand americans are anxious and for good reason. the price of gasoline rose precipitously and it was a

discussion at the table. my administration will do everything we can to lower thee. congress has the act and they have been of late. judy: inflation newsanded with a thud on wall street. the dow jones lost 2.7% to close at 31,392. the nasdaq fell 414 points at 3.5%. the s&p 500 dropd nearly 3%. for the week, the indexes were down 4.5% to 5.5%. let's look at the impact of the rising prices and what it means for the finances of working households. michelle singletary is a personal finance columnist for the washington post and joins me now. welcome back to the newshour. what does this news mean for working americans who frankly hav been living these numbers for the past many months?

michelle: it will be tough for them. gas and food costs more. if you have to move and get a new rental, rent is going up. it is really tough for a lot of americans right now to keep enough food on the table and an affordable roof over their heads. judy: what are the items -- you just touched on some of them -- that are seeing the biggest price hikes. or is it across-the-board? michelle: it is across-the-board. but the things people need the most -- gas, food, and housing. if you have to buy a car, it will cost you more. your washing machine goes up. it will cost you more. the big ticket items that people rely on. if you cannot travel, and put off that vacation maybe have a staycation especially if your budget is tight, you will have to do that, unfortunately.

don't risk your financial safety by trying to do something you can't afford. i hate to tell people that because we have been cloistered up because of the pandemic. but inflation is so high that you need to tighten your budget -- and i know some people tighten it so much that they want to scream. but you need to tighten some more so you can weather the storm. because we don't know what's going to happen over the summer or if inflation will go even higher. judy: you're right about people wanting to get away after being cooped up. is it possible to describe which americans are hit the worst? michelle: it is definitely those minimum wage or just above. those on social security and that is most of their income. even though social security had a cost-of-living increase, but it still isn't keeping pace with inflation. there are two parts of our economy. the people complaining about gas

prices and food prices, but they can bear that cost. i need you all to stop fussing so much because you can do this. tightening for you is eating out one less time this week. then there's the part of the american public that was struggling before the pandemic and now they have an inflationary crisis. for them, it might mean having two meals instead of three. and for that population, we have to help them. more funds to food banks. if there are people in your lives who you know are struggling help them out. ,maybe pay their rent for a couple of months if you have that extra so that we caall get through this. people ask me, what can people do? you can do something. to whom much is given, much is required. if you have extra, help some folks out. give to charities helping feed the poor and helping people with housing. that is how we will get through this together. and on an individual level, what can you do?

if you are doing ok, go ahead and buy that car and eat out. but if you are not, you've got to pull back. judy: some grim words. it michelle singletary from the washington post, thank you. vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy, with newshour west, we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. the congressional committee is january 6 set to lay out its evidence in detail starting after a dramatic opening night. monday in prime time thursday, the panel accused then-president trump of an attempted coup. in turn, he went online today to deny he urged his supporters to storm the u.s. capitol. we'll focus in on all of this, after the news summary. in ukraine, house-to-house fighting raged on in the eastern city of severodonetsk. one top ukrainian official said up to 200 government troops are

dying every day. the city has been laid waste by round-the-clock russian shelling. and, as the destruction deepened, ukraine's president again demanded that european states do more. president zelenskyy: why are there still people hesitating whether to block any relations with such a country, when russia has been cynically violating all vital norms of international law? these questions indicate the european system can lose if words are not backed with actions. the democratic system can lose, even in our continent, if there are no actions. vanessa: president zelenskyy also said he's fearful that as the war drags on, western nations will lose interest. the biden administration says overseas travelers to the u.s. will no longer have to test negative for covid within a day before they fly. the cdc has determined the requirement is no longer necessary. it may be reinstated if a troubling new variant emerges.

and, as the summit of the americas wraps up its final day, the u.s. and other western hemisphere nations announced principles for handling migrants and refugees. they range from humane border management to aid for nations most affected. the u.s. is committing more than $300 million dollars. canada said it will welcome more refugees. president biden will visit fire-ravaged new mexico on saturday. he will be briefed on the largest wildfire in state history. it has burned more than 500 square miles in northern new mexico since it began in april and it's still burning today. biden's visit comes as residents of mora county are suing the u.s. forest service for failing to provide information on the agency's role in starting the fire. still to come on the "newshour"... lawmakers from both parties discuss the january 6 hearings. also david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the latest political headlines.

and ukraine struggles to defend one of its last strongholds in the east and much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: as we reported, plenty of reaction today to the first primetime televised hearing from the january 6 congressional committee. the house panel used new witness testimony and video to make the case that president trump is responsible for the capitol riots. a primetime production including some never before seen footage from the january 6 capital attack. we need to hold the doors of the capitol. i need support.

judy: at the house committee investigating the assault, they held their first public hearing presenting nearly a year's worth of work to the american people. from the start, bennie thompson of mississippi made clear this was no spontaneous riot. >> january 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup. a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after january 6, to overthrow the government. the violence was no accident. >> we will walk down to the capital. judy: directly fueling the violence, the committee said, was one man who refused to accept the 2020 election results. >> donald trump was at the center of this conspiracy. judy: in clip after clip from some of the hundreds of interviews, those closest to mr. trump revealed they knew his claims of election fraud were baseless and told him so. then attorney general william barr -- >> i made it clear i did not agree that the election was stolen.

and putting out the stuff, which i told the president was -- you can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view unsupported by specific evidence that there was fraud in the election. judy: trump's daughter ivanka -- >> it affected my perspective. i respected attorney general barr so i accepted what he was saying. judy: mr. trump into new to lie about a stolen election. including at the rally before the assault. inspirinthe crowd to attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power. [screaming] in an edited compilation, the committee showed the rage and violence unfolding outside the

capitol. while inside, a picture of panic. staffers fleeing the office of republican house minority leader kevin mccarthy. leading last night's hearing alongside thompson, congresswoman liz cheney of wyoming, one of two republicans on the panel of nine that was ousted from her party's leadership for taking part. >> i say this to my republican colleagues defending the indefensible -- there will come a day when donald trump is gone. but your dishonor will remain. judy: among the revelations from this hearing, cheney said multiple republicans, including scott perry, contacted the white house seeking presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. and then president trump's response to calls for violence. >> aware of the rants to hang mike pence, the president responded with, "maybe our supporters have the right idea. mike pence deserves it.”

judy: the committee brought two witnesses to share their stories. one, capitol police officer caroline edwards, one of more 100 officers that day. edwards was knocked unconscious. she later rejoined the line, fighting to hold off the mob. she was pepper sprayed and tear gassed. >> i saw a war scene. it was something like i had seen out of the movies. i could not believe my eyes. there were officers on the ground. they were bleeding. they were throwing up. i saw friends with blood all over their faces. i was slipping in people's blood. judy: the second witness, a filmmaker documenting the participation of far-right extremist group the proud boys. >> i was surprised at the size of the group, the anger and profanity. for anyone who did not understand how violent that

event was, i saw it. i documented it. reporter: he spoke with judy woruff earlier today. >> when we arrived at the mall, we encountered the proud boys already moving toward the capitol. what we documented was them walking in a very concerted fashion toward the capitol. and there were 200 to proud 300 boys, which was more than what i expected. i was quite astounded by the amount of proud boys. judy: and so this notion that the attack on the capital was completely spontaneous, they just wanted to go there, and it got out of hand -- what would you say? >> i would agree with the erudite roadmap that this was not a spontaneous event. they were carrying weapons. i saw a proud boy with a baseball bat. you can see another proud boy

with a flagpole that turns out to be an ax handle. they were wearing tactical gear. they had all sorts of offensive weapons with them. i mean... you can draw your own conclusions, but why would someone bring a baseball bat to a political rally? reporter: the hearing was carried by every major network except for fox, which aired occasional clips. hosts dismissed the hearing as theater. >> i think most americans are sick and tired of the politicization that you are seeing by the democrats to try to change the subject. american people are angry about what joe biden, nancy pelosi, and the far left socialist agenda has done to people. they wish congress was addressing those things, not

this hollywood production. reporter: even former president trump appear to be washing, -- to be watching, and issued a barrage of commentary online. the current president invoked how the dangers are ever present. president biden: it's important for the american people to understand what truly happened. and the same forces remain at work today. reporter: the committee will lay out additional findings in five more hearings. they argue showing coordination among the takers -- of the attackers, detailing the stop the steal effort, and including how the president pressured the department of justice to overturn a legitimate election. judy: opposition to the select committee is nearly unanimous from house republicans, who have attacked the work as the legitimate and politically motivated. sa desjardins spoke earlier with a member of the republican leadership for his reaction.

lisa: jim banks was kevin mccarthy's pick to serve as ranking member of the january 6 committee. house speaker nancy pelosi blocked his appointment. in the months following, banks, who also chairs the republican study committee, has been one of the most vocal critics of the generate six committee. representative banks joins me now. how do you see the hearing last night and the work that the committee is doing? >> sadly last night was no different from what we have seen before. it was a political exercise, truly a political witchhunt focused more on the democrats obsession with donald trump than anything at all about capital security or investigating the events that led up to january 6 so we can prevent something like that from ever happening again. i was disappointed there were not specific questions and issues raised last night as there has been throughout all of the activities of this

committee, that addresses the concerns of rank and file capitol police officers who tell me that they weren't prepared for what happened because of a breakdown of how intelligence was gathered and disseminated. they weren't equipped for it because they had outdated, faulty, and expired equipment. and they weren't trained for a riot at the capitol. all of those questions deserved answers and those are the types of questions that if i were the ranking member, that's what we would've focused on. lisa: i know you're leading a separate investigation and we look forward to your report what , you want to look at and the security concerns. i also want to give you a chance to answer the main thrust of what the january 6 committee is saying here. they are charging president trump was central to what they call a multistep conspiracy to overturn the election results and in causing january 6 itself. i ask you, does preside trump there any -- bear any responsibility? >> last night, what you saw, was a series of selectively edited interviews.

they recorded all of these interviews but they did not present the american people with any evidence that actually shows donald trump directed the attack on the capitol. they didn't present it because they don't have it. i can't get over that in the president's speech that day, he told his supporters to go down to the capitol and patriotically and peacefully make your voice heard. there has never been evidence brought forward that shows he did anything oer than that. he did not direct the attack or tell people to attack the capitol or break into the capitol. there is no evidence he did that. lisa: i do hear your words that he did not direct an attack on the capital. he did not say please go break into the u.s. capital. we are a place where we can have room for nuance and we are careful with wording. my question, does he bear any responsibility? >> again, i can't get past the lines in his speech where he told his supporters to go down to the capital and peacefully and patriotically make your

voice heard. lisa, what i love about washington, d.c., it is a place where you can go protest and make your voice heard. exercise your constitutional rights. on that day, a lot of people came to washington, d.c., who came to support a president. they felt like the election wasn't conducted in a proper way. i have those same concerns about the constitutionality of the way the election was conducted, the changing of laws because of covid leading up to election day. people were upset. they came to washington to register that. that is very american for people to do that. there were people on the other hand that broke into the capital and were violent and they should be prosecuted. the fbi has arrested hundreds of them, as they should. they should be held to a very high standard in the court of law. lisa: i know you are someone who

served in afghanistan and honor is something that manners -- that matters to you. liz cheney said last night to those defending president trump that there will be a day when president trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain. she believes this is a real danger to the country. how do you reflect on the longer-term implications, and how do you know that you are keeping your oath to your country higher than the duty to your party and one president? >> i take that question very seriously. liz cheney will not be the arbiter of whether or not a keep my oath to my country. let me make that very clear. never forget this select committee has already been caught altering evidence, they've had to apologize for it. they doctored and altered text messages from jim jordan and others and they were caught red-handed. last night was very theatrical, the way that the committee hearing was conducted last night. selectively edited pieces and parts of interviews.

to me, that is dishonorable. it is dishonorable that this isn't a bipartisan effort to get the american people the facts and findings. there have been 100,000 pages of evidence gathered by the committee but they only selectively offered the american people a very small part of it. there are serious questions about how this committee has been conducted, and to me, that ultimately is very dishonorable. lisa: one last thing, do you agree there was no significant fraud in the 2020 election? >> i base my vote to object on how states conducted their election without the approval of theistate legislatures. that is a serious constitutional question that i believe deserved greater scrutiny and debate. i have never once talk about a "stolen election." it wasn't about that to me. it was about the way that states using covid as an excuse, went , to all mail-in ballots. changed election laws and how ballots were collected on

election day without the approval of the state legislature. lisa: i hear you saying in other words, you are not seeing the election was stolen, there are process concerns you have. thank you for joining us. judy: for more takeaways, we turn to a member of the january 6 select committee that also served as the lead impeachment manager in president trump's second impeachment trial. he is maryland democratic representative jamie raskin. thank you for joining us. what do you think e committee accomplished with last night's hearing? >> we showed not only that the whole plot against the 2020 election was based on a big lie, that donald trump knew it was a big lie, that all of his closest legal advisors including , attorney general william barr, the white house counsel, all of them told him this was nonsense. there was nothing there. and yet he proceeded anyway and engaged in a seven part plan to

try to strip joe biden of his lawful majority in the electoral college votes. he tried to usurp the will of the american people and replace the will of a sitting president that wanted to seize the presidency and become an autocrat. a tyrant over the people. we are also showing, and you saw a good piece of this lasnight the way in which mob violence , was recruited to the cause, and there were domestic violent extremist groups that came together to overthrow the election and to engage in insurrectionary violence against the constitutional order. judy: congressman, given that, what do you say to republicans that are out there, like congressman banks who spoke to my colleague, that are saying that the committee used selectively edited videos, that it was mainly theatrical and that you really didn't prove anything with regard to president trumdirecting what

happened at the capitol? >> they have obviously in over our hearing with a fine tooth comb and they can't come back and challenge a single fact or piece of evidence. so they have to call the whole thing a sham, which is meaningless. they tried that in court. all of the courts that looked at it have rejected the claim that somehow we are unlawfully composed. they say we are a lawfully composed bipartisan entity. unlike our critics, who are of one particular political party. and we are engaged in the essential legislative work of trying to investigate an assault on the constitutional order itself. the first rule of thumb for a democratic government is survival and self-preservation against those that would tear it down. it is sad because as we've been able to show already, a lot of

them were very upset about what happened. they were begging the president to act, they were very tough on the president. then a few days later, donald trump brought them all back into line. judy: one other point the republicans continue to make his house speaker nancy pelosi, and others in the democratic leadership, prevented the national guard from being there to bolster what security the capitol police were able to provide. what is the response to that? >> that is utterly false and baseless. there is nothing to support that. we will explain as best we can how the national guard's response was so slow but it is the president of the united states who oversees the army, which oversees the national guard of the district of columbia, which has no governor. that is a bizarre argument for them to make. they are throwing up a lot of ridiculous stuff because they

don't want to focus on the essence of this investigation. which is that we have a disappointed president who was defeated by more than 7 million votes, who refused to accept his defeat and decided to disseminate propaganda about this big lie and work in a bunch of different ways to try to illegitimately undermine and destroy his opponent's victory. that is not going to work for us as a constitutional democracy in this century. judy: given how divided the country is politically, how do you expect to change the minds of millions of americans who toy believe former president trump that the election was stolen? >> it is divided because of this. it is divided because there has been a big lie. it is divided because there has been this onslaught against fair

elections across the country administered by republicans, democrats and independents. i think it is a responsibility not just on the shoulders of the nine of us on this committee or everybody in congress. it's a responsibility of everybody, parents to talk to their kids and teachers to talk to their students to explain how constitutional democracy works and that there is a difference between fact and fiction. there is a difference between truth and lies and conspiracy theories. the struggle to defend democratic institutions is interwoven with the struggle to arrive at the truth and tell the truth to the people. judy: representative jamie raskin of maryland, a member of the house january 6 select committee, thank you so much. >> it is always a pleasure to be with you. ♪

judy: with new light cast on the events before, during, and after the january 6 attack on the capitol, let's turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart. new york times columnist david brooks, and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. thank you for being here. let's pick up where we left off listening to these two congressman reprising some of what we saw last night. where did this land with you? jonathan: the hearing? judy: the hearing. jonathan: it was a good opening act and i don't mean that in a derogatory sense. this is the first hearing of many that we are going to see. i think congressman banks' assertion that videos were edited and they presented no evidence is an incredibly long limb to walk out on considering we don't know yet what the

committee will be presenting in the subsequent hearings. the other thing that i found interesting is the congressman's expressed concern about the capitol police officers and getting them training and everything. a well-placed concern, but he voted against a covid package, $350 billion for police in it. i just wanted to put that out there, it was bugging me as i watched that interview. overall in terms of the hearing, it is incredibly important for the american people to know from a legislative body that has been investigating for more than a year, what they found out about how close we came to losing our democracy. who was responsible. who was involved. the conversations that were had. and then to see with our own

eyes the trump administration officials talking about these events was chilling. for a first hearing, it was an attention grabber. but i don't want people to think just because maybe i have heard this before or maybe i know this story, that's not the point of this hearing. the point is to place a marker for history so that people decades down the road will have a record about what happened on january 6, 2021. judy: david, i couldn't help notice, the whithouse correspondent for your newspaper called it the most damming indictment ever presented against a president. david: yeah, listen. january 6 was shocking. it is shocking to relive through. two see the videos, the testimony, to see the widows of those who died during and after.

it is a shocking thing. i guess i am curious about two things. one is -- i was a little surprised, i guess they telegraphed this, how central they put trump. that this was a seven stage conspiracy donald trump organized. it's sort of puts the onus on the justice department to indict him for sedition. that was the case they made. so if we have a congressional hearing that finds this and we don't indict the guy on sedition, what are we doing here? they are not the indicters, their politicians, but it puts a lot of onus on the justice department to either undermine or make him responsible. judy: they used the word coup. this was a coup. it doesn't get any more stark. did they do what they intended to do? david: i think the committee is

fundamentally ill pointed. i care a lot about what happened on january 6, but i care more about what happened on generate 26, 2025 and 2029. it seems to me as elected officials, they should be paying attention to that. right now, there are tens of millions of people who think the election was stolen. who think violence is justified. and a lot of them are running for office at local levels. how big are they? how much of a threat are they? what offices are they running for? and how should we understand the threat to the next january 6? i thought they were a little too second, parochial and how they conceived it all. this is not just happening here. this is happening around the world. the republican party looks a lot like parties in poland and turkey and hungary. this is a movement caused by social conditions. howerious is the threat to our democracy in 2024 and 2025? how close are we to violence?

if you look at countrieshat have led to violence, how close are we to that? what is violence supposed to look like? i would like to see a committee that focuses on the future and preventing a disaster, not a committee focusing on who was texting mark meadows when. judy: what about these points? jonathan: these are excellent points, and these would be great questions that could be investigated and probed by a senate committee. while the house january 6 committee is also doing its investigation. both of these things are important. but we have to remember that the name of the committee is the house select committee to investigate the attack on the u.s. capitaol -- i know i've got it wrong, but it's very specific. that's why they are looking at text messages, phone messages, video deposition that's why this is happening. that is not to discount what you are saying because this is part of a larger movement, you talk about the great replacement

theory and everything. these are global issues. but this is the united states. the world looks to american democracy as a model for how they should behave. if we do not learn the who, what, where, why, and how we came so close to losing it, then we won't be prepared for what could happen in 2022 in the midterms, and most definitely in the presidential election in 2024. what we could find is that january 6, 2021 was the dress rehearsal for 2024. i would like to see the breadcrumbs before we get to that point. david: it would be nice if there was a committee doing the things just talked about. no such committee exists. we have a committee -- choosing how to organize the committee, the people had a decision to make. the leader made the decision how to organize it. nobody is making that decision.

nobody is focusing on the future threats. we need a commission forhe future, not retroactive. i think a couple things happened. one is that people got watergate in their minds. watergate was a scandal that happened in private. it was right to have a committee that exposed who said what to who in the oval office. this happened in public. donald trump did what he did in public and those peoe were violent in public. we knew all that. i think the committee has usefully put it together and move the bl from the 95 yard line to the 99 yard line. but they have not answered the sort of chasm questions of how big of a threat are we under now and what does that threat look like? judy: are you saying we don't need to go back and understand what happened in order to prevent it from happening again? david: no, i am a history major that -- [laughter]

i am not understand? -- i'm not against that. but if you're running the government, what is your priority right now? in the middle of all this, my paper ran a story that they were using this to focus attention on the midterms. that is small minded and ineffective. to me, the little bit of politics does seem to have crept in. jonathan: yes. it is unfortunate we are looking at this, at these hearings so aggressively through a political lens. where for me, even though i know the story and i know how the story ends, i care to know the details and i care to hear what they have found because it is so important, because we need to know what happened as a warning for what could come sooner rather than later. i do think millions of americans are concerned that january 6,

2021 was a prelude to something even bigger, more sinister, and infinitely more dangerous than the danger that we saw. judy: [sighs] a lot more could be said about that. one other issue i want to ask both of you about is gun legislation. i know you both have talked about it. here we are days after the terrible school shooting in uvalde, texas, the shootings of the children. the house has voted some measures. it is sitting in the senate. will we see anything? david: i am a little hopeful that we will see something. i say that because john cornyn, the republican from texas is negotiating and saying hope ful things. when susan collins and the moderates say hopeful things, maybe it will happen, but when you have someone from leadership saying hopeful things, maybe it will be real. it won't be arrest of

legislation, but if we got red flag laws and raise the purchasing age, that would be a step. a significant step and nothing to be ashamed of. will it happen? chris murphy, the democrat -- i read his quotes everyday. he seems to be drifting more in the hopeful direction. jonathan: i am always hopeful but as have said so many times, i have seen this movie too many times before. if you can't get expanded background checks which was the toomey were trying to get done after newtown, they could not get that done. now the focus is on red flag laws and raising the minimum age. i'm glad senator cornyn is at the table. i'm glad senator mitt romney is hopeful about it and has changed his position. he said let's raise the minimum age. but until they do it, until i see the press release, the press conference, the vote in the

senate, i will reserve judgment. i want them to prove me wrong. prove me wrong, senate. that you won't do this, that you won't get something done on gun safety legislation. judy: i'm trying to imagine what they say to parents who lost their children across the country. people who lost family members, if they end up not doing anything. what do they say? jonathan: that is on them. seriously, that is on them if they can't talk to these families. we just saw hearings this week from buffalo survivors, uvalde, these parents pouring out their soul. judy: the little girl -- the mother that just brought her back to school after an appointment. she made the honor roll and she was gone. it is hard. jonathan capehart, david brooks, thank you. jonathan: thanks, judy. ♪

judy: as the war in ukraine grinds on for its fourth moh, the fight the eastern donbass continues. relentless russian shelling and ukrainian counter strikes have laid waste to vast swaths of the region. as william brangham reports, the daily struggle for those that are still there and their loved ones who have left is immense. william: in ukraine's east the , brutal battle for the donbass rages on. along front line trenches, ukrainian soldiers hold positions trying to survive a war with no end in sight. >> what can i wish? patience? encouragement for everyone? victory is ours. definitely. william: the epicenter of the russian bombing today,

severodonetsk. this small industrial city it is now on fire. bombing has reduced it to ruins and most of it is now in russian hands. >> russia is deliberately targeting critical infrastructure such as gas pipes. people have no gas, they don't have running water and they have no access to electricity or proper treatment in hospitals. william: the regional governor of haunts spoke to us yesterday from an undisclosed location. he says ukrainian troops are defending the city, but need more weapons. >> had the ukrainian army had enough long-range utility, it would be possible to liberate the city in three or four days. william: last month, the u.s. promised to send artillery weapons, but not the longest range rockets. >> russia is using artillery to destroy everything. they are destroying the city house by house where our defenders are located. william: severodonetsk is

devastated and deserted from all of the prewar population of over 100,000 people. >> on february 24 at 4:00 in the morning, our city started to be bombed. there was no glass in any single window in my house so me and my children had to move to the basement. william: alexander and natalia are sisters who escaped to poland. but the rest of their family stayed. they sent us photos of their parents, too infirm to leave. they haven't heard from many of -- from any of them in more than 10 days. >> we want them to know we are safe and we love them a lot. william: this is one of the last pockets in the region still under ukrainian rule. capturing that city and its smaller twin would bring moscow closer to claiming control of the entire donbass. further south, the city of

mariupol is also pulverized. what used to be a port city of 400,000 is now a city that belongs to the dead. officials say those still living here are threatened by an outbreak of cholera. >> the city has been under lockdown for a week. the word cholera is being used not just by us but by the other side as well. william: another casualty of the war is ukraine's huge agricultural exports. kyiv accuses russia of targeting infrastructure, including grain storage like this as the one. vasion continues to wreak havoc, president putin compared himself to russia's first emperor, peter the great, drawing parallels between his modern-day territorial ambitions into the 18th century czar's founding of st. petersburg. >> when peter the greafounded the new cital st. petersburg, no european country recognized

it as russia. we will prevail in solving the issues we are facing. william: put in's so-called solution has caused a catastrophe that has left 20 million ukrainians displaced and stranded. like alexandra and natalia, who don't know if they will ever return home. >> cannot answer this question because we don't know if there is still a home to go back to. and if our home is stl standing. william: not anymore. they told us moments after we spoke to them, their home was bombed. for pbs newshour, i am william brangham. ♪ judy: we will be back shortly but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it is a chance to offer your

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judy: for more analysis of the

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tonight on kqed newsroom, president biden is in california today addressing concerns over soaring inflation and a looming recession. we talk about economic concerns and big hearings on capitol hill plus access to abortion and gun control remains a serious concern for californians and are special guest state senator nancy skinner here's the latest on legislation. >> we visit a community farm in albany in this week's look at something beautiful. coming from you