judy: on the newshour tonight, fighting inflation. the federal reserve again raises interest rates in the face of stubbornly high prices and concerns over the potential for a recession. then, a possible prisoner swap -- the biden administration offers russia a deal to release wnba star brittney griner and former u.s. marine paul whelan. and, a painful past -- pope francis meets with indigenous and canadian government leaders after formally apologizing for catholic schools that tried to eradicate native culture. >> i'd like to see investments

from this church that has prospered on the backs of our children and our families and our suffering. judy: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ >> major funding has been provided by -- ♪ moving our economy for 160 years, bnsf, the engine that can access. -- connects us. >> cfo.

caregiver. the clips chaser. a raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well planned. ♪ >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems. >> the lemelson foundation, committed to improving lives through invention in the u.s. and developing countries, on the web at lemelson.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these 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: the federal reserve raised interest rates significantly again today in a bid to put the brakes on inflation. the economy is no longer running nearly as hot as it did last year. but chairman jay powell said it was crucial to tame high prices and the fed raised rates by 3/4 of a point. he also said he hopes a recession can still be avoided. our onomics correspondent paul solman reports on the fed's latest moves, whether it can strike the right balance, and the impact these changes are already having. paul: in oklahoma city, a local institution shuttered. morgan harris was forced to close her kids' store green

bambino after 12 years, as inflation and pandemic losses overwhelmed her margins. morgan: revenue this summer has slumped considerably, and while i didn't expect the boom of 2021 to continue, i didn't expect it to collapse as suddenly as it did. paul: and in fresno, california, annette de dios experiencing what so many americans are these days, consumer inflation. annette: my husband and i are having to sit down and evaluate, ok, what's our monthly budget? because groceries are more expensive, gas is more expensive, things that our kids need are more expensive. paul: to try to quell inflation by slowing the economy, the federal reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a whopping 3/4 of a percentage point today, the fourth hike this calendar year. >> good afternoon. paul: federal reserve chairman jay powell at a news conference this afternoon. chair powell: restoring price stability is just something we have to do. there isn't an option to fail to do that, because that is the thing that enables you to have a

strong labor market over time. you have payroll jobs averaging 450,000 per month. that's a remarkably strong level for this state of affairs. paul: i asked economist nela richardson for her take. nela: it's a weird time. it's a weird time. but what is certain is inflation is just too high. paul: richardson means "weird" in that inflation is soaring because of factors outside the fed's control, the war in ukraine driving up energy and food prices, the pandemic causing supply chain snags as consumers lurch from goods to services and back again, no buying to hyperbuying, suppliers cutting back and then suddenly ramping up -- think airplanes. in response, the fed has lurched from no rate hikes to big ones. nela: everybody's really taking big actions, but they're taking big actions based on historical trends a lot of the times. and we are in no point in the historical timeline that anyone

has ever seen. paul: moreover, said chair powell today, the economy already shows signs of slowing down. chair powell: i do not think the u.s. is currently in a recession. and the reason is that there are too many areas in the economy that are performing, you know, too well. paul: on the other hand, the economy officially shrank in the winter and may have this spring as well. so the fed is tightening dramatically to slow the economy, but by some accounts we're already in a recession, six consecutive months of negative growth, of shrinking economy. what do you make of it? nela: if we are in a recession, it'll be a very unique one. we have an incredibly tight labor market where the number of job openings outweigh the number of unemployed people looking for work 2 to 1. so this is different. the recession is going to feel different. and what's more, it's being

swallowed up by inflation. paul: so maybe this is what's called "stagflation," economic stagnation and inflation in tandem, which we last saw in the 1970's. so, is the fed right to raise rates dramatically? now? nela: in the middle of this is a changing economy, so the fed has to keep its eye on multiple balls this time around. but their only tool right now is to increase interest rates, curb dema, and hope that eventually supply catches up. paul: the "only tool" because we're living through a supply-demand mismatch, which drives up prices, says economist kathryn dominguez, once a research consultant for the fed. so the fed uses the tool, raising rates. kathryn: making it more difficult for households to continue to demand goods at a pace that outstripped supply. so, the idea of tightening

credit is actually kind of getting at the underlying reasons for inflation, which is that currently demand outstrips supply. paul: but as we've seen in the last few days, consumer spending is already going down. kathryn: it is. and the issue is getting it to slow down at just the right level, so that, in fact, firms can stop raising prices. households will stop demanding higher wages and slowly prices will start to stabilize. paul: in other words, inflation expectations matter. >> to the extent people start to see it as part of their economic lives, they factor in inflation on a sustained basis. we don't think it has happened yet, but when it starts to happen, it just gets that much harder and the pain will be that much greater. paul: so, you have confidence that the fed will be able to engineer a relatively soft landing, as they're calling it? kathryn: i'm optimistic that the

fed has the tools that they need to be able to bring down inflation. paul: nela richardson? nela: it's hard for the fed to fine tune without all the elements of the economy cooperating. they're used to doing rate hikes in a different style than they're doing them now. usually it is a very moderate quarter of a percentage point increase every single fed meeting, and it's very slow, very steady, very predictable uptick in interest rates. we're not seeing that right now. we're seeing pretty aggressive moves with each rate decision. paul: aggressive moves that could seem over-aggressive if second-quarter gdp turns out to have fallen. those numbers come out tomorrow. for the "pbs newshour," paul solman. ♪

nicole: i'm nicole ellis. we will return to the full program after the latest headlines. senator joe manchin has apparently reversed course. the west virginia democrat announced an agreement this evening with senate majority leader chuck schumer. manchin said he's agreed to support legislation on health care costs, climate change, deficit reduction,nd other issues. he did not say why he changed his mind. president biden called for congress to move on the bl as soon as possible. president biden emerged from isolation today after testing positive for covid. he appeared in the white house rose garden for his first appearance since last week. he said his recovery shows americans can live without fear of the virus if they get vaccinated and boosted. i do 90 covid is ill with -- pres. biden: covid is still with us, but our fight is making a huge difference.

what is different now is our ability to protect ourselves from serious illness. that is radically different today than it was just a year ago. >> the president will continue wearing a mask around others for another five days. hours earlier, before the announcement, greiner told a russian board that she was denied basic rights after her arrest on drug charges in february. we'll take a closer look at this situation after the news summary. the world health organization is urging new precautions for those most at risk for casting monkeypox. 98% of cases so far have involved sexual relations between men. he advised limiting sexual partners, at least for now. here in the u.s., it's been another long, hot day in the pacific northwest, and now, forecasters say the danger is going to last even longer. they've extended an excessive heat warning in portland,

oregon, and elsewhere through saturday. major gun makers were called to account today at a congressional hearing. the house oversight committee reported five companies made a combined $1 billion over the the past decade from ar-15-style weapons. democrat carolyn maloney challenged marty daniel, chief executive of daniel defense. >> will you accept personal responsibility for your company's role in this tragedy and apologize to the families of uvalde? daniel: these acts are committed by murderers. the murderers are responsible. rep. maloney: ok, reclaiming my time. you market weapons of war to civilians and children. you make millions by selling them, but when someone pulls the trigger, you refuse to accept responsiblity. nicole: as that hearing continued, news came of a

lengthy indictment in the fourth of july parade shooting outside chicago. the man accused of killing seven people and wounding more than 30 will face 117 felony counts. new federal prison sentences have been handed down in george floyd's death two years ago. former minneapol police officers got three to three and a half years today for violating floyd's rights. in iraq, hundreds of protesters pushed into parliament today. they were angry over the prospect of a prime minister linked to iran. they waved iraqi flags and chanted anti-iran curses. most were followers of shiite cleric muqta al-sadr. his party won last year's elections, but could not form a governing coalition. china is denying it tried to recruit informants in the u.s. federal reserve system. "the wall street journal" had

reported the chinese wanted to obtain u.s. economic data. in beijing today, the foreign ministry rejected the accusation. >> the report you meioned is a political lie fabricated by a few republican lawmakers who haour ill intentions, which has no factual basis. it seems that some american politicians have chinaphobia and persecution mania. the journal report cited findings from a u.s. senate investigation. the u.s. senate has approved major legislation to boost manufacturing of computer chips. the $280 billion measure includes grants and tax breaks to build chip facilities in the u.s. it passed 64-33. the house will vote tomorrow. wall street appeared to welcome the's action on interest rates and chairman jay powell's

statements about what the fed may do in the future. the dow jones industrial average gained 436 points today to close at 32,197, up 1%. the nasdaq rose 470 points, up 4%. the s&p jumped more than 2.5%. two major unveilings in washington today. the u.s. capitol welcomed a statue of famed aviator amelia earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the atlantic ocean. she is the 11th woman to be so honored. meanwhile, a wall of remembrance was dedicated to veterans of the korean war. it becomes part of the existing korean war memorial. and tony dow of the hit tv show "leave it to beaver" died today in los angeles after a battle with cancer. he played wally cleaver, the beaver's older brother, from 1957 to 1963, and in a sequel series in the 1980's. he also became a highly regarded

sculptor in later years. tony dow was 77 years old. judy: still to come on the newshour, the justice department looks into former president trump's conduct as part of its investigation of the attack on the capitol. how indigenous leaders are responding to pope francis' apology for the church's role in an abusive school system. record rainfall leads to devastating flooding in the the st. louis area. and, much more. >> this is the pbs newshour, from wbt a studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: as mentioned, the white house -- >> greiner pleaded guilty

earlier this month to unintentionally bringing cannabis oil into the country and testified in her case for the first time today saying she was denied basic rights when she was first detained and interrogated. the den administration revealed this afternoon hat officials offered russia a deal last month to bring home griner and paul whelan, an american citizen held in russia since 2018. secretary of state antony blinken said the u.s. is waiting for russia to respond. sec. blinken: we have conveyed this on a number of occasions and directly to russian officials, and my hope would be that, in speaking to foreign minister lavrov, i can advance the efforts to bring them home. amna: for more on what this means, i'm joined by michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia during the obama administration. he is now a professor at stanford university. and jonathan franks, a crisis

management specialist who worked to fe former u.s. marine trevor reed from russia earlier this year. he has worked on the successful rease of several other americans wrongfully detained overseas. welcome to you both. thank you for being here. ambassador, i will begin with you. we didn't get many details about what that deal was from secretary blinken. he said it was substantial, offered weeks ago. this is the first time they're saying publicly we've made a deal. what does this say to you about where those negotiations are? >> well, i think it'd be highly unlikely for secretary blinken to say anything about the deal if he didn't think the deal was going to be completed. so there's a very positive sign, i think, for brittney griner and paul whelan. i hope that they add to the list another american who i think is wrongly detained in russia. his name is mark fogle, but it sounds like they have put together a deal, it sounds like it's probably for victor boot. a criminal that was arrested a long time ago and the russians have been asking for his release

for years, going all the way back to when i was ambassador. it sounds like they are putting that deal together. amna: jonathan, what about victor boot? as ambassador mcfaul just mentioned, blinken also mentionethis deal is based on what he called a history of conversations with the russians. they have been seeking release for victor for years. he's a convicted russian arms dealer. we should say he is serving a 25 year sentence here in the u.s. tell us what we should kno about him. and is that a good deal? >> well, yes, is the short answer. i mean, mr. bout has five to six more years on his sentence, and we would get significantly more paul whelans. i imagine the ms. griner is going to be sentenced to a ridiculous prison term as well, so we'd get time off of hers and get the better end of that deal. obviously, i had been out there trying to sell a prisoner trades since october that include i you know, i was trying to sell -- it turned out to be a one to one

deal. so, to me, all i have to say tonight is bravo, secretary blinken, bravo, mr. president. we have been trying to get them for some time to build on the success of trevor reed, and it appears they are about to do so. amna: jonathan, should they have done this sooner? >> when? how much earlier is my question. they've been trying to do this, at least, you know, publicly. the earliest i could find was 2016. i don't know that. i would have been there in 2016 because he doesn't get out until 2029. so i think at this point, what -- what i have light to see them do this several years ago? yeah, no question. amna: i mean, we're talking about freeing a very dangerous man, his nickname is the merchant of death. he has fueled incredibly violent conflicts all over the world. does this compromise global stability or u.s. security in any way? >> these are hard deals.

victor bout is a real horrible criminal. brittney griner, paul whelan, mark fogle, they're innocent americans. so when you do these trades, they're uncomfortable trades. when i was in the government at the white house back in 2010, we faced a similar deal in swapping spies, right and it wasn't a symmetric thing. we spent a dozen spies russian backed, and we got four out. but at the end of the day, you have to calculate, are americans better off and their security better off by doing the trade than not? our justice department doesn't like it. the fbi doesn't like it. the cia doesn't like it. but the secretary of state and , ultimately, the president of the united states has to make that decision. and i think in this case, it's the right decision. amna: ambassador, what about the prident? that's the other question. at a time when there are more states, not third party or other actors, more states detaining americans overseas, does this set a precedent that the way for them to get other people released here in the u.s. is by nabbing more u.s. citizens?

>> you know, that's the conventional wisdom, but actually, there's not a lot of data to support that hypothesis. the idea that now we're gonna see more and more detained. i just have not seen the evidence that supports it is that way. with terrorist organizations, it may be true. i don't think it's the true with state actors. i most certainly don't think it's true with the russian government. amna: let me ask you about the the u.s. response in this because, obviously, brittney griner has been detained since february. you have been among those very vocally and more recently calling for the government to do more. there was a sense that the administration was moving slowly, at least publicly. was that a fair criticism? >> i think it was, and i think we'd hoped to see trades fall on trevor within 30 days or so and we didn't. they have clearly made significant progress, and i

absolutely commend them for it. to your earlier point, i commend the ambassador too. there's no data to support the notion that doing trades causes more hostage taking. i work very closely with the james foley fund. they are the keeper of statistics. and i'm not a statistics or math guy, but they told me there's no correlation and pretty much actly what the ambassador just said. amna: what about the public at kind of role do you think that played? you were here in d.c. holding a press conference calling for the government to do more. we know griner's wife has been getting interviews. high profile wnba and basketball stars like coach dawn staley. did that help, do you think? >> yes, i think, absolutely. i think it created both a political space to make a deal like this and also some urgency, and, you know, there are 15 plus other cases that can be resolved with trades now. some of them are probably a little too much and some of them may be palatable, but i think there comes a point where we have to bring our people home.

i was very excited watching secretary blinken's remark today. amna: ambassador, we should underscore here. this is a proposed deal. they are waiting for russia to respond. the trial is ongoing. we know griner has another court date on august 2, and all of this is unfolding as the russian war in ukraine continues. how do you think this moves forward from here? >> well, i'm glad you pumped the brakes there. let's not get ahead of our skis yet. we do that when the americans are on american soil, and i have enough bitter experience in negotiating with the russians to have deals fall apart at the last minute. again, though, i do not think that secretary blinken would make the remarks he said today if he were not confident that's going to happen. my guess is they'll have to wait until brittney griner has been sentenced.

i don't think it will happen before then, but hopefully right after that, this deal will will happen. and again i want to emphasize i hope mark fogle, who's also wrongly detained and convicted in russia, will also be part of the deal. i think it's a pretty good deal to trade one horrible criminal, victor boot, for three innocent americans. amna: jonathan, what about you? when you look ahead, how do you see this playing out? >> i agree with the ambassador completely. i also am concerned about mark fogel, concerned about the case against him and concerned about what i think is an absurd sentence. i think it'd be great if mark could be in the deal. whatever it takes to bring our people home. amna: big potential news today in the case of brittney griner detained overseas in russia. we thank you both for joining us to explain what all of this means. that's ambassador michael mcfaul and jonathan franks. thank you. ♪ judy: new news reports indicate the department of justice is investigating former president donald trump's actions as a part of its larger criminal probe

into the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. to help us understand what all this could mean, i'm joined by former federal prosecutor renato mariotti. welcome back. based on everything you have read, what does it appear to you that the justice department is looking at with regard to former president trump? >> there was a scheme that was hashed, which i think has been referred to in the media as th fake elector scheme, by which individuals who were not actually chosen by their states as the electors for the electoral college were drafted and signed certificates that were submitted to the united states senate, purporting to be the electors of the state. there have been recent news reports that some of the attorneys that were preparing those materials actually used

the term "fake elector" in their email conversations. my understanding, based on what reports have shown, is the justice department thinks that the fake elector scheme constitutes a crime, and they are investigating the actions and statements of former president trump with his advisers regarding the implementation of that scheme in the united states senate, particularly as it relates to the former ve president being urged by president trump to set aside the rightful electoral votes and send it back to the states and/or accept the fraudulent electoral votes instead, in order to overturn the election. judy: that's one set of potential issues. you also told us that it's possible that the justice department is looking at incitement to riot, based on information that came out of the january 6 committee hearings. >> that's right. if we look purely at what came from the january 6 hearings, the criminal statute that really

stands out to me is criminal incitement. the reason why is because the facts are not really in dispute. obviously, the former president did give a speech. many of the people who heard that speech proceeded to attack the united states capitol in a violent manner. the question has always been whether or not there would be sufficient evidence to show that the former president intended to incite imminent lawless action. the words of his speech are mixed. you could have arguments that go both ways. however, some of the testimony, particularly of cassidy hutchinson, where she talked about the former president being aware the crowd was armed, saying that they were not interested in harming him but they would be heading to the capitol, it supports indication -- an implication that he understood the individuals would be attacking the capitol later. there were other statements of evidence that also came to that. i do think the justice department is at least considering whether or not that's a potential charge as well. judy: and whether or not they are investigating him, we don't

have any reason or evidence yet to believe that's the case. but you are talking about criminal -- potential criminal violations, is that right? >> that's right. altus to say, both when i was a prosecutor and now that i'm in private practice, i would always counsel a client that it shouldn't give you any comfort if the justice department is looking at your actions in the context of a criminal proceeding, that -- whether not your name is on the file folder of the investigation. it is a practical matter. the justice department has a criminal investigation into what it believes is criminal activity, and it is investigating the former president's words and actions as ncerned about that.e should be judy: we saw in an interview the attorney general gave to nbc yesterday, anyone who was involved, in his words, could be

criminally prosecuted. having said that, is former president trump in any way protected because he is a former president? >> i wouldn't say that he's protected. what i would say is the status that he's the former president makes the trial more complicated because it creates juror issues. there's a number of jurors who would likely have voted for him and supported him. it's very difficult to find jurors who don't know who he is. separate a apart from that, it obviously means that any prosecution of the former president will have an impact on the country. and that's something for the attorney general to weigh. his comments the other day were in response to possible charges against the former president. it suggests they would pursue charges if they had the evidence to do so. judy: just quickly, yes or no, if he were to become a candidate for president again, could that have a bearing on what the

justice department does? >> no, it just might affect the timing. judy: all right. thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ judy: pope francis traveled to quebec today to meet with canada's prime minister and its first indigenous governor general. it's part of his weeklong tour canada, where he is apologizing -- tour of canada, where he is apologizing for the catholic church's role in running residential schools, very similar to ones across the united states, that tried to eradicate native cultures. while the pope's apology was welcomed, as william brangham reports, indigenous leaders and former students say it's only the first step toward healing a painful past. [indigenous chanting]

william: where the catholic church once exploited and denigrated indigenous culture, indigenous leaders this week offered the pope a symbol of that culture. survivors of canada's catholic boarding schools, now grown and gray, carried a red cloth with the names of more than 4000 indigenous students who died or disappeared from those places. in the native community, the roman catholic leader issued a historical apology. >> i am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness for the ways in which many members of the church cooperated in projects of cultural destruction, which culminated in a system of residential schools. william: survivors of those schools shared some of the lingering impact they have endured. >> i went to the residential scho. i went through a lot of stuff. i lost all my family. >> we have been pressing for an

-- a papal apology for years and years. william: phil is a canadian indigenous leader who spent 10 years in the residential school system. back in the early 1990's, on canadian tv, he was one of the first to publicly describe the abuse he suffered. >> if we took an example, my grade three class, if there were 20 boys in this particular class, every single one of them would've experienced what i experienced. >> are you saying every one of 20 was sexually abused? >> they have experienced some aspect of sexual abuse. william: from the 1880's through much of the 20th century, more than 150,000 indigenous children across the country were forcibly taken from their parents and sent to these so-called residential schools.

>> we lost our languages. i entered speaking only ojibwe. i understood a bit of english. you learn through the people that ran these schools to consider yourself inferior to nonindigenous people, to white people. that ware not as good. fortunaty in my case, i had many, many opportunities to expand my education. >> to unlearn some of those lessons that were pressed into very young you. >> absolutely. to learn that i wasn't, as we were called so often, savage. it takes a lifetime in some situations to unlearn all of that nonsense, because that's what it is. >> imagine if all your children were taken, little children being abused, crimes against children. it's horrendous. it's things we want to forget.

william: heather bear is the vice chief of sovereign indigenous first nations, which represents 74 first nations in the province of saskatchewan. she attended this residential school in the 1970's, where they started transitioning from the church to indigenous control. >> i expect some accountability, and that's what the apology means. so it gives me relief that -- to know that we've gone this step of an apology. now what's the next step? >> the treatment of children in indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history. william: the steps toward a papal apology have been long and painful. in 2008, the prime minister, on behalf of the canadian government, formally apologized to former indigenous students and established a truth and reconciliation commission. it documented the experiences of

more than 6000 children. in 2015, the commission concluded that, quote, "children were abused physically and sexually and they died in the schools in numbers that would not have been tolerated in any school system anywhere in the country or in the world." over the last year, across various school sites, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of unmarked graves, prompting calls for an investigation. >> to identify who is buried where, we will need to access records. and the catholic church kept meticulous records. william: the catholic church ran about 60% of the schools, but for decades, it resisted calls to apologize. fontaine himself met with pope benedict in 2009, but it wasn't until this year and another meeting that pope francis apologized and pledged to do it again in canada. does it frustrate you that it has taken so many years for this to happen? >> persistence is so important. you just can't give up.

>> we need to do a lot of thinking and planning on how they are going to make amends and fix some of the harm. william: fontaine says while they will never forget, they must learn to forgive. >> there isn't anything more powerful in terms of symbolism than to be able to say "i forgive you." william: but for many, those whose emotional wounds persists -- persist to this day, even as the pope asks for forgiveness, that forgiveness does not come easily. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. ♪ judy: stay with us. coming up on the newshour, a pair of studies provide compelling evidence that

covid-19 originated in a wuhan animal market, not a lab. and newly appointed poet laureate ada limon discusses how nature and animals influence her writing. in missouri, state and local officials have declared a state of emergency due to severe flooding in st. louis and the surrounding areas. historic rainfall of more than 9 inches over 24 hours turned streets and highways into rivers. emergency crews rescued hundreds of residents across the region and dozens more fled their homes as the waters continued to rise. community correspondent gabrielle hayes joins us with more from st. louis with the latest. gabrielle, first of all, tell us how badly were people affected by this. how did they manage to stay safe? gabrielle: this di't just hit one specific area. people all over the region were affected by this.

i interviewed a woman yesterday who was rescued by boat out of her apartment with a 10 month old and a four-year-old. they had to literally get a boat, get to her apartment, and get her out. she says her whole car was underwater. her apartment was underwater. she was only able to get out with the duffel bag. we are seeing those stories across the region, not just in her area, which was northern st. louis county, but in parts of the city as well. so, it stretched across the region a we are seeing a lot of those stories. it wasn't just residential areas. we know there were parts of businesses that were affected as well. judy: we know the waters have receded by now. do they have a good sense of how much damage has been done? gabrielle: we really don't know yet. today, the mayor was able to go out with other officials to start assessing that damage. yesterday, after the water

started to recede, i was able to go to one of the harder hit areas, and i was able to see what the water did. we were walking around homes where you could see the watermark on the side of homes, showing how high the water went. one man told me he woke up in the middle of the night, put his arm over, and his hand landed in water next to his bed. that's how he knew that his house was flooding. it's going to be an ongoing thing. we are talking not just st. louis city, but st. louis county as well. it's going to take people from different departments across our region to be able to take a look to see how far the damage goes. that assessment has stard and they are doing that now. they probably will be doing that in the coming days. judy: is there a sense yet of what these local governments are going to be able to do for people and whether the resources are there to help them?

gabrielle: that's a good question. we know, for starters, there was a command center created yesterday in richmond heights, an area where people were able to gather if they needed help or they had to evacuate from their homes. the fact that the mayor did declare a state of emergency means that could open us up to be able to get extra aid from the federal government or other entities that could help us. that could be a pathway as well. our mayor says that will be vital in our road to recovery. judy: it sounds like such a difficult set of challenges for the st. louis area. gabrielle hayes, our communities reporter, thank you very much. gabrielle: thanks, judy. judy: from the start of the pandemic, scientists have tried to determine exactly where and how this novel coronavirus spread to humans.

did it emerge naturally from the animal world and get transmitted to people in wuhan, china? or from a security breach at a research lab, also in wuhan? that's been the subject of an ongoing debate. william brangham is back with details about a new study published in the journal of science that points to a live animal market. william: trying to understand covid's origins has been a complicated and politically fraught undertaking for almost three years now. the chinese government has been accused of impeding a full investigation. this new research attempts to get the clearest picture to date, and i'm joined by one of its authors. a virologist at the vaccine and infectious disease organization at the university of saskatchewan. great to have you back on.

at the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of attention was focused on this live animal market. you and several of your colleagues, including michael, have got some pretty strong evidence in your paper that indicates this was the epicenter of the outbreak. what is that evidence? >> we plotted all of the early cases from december 2019 on a map of wuhan, whether they were associated with the market or not, and many of them were. this was identified as a place that was important early on in the outbreak investigation. we found that whether those cases were associated with the market or not, whether they had been to the market or not, they clustered around the market and formed almost a circle around the market, where the market was in the dead center. another piece of evidence is that we know that live animals, including some that were susceptible to sars coronavirus to infection, were being sold at the market, including in november and december of 2019. furthermore, there were environmental samples collected from the site of the market

where these animals were sold that were positive for sars coronavirus 2. that strongly indicates that those samples may have come from the animals. on top of that, those samples were often collected from things associated with animals, such as cages, hair and feather removal devices, and carts. finally, there were two different genetic varieties or variants of sars coronavirus 2 at the marke lineage a and lineage b. we didn't understand they were both there. this suggests that there had to be two separate introductions into the market, and the only thing that explains this is two people independently coming to the market and being infected with lineage b and lineage a about a week apart. william: the other major theater that has been bandied about is about the wuhan institute of

virology, a chinese lab, where chinese researchers and some american funded researchers were studying coronaviruses. the theory was that the virus mehow got out of that laboratory and then spread amongst people. what does your research indicate about that theory? >> our research indicates nothing about that theory other than the early cases were not clustered anywhere near the wuhan institute of virology, which strongly suggests that nobody actually in the lab was infected. on top of that, no evidence whatsoever has emerged since the very beginning of the pandemic that suggests wuhan institute of virology was involved in the outbreak in any way. william: some of your fellow virologists have said, given that some of this research relies on chinese data, that we have to take this with a grain of salt, because the chinese have a great deal of interest in pointing a finger at a more natural, quote-unquote, natural

emergence of this virus at the market. do you share that concern? >> i disagree with that for two reasons. first, origin investigations are usually very light on evidence. and the evidence bases are never complete. we found we certainly had enough evidence to come to the conclusions that we came to with a high level of certainty. but the second objection i have to that is the fact that, actually, a market outbreak looks really worse for the chinese government than a b accident. the reason for that is the live animal trade was integrally involved in the outbreak in the early 2000's. at the time, the chinese government said they would crack down on the live animal trade and regulate it to be more safe. ultimately, it became illegal. that means that, essentially, all of this live animal sales and trading was occurring

outside of the law. it was completely unregulated. it is very embarrassing, given that that's exactly the same circumstances under which sars coronavirus 1 emerged. william: is it your sense, from your investigations into this -- i know this is not the scientific term, but do you feel 100% sure this market was the epicenter? or is this just the best science we have today indicating that's the most likely case? >> well, so, i personally do feel 100% sure. but of course, as i mentioned, there are other possibilities that could explain it. however those possibilities are vanishingly unlikely. i personally am very certain that this does explain where the virus came from. that said, there are still many open questions. how did those animals get infected? which animals were infected? where did they come from? who was exposed to them prior to coming to the market? there are many open questions that still need to be answered,

but i feel that we have closed the book on where the outbreak began and that was at the wholesale seafood market. william: doctor, great to see you. thank you so much. >> thank you so much, william. ♪ judy: a story of backyard groundhogs, kentucky bluegrass, pokeweed, and plenty of poetry. jeffrey brown meets the nation's new poet laureate, for our arts and culture series, canvas. ada: i thought it was the neighbor's cat back to clean the clock of the fledgling robins low in their nest stuck in the dense hedge by the house, but what came was much stranger, a liquidity moving all muscle

and bristle. a groundhog slippery and waddled, thieving my tomatoes. jeffrey: the strangeness and wonder of life, even a groundhog in ada limon's backyard in lexington, kentucky. ada: i watched her munch and stanon her haunches, taking such pleasure in the watery bites. why am i not allowed delight? come here. jeffrey: limon was home recently when she got a surprise call from carla hayden, librarian of congress, asking her to be the next poet laureate of the united states. >> i was at a loss for words. i, you know, as a poet, which we're not supposed to be at a loss for words. i was at a loss for words.

i really started to think about what it was to be able to elevate and promote the expansiveness of poetry at a time like this, and -- jeffrey: and you found some words. ada: and i found some words. and it was yes. jeffrey: limon is author of six volumes of poetry, including her newest, "the hurting kind," which again looks to nature and family history. she grew up in sonoma, california, of mexican and european ancestry, and dates her passion for poetry to a reading of elizabeth bishop's poem, "one art," at age 15. ada: and i really remember thinking, i want to know how this is possible. i want to know how this is made. jeffrey: how is it made? so you were thinking right away, like, what does a poet do with words? ada: i was immediately drawn to not just sort of the music and meaning of the poem, but also the form and the craft. jeffrey: of the mechanics. ada: yeah, at 15, i don't know what it was, but it clicked in. but it also made room for the nuance of human emotions. it felt like, there was no sort of this is life, this is a fact, this is truth. and yet what i found there felt more true than anything i'd read yet. jeffrey: she would go on to get a masters at nyu and, at first, work in new york doing marketing for major magazines.

ada: i used to joke that the saying was always like, you know, do what you love and the money will follow. and i always thought, unless it's poetry, because then you want to do what you love and then also find another job that you don't mind so much. jeffrey: the money's not. ada: because the money will not follow. yeah. jeffrey: but these days, at 46, she's able to make a living from readings and her books, now in kentucky bluegrass country, where her husband lucas marquardt has a video marketing company for the thoroughbred industry. ada: i'm ada limon, and this is "the slowdown." something we often don't talk about is the strangeness of poetry. jeffrey: she hosts the daily podcast "the slowdown," in which she introduces and reads poems by a wide range of poets. >> i'm always trying to get connected to nature.

jeffrey: and walks in nearby parks, like mcconnell springs, making sure to learn the names of all that's growing around her. ada: like this is just pokeweed right here. but i love that it's called "pokeweed." right? that's a fabulous name. you've got birch trees and black oaks. but to me that is much more musical right off the bat than "tree." jeffrey: now she'll have a much larger public role and wants to build on two main themes, especially at this moment of pandemic, division, and environmental threat. ada: i really believe in the power of poetry to help us reclaim our humanity, to allow us to feel all the feelings, if you will. i think so often we just compartmentalize and numb ourselves to what's going on in the world. and poetry is the place where you can do that groundwork, where you can read a poem and be, like, oh right, i am a human

being. i have thoughts and feelings. and the other thing is that i really believe in poetry's ability to help us repair our relationship with the earth. i think that we are so distant from the land, from nature, that we forget that that relationship is reciprocal. jeffrey: in her poetry, ada limon often invokes what she calls her ancestors, the family who've brought her to where she is today. ada: my grandfather, before he died, would have told anyone that could listen that he was ordinary, that his life was a good one, simple, he could never understand why anyone would want to write it down. jeffrey: in her beautiful long poem, "the hurting kind," she writes of her grandparents, one gone, one still alive. here is how it ends. ada: all of this is a conjuring. i will not stop this reporting of attachments. there is evidence everywhere.

there's a tree over his grave now, and soon her grave, too. though she is tough and says, if i ever die, which is marvelous and maybe why she's still alive. i see the tree above the grave and think, i'm wearing my heart on my leaves. my heart on my leaves. love ends. but what if it doesn't? jeffrey: for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown in lexington, kentucky. judy: just lovely in every way. on the "newshour" online, health experts are warning deadly infections that can occur after miscarriage are likely to become far more common, complicated, and costly to treat in the u.s. after the supreme court decision overturning roe v. wade. you can learn more about the risks on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.

join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the "pbs newshour," thank you. please stay safe and we'll see you soon. >> major fding for the "pbs newshour," provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide a wireless service that allows people to connect. our team can help you find a plan that fits you. for more, visit coumercellular.tv. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪

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