judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight. taking to the streets. thousands of chinese citizens protest the communist party's ongoing "zero-covid" policy in the largest demonstrations in decades. then, extremism and politics. former president trump has dinner with a white supremacist at mar-a-lago, renewing questions for republicans about thparty's leadership and values. and vaccine skepticism. misinformation about covid-19 sets back efforts to immunize people in the democratic republic of congo against a host of other diseases. >> this threatens increased outbreaks, deaths, and for some who survived the illnesses that they otherwise would not have gotten, lifelong consequences.

judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." quick your funding the pbs newshour -- >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals and friends of the newshour including leonard and norm a clear mind. the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. judy: the largest protests since tiananmen square in 1989 are rocking china as tens of thousands of demonstrators across the country filled the streets this weekend to denounce beijing's strict quarantine and testing policies known as zero covid. but some of the demonstrations quickly evolved into demands for political change, including the removal of president xi jinping himself. nick schifrin begins our coverage.

reporter: in the southwestern city of chengdu, protesters demand freedom. "freedom of press", they chant. "freedom of speech." in the central city of wuhan, ere covid began, they break down the fence that kept them quarantined. and in the western city of urumqi, they fly the flag and demand the end of lockdowns. nationwide protests lit by a literal fire in urumqi last week. witnesses say a covid lockdown trapped residents in a burning building and killed at least 10. but this is a national release of pent-up anger. they're furious with zero-covid, and its brutal enforcement, which continued this weekend on a bbc reporter in shanghai. there, in china's largest city, the protests got personal. "step down xi jinping," they

chant. one of the few times in years that demonstrators used his name. the protests spread to the capital beijing, including to tsinghua university, one of the country's most famous campuses. those who didn't want to make it explicit didn't have to: a blank piece of paper or an equation by physicist alexander friedmann, as in, free man, which many protestors no longer are. >> in shanghai a lot of people have already been detained. they did it for everybody, f all the people. free those people in shanghai! reporter: in washington today, national security spokesman john kirby endorsed chinese citizen'' right to peaceful protest. >> a lockdown is not a policy that we support here, but viously there are people in china that have concerns about that. and they are protesting that and we believe they should be able to do that peacefully. reporter: beijing maintains the world's strictest covid controls. hundreds of millions must submit to daily tests, and quarantine for extended periods. recently, china relaxed some

rules and shortened quarantines for close contacts of covid patients, and foreign visitors. eliminated contact tracing for secondary contacts and phased out routine mass testing in several cities. today, beijing city announced it would further ease some quarantine rules, and guangzhou reduced mass testing. today chinese authorities defendant zero covid and denied of the national unrest threatened the policy. >> china has been following zero covid policy and has been making adjustments. we believe with the leadership of the communist party of china and cooperation from the chinese people our fight against covid-19 will be successful. reporter: for more on the significance of these protests, we turn to long time china watcher minxin pei. he is a professor of government at claremont mckenna college.

welcome back to the newshour. how significant do you think these protests are? >> these are very significant protests in three respects. first, for the first time, we've seen simultaneous protests in major chinese cities. the other thing about this round of protests is that participants seem to come from a wide range of social backgrounds, and that has not happened in the last 30 years. and third and most importantly, some of the demands that explicitly political. we've not heard ordinary people chanting for shooting pain and the communist -- xi jinping and the communist party to step down. so all these three things make these protests very, very significant. reporter: we should note that it's not that protest is unprecedented in china. it is just that most protests we've seen for the last 30 years and certainly since xi jinping took power, have been localized, have been local groups objecting to local policies. >> absolutely. ordinary protests typically have local issues, socioeconomic

issues, and they never spill beyond the boundaries of a county or a small town. but this time, it's very, very different. reporter: we've seen beijing in recent days take baby steps to ease some of its zero-covid policies. but the message from xi jinping himself, elevating people who have enacted the strictest forms of zero covid. could that message be changed or adjusted at all because of these protests? >> i think these protests will force the government and in particular, president xi jinping, to adjust his policy because the message from the protests by protesters is also quite clear. the current situation is not tolerable, and they want the government to change its course. reporter: a chinese official told me that he feared that if china opened up, more than a million people would die. isn't that fear legitimate, since china's vaccines have been

proven to be less effective than western mrna vaccines, which are still not allowed in the country? >> the honest answer is nobody knows. of course, if they open up, there will be a surge in case infections and also there will likely be a surge of hospitalization and obviously there will be an increase in a number of deaths. now, you have to sort of balance that against now what appears to be a nationwide demand for the government to change its course. if i have to guess, i think i'm leaning toward a gradual relaxation rather than doubling down on the policy that seems to be delivering nothing but misery. >> is there any evidence that anyone around xi jinping, anyone who has power or influence over him, object to this policy that has been so closely associated with him personally? [11.4s] >> n at that level. i think at the very top level,

president xi has a group of colleagues that he personally trusts and that -- those colleagues will back his policy no matter what. i think what the chinese leadership probably worries a lot more about is local officials, because local officials on the frontline of enforcing zero-covid ]and these people are human beings, too. so they are tired, they're frustrated, and probably they would like to have a course correction as well. reporter: zero-covid hasn't only caused social protests. it has depressed growth. china is growing at the second slowest rate in 46 years. what does it say about xi jinping that he appears to be prioritizing zero-covid, over economic growth? >> well, i think at some point he has to balance zero-covid with economic losses. sof you do a back of the envelope calculation, china has lost about 2% of gdp in terms of growth, and that comes down to

about at least $350 billion. so that's a very big number. and that affects employment, that affects government expenditures. >> but he has made the decision toward loyal and toward control over growth in the past, hasn't he? >> yes, but i think when he made those decisions, the economic costs were not that obvious. today, the costs are undeniable and these costs are mounting. so as china's leader now, it's his third term. he will not look at what is happening now, he has to look at what is going to happen in the next five years. so making a cost shift might be the smartest thing to do than sticking with a very costly policy. >> minxin pei, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west, we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines.

the unrest in china sent a shudder down wall street with major stock indexes dropping. a teenager pleaded guilty today to fatally shooting 10 black shoppers and wkers at a supermarket in buffalo, new york. 19-year old payton gendron posted racist rants before the attack last may. after today's hearing, a son of one victim said the real problem is white supremacy. >> this is not chance. this was all planned. this was intentional. heard a lot about justice today. there is no justice unless we deal with that. there is no justice unless we deal with what facilitated this murder, these murders. judy: -- stephanie: gendron's plea on state charges means mandatory life in prison without parole. he could still face the death penalty on federal hate crimes charges.

iran today rejected a u.n. investigation its crackdown on protests. that came as activists reported 450 protesters have died in 2 months of unrest with more than 18,000 arrested. they include the niece of ayatollah khamenei, iran's supreme leader. in a veo made before her arrest, she urged the world to cut ties with tehran. >> free people, be with us and support us so that your governments stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime. this regime is not even loyal to any of its own religious principles. stephanie: the protests began after a young kurdish woman died in police custody, back in september. six european countries have taken down a so-called "super cartel" that controlled a third of the continent's cocaine trade. dozens were arrested over 2 years. spanish authorities today released video of the raids. they included seizing more than 30 tons of drugs and huge collections of luxury goods.

back in this country tonight, president biden called on congress to avert a national rail shutdown. if congress does what the president is asking, it would override four unions who rejected a tentative agreement reached with railroad operators in september. house speaker nancy pelosi said the house will consider legislation to adopt the tentate agreement this week. more than 2 million people in houston spent the day under a boil water notice after a power outage at a water purification plant. the city's mayor said testing will determine when the water is safe again. >> i will say stuff does happen. it's unfortunate. a lot of people were impacted and are impacted. we certainly apologize for that. but we'll do a diagnostic review and work with all of our partners to assess the situation and to mitigate a future occurrence of this kind. >> today was the deadline in arizona for certifying the mid-term election results -- and at least one republican-controlled county refused to do so.

vote counts have shown democrats winning the state's major races. the gop candidates for governor and secretary of state have refused to concede. and the world's largest active volcano "mauna loa" in hawaii is erupting for the first time in nearly 40 years. it started late sunday. the night sky around the summit glowed an ominous red as lava and volcanic ash spewed out, posing a risk to several subdivisions. for now, the lava is contained, but the ash is disrupting flights into hilo. today first lady jill biden unveiled the white house's holiday decorations. the theme is "we the people." the decor is inspired by values that unify americans during the holidays. rooms are dedicated to deceased loved ones, kindness, faith and children. still to come, tamara keith and amy walter look ahead to the

lame duck session in congress. misinformation about covid-19 sets back efforts to immunize children in the democratic republic of congo, and much more. >> this is the pbs newshour w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: one week after former president donald trump announced he would seek re-election to the nation's top office, he dined at his mar-a-lago home with two men known for their racist and anti-semitic beliefs. 24 year old political commentator nick fuentes and ye, the hip-hop musician formerly known as kanye west. laura barron-lopez has more. reporter: the department of justice identified fuentes as a white supremacist last year. he is a holocaust-denier who has threatened violence against jewish people, and spread hate against black americans and other groups. ye has also been condemned for antisemitic and anti-black comments.

in statements, trump claimed fuentes was invited by ye, and that he did not know him. the dinner is the most recent example of the former president associating with bigoted individuals and conspiracy theorists and elevating their ideas. democratic senate majority leader chuck scher responded on the floor today. >> for a former president, to sit down and have dinner with a high profile ai semite is disgusting and dangerous. to give an anti semite, even the smallest platform much less an audience over dinner was pure evil. even assuming the former president didn't realize mr. fuentes was coming to mara lago , for him to refuse to condemn fuentes and his bigoted words after the dinner is appalling, and it is dangerous. reporter: we asked every republican senor and every member of republican hse leadership today whether they thought the meeting was appropriate, and if they condemned it.

louisiana senator bill cassidy said, trump hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites. maine senator susan collins told newshour, the president should never have had a meal or even a meeting with nick fuentes. the vast majority of them did not respond to us. for more on what this means for the republican party, i'm joined by mary mccord. she is the director of the institute for constitutional advocacy and protection, and a former justice department official. and stuarttevens. he is a former republican consultant, now at the lincoln project and a new pro-democracy media platform, resolute square. thank you both for joining newshour. publican senators were asked by reporters about the dinner and a number of them said it was inappropriate, that it was wrong. there is no place for white supremacy in the republican party. separately former vice president mike pence said trump should

apologize. what is your assessment of the republican response so far? >> this has to be taken in context of what has happened to the republican party which in my view is a complete moral collapse unlike any we have seen in america with a major political party. this happened in florida. the governor of florida ron desantis as far as i know has yet to assert that joe biden won a legal and fair election. we talk about election deniers, we focus on those who are out campaigning on it, but the vast majority of elected republican officials are yet to say that donald trump lost a free and fair election. how extreme can that be? that means we don't live in a democracy. they are participating as elected officials in something that is not a democracy. this sort of extremist conspiracy theories have been allowed to grow in the

republican party because it has lost touch with any governing philosophy. no one can articulate a realistic center-right governing philosophy with any credit ability. -- credibility. >> what should people understand about nick fuentes? >> he is a white supremacist who rose to prominence after the unite the right rally in charlottesville, virginia in 2017 where he was present. he has been most recently very active in organizing stop the steal demonstrations back 2020 and 2021. he is someone who advocates great replacement theory. he is someone who really tries i think to have a political influence, influence on the republican party. he has done this by creating his own organization, america first, his own political action committee, which essentially competes with the conservative

political action committee to pull candidate and politicians even further to the prange -- to the fringe. further to the fringe. this is something that is dangerous right now because it generates more and more publicity for himself, it generates more profit for himself, but it makes too many politicians right now feel like they need to pander to him, that they have something to lose if they are not able to pander to him and his base. that is what we saw with the former president having dinner with nick fuentes. i do not believe he did not know who makes when test was. he has his own political action committee that supported donald trump. it defies logic that the former president would not know who he is. >> and fuentes is not new on the scene. marjorie taylor greene and paul

gosar spoke at fuentes' white nationalist conference this year and yet there was no vast republican condemnation across the party. what routes do you see of this? why d you think these figures are accepted? >> the republican party has accepted its role as a white grievance party. this goes back to the history of the post-world war ii republican party. there was the eisenhower strand which was boring, governing, and then the was the joe mccarthy strain which was xenophobic, conspiratorial, often racist. these two have battled each other and a lot of us who were involved in george bush's campaign, we assumed we were the dominant gene in the party and we knew there was this dark side but we thought it would go away if only for the necessity of

adapting to a changing america. i do not know any conclusion to come to but that we were wrong and the other was the dominant gene. this party has a history of this. right now there is a great nostalgia for william buckley as an intellectual force, but we forget william buckley started out as a stone cold segregationist. he later recanted and i think genuinely so, but these are the roots of the republican party. 85% of trump's vote was white in a country that is somewhere between 57% and 60% white. that says it all. reporter: when voices like fuentes and ye get a meeting with the former president and they are associated with other gdp figures -- gop figures, what signal does that send not justin fuente's' followers but also republican voters -- not just to fuentes' followers, but also to

republican voters? >> i think what they are trying to do is walk this fine line. they are trying to appeal to the base who is really motivated and turned on by this type of racist content, antisemitic content, embracing great replacement theory, undermining all semblance of democratic processes in america, they want to appeal to that base but then they want this plausible deniability of, i did not know who he was, i did not understand his philosophy, he just came as a guest of kanye west. they want to say that in order to not complete abandon those who are less on the fringe of their party. they just cannot have their cake and eat it too. these things are not debatable. they should not be datable in politics. there was a time not that long ag where this would have been condemned in the strongest possible terms across the party. we are not seeing that right

now. the message it sends, it is dangerous. it is making it acceptable to not only hold these views, which is protected, to hold these views, by our constitution, but to espouse those and try to influence policy with types of theories and ideologies that are extremist, that areolarizing, and that areiolent. >> thank you for your time. >> lawmakers are back in the naon's capital after the holiday weekend and have a long list of issues they need to tackle before the end of the year. which includes key votes on new party leadership and as well as top priorities like funding the govement. we dive into the politics of all

of this. i am joined by our politics monday duo amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter and tamera keith of npr. it is so good to see both of you this monday. i do want to start with the conversation we just heard between laura and our guests. you heard what they are saying, that republicans who are not denouncing them or president trump are trying to appeal to the base. what does this get them politically? >> as members of congress have returned to capitol hill, in particular senators, they are all being asked and many are saying i would not have had dinner with those people or trump should not have, but trump himself has not disavowed the dinner, has not disavowed his guests, saying he did not know somebody is different than saying i cannot believe i had dinner with an anti-semite, that should not have happened.

he has not disavowed the ideology of the people who came to dinner at his resort. and had a private dinner with him. part of the reason for that is at they support him and they support these conspiracy theories that he has been promoting. increasingly he has been forwarding on memes that appealed to the qanon conspiracy theoryy and at the root of that conspiracy theory is a lot of anti-semitism. judy: what does this get the republicans who are not denouncing former president trump? the big question is not so much when will republican party leaders come out and say stop it, no more, when will republican party voters say that? right now if you look at the data, the polling, you still

have a majority of republicans out there saying they would support donald trump for a 2020 -- 2024 bid. there is a group of voters saying they would like to support someone else but the only way this goes -- the message gets to republicans in congress is if voters are sayin i do not want to support this person anymore. judy: is there any evidence that might happen? >> based on past history, well, again, you would think given all the handwringing after this past election, there would be more frustration bubbling up among the rank and file. we are seeing reports and stories from state parties where internally the state party chair s and others who were big supporters are getting serious challenges, but it is less about the belief system and the ideology of donald trump or who

he is having dinner with, consorting with, than the fact that donald trump is no longer the winter -- the winner that he was in 2016. >> were a lot of voters before the midterms who expressed reservations about trump's baggage, and his losing. he had not even lost the midterms yet with some of his candidates losing. there is an unease. in 2015i talked to a lot of voters who said i wish she would not tweet so much. now it is i wish she would not put so much stuff on truth social and hang out with conspiracy theorists. it is not clear yet, and we will not know it untiwe see it, whether this is just too much baggage. judy: it is important to point it out and talk about it. amy, congress is back. at least some of it is back. they have a package, they have a few weeks to go to get a lot of

work done keeping the government funded. how much of this are they likely to get done? >> there is a theory in lame-duck legislating that it is either time to get alyour wish list, things you could not get done durg the normal time, like being a student and you have crunched everything into the last week of school, trying to get it done. but in this case we know not only is there very little time, there is not the coordinated support for some of the pieces of legislation that democrats would like to put forward. like finally dealing with immigration and daca or an assault weapons ban. that is not going to go anywhere. the one thing that does seem to have bipartisan support besides keeping the government open and the defense authorization legislation is gay marriage. repealing the defense of marriage act from 1996 and ensuring federal protection for

same-sex marriage across the country. that is probably -- when i talk to folks today who watch this, that was their sense of the one thing that is mostly quick to make it through. >> it is also possible the electoral count act -- >> that is true. if it is going to happen it is going to have to happen in the lame-duck. when republicans take over the house, all of these measures that are passing on a bipartisan basis with a few republicans and a lot of democrats, democrats control the floor right now. if they do not, it does not matter that 10 republicans support a bill. they are not going to bring it to the floor. that is a fast track to losing your speakership. judy: speaking of the new congress, the idea democrats are turning over to a new generation. >> for the first time in 20

years democrats will have a new leader of the party. most likely to be hakeem jeffries. he would be the first black leader of any party for the house or senate. interestingly i was looking through this today before i came in because that is who i am, when nancy pelosi was elected to leadership in 2001, democrats had the same number of seats in congress. 214. they have 213 now. but the makeup of congress was different. they had members from arkansas and north dakota and mississippi. now the caucus is more diverse. there are more women and people of color. but ideologically, geographically, much less diverse than it was when pelosi took over. in some ways jeffries' job is challenging in that he has a diverse caucus, but they kind of all come from the same place,

which is very diffent than trying to get people who are from new york city and southern mississippi on the same page. judy: the moderates have sunk into the background. >> there are very few of them. judy: new congress, it is a change among democrats and four republicans, they have a lot of figuring out to do. >> they have this narrow majority and more than a dozen, close to 20 republicans. who won in biden districts or newer purple districts. these are republicans who may not be so excited about passing partisan messaging bill or launching -- approving a subpoena for a white house official or doing some of these more showy things that other republicans, more hard-core republicans, many of the republicans in leadership ran on. it will be an interesting balance, seeing whether these moderates just have to go long or whether they end up causing

problems for their leadership that are different problems than the leadership is worried about right now, which is the more conservative members trying to extract concessions from leadership before kevin mccarthy or whoever it is is ultimately our elected -- ultimately elected speaker. >> we have a big generational change on the democratic side. it is important to point that out. jeffries is in h early 50's, pelosi of course is 80. other members of democratic leadership are also much younger than the current members of leadership. the thing that is going to be the most interesting is this rift beten the freedom caucus, more conservative trump, and the more moderate, more traditional conservatives, is what happens with the debt ceiling. that is one where very few votes -- you have to get the senate, mcconnell has to get his team on board. there are a lot more trumpy

senators then there were a couple years ago. judy: it is going to be so exciting. a lot is at stake. tamera keith and amy walter, thank you both. judy: millions of children around the world did not get routine vaccines as a result of disruptions and disinformation caused by the covid-19 pandemic. that is the largest sustained decline in childhood immunizations in a generation. according to the united nations. in some countries as in the democratic republic of the congo, these setbacks threaten to undo years of public health advances. special correspondent benedict moran and video journalist morgan some so report. reporter: in this health center

on the outskirts of kinshasa, health worker are preparing to administer a round of routine vaccinations. in africa alone, every year, more than 800,000 lives are saved because of routine vaccines, according to the world health organization. though a painful part of growing up, vaccines are one of the world's most successful public health interventions. it is the safest way to protect children from life-threatening diseases like polio, measles, rubella, and tetanus. but over the past two years, vaccinations rates are plummeting, not just here, but across the planet. doctors are worried. for the first time in a generation, last year, more than 25 million children missed out on basic vaccines. health workers fear that without focusing greater efforts on increasing the rate of childhood vaccination, many diseases tha were once under control may return. in july, the un's world health

organization sounded the alarm. >> this is the largest decline in sustained childhood vaccination in approximately 30 years. this threatens increased outbreaks, deaths and for some who survived the illnesses that they otherwise would not have gotten, lifelong consequences. reporter: one major reason for the decline, the global shutdowns associated with covid-19 put a strain on public health systems qun arter of the continental u.s., getting services to far flung parts of the country is not easy. we are on our wato lakunga, an island in the middle of the congo river, between congo kinshasa, and the neighboring country, congo-brazzaville. villages here are extremely remote, and it's very difficult for vaccine teams to reach them. prior to april this year the area had no permanent health center. under covid lockdowns, the area became even more isolated.

>> we have difficulty reaching thisrea because it is very far. the distance is 34 miles and you have to cross the river to reach here. reporter: lakunga island is a small community of farmers and fishers. there are no roads and no electricity. with health services now trying to return to a post-covid normal, it's a game of catch up. that means walking from house house, calling loudly for everyone to gather at this makeshift clinic, under a cluster of bamboo. >> these vaccines are for kids between zero and 11 months. they are to protect them against polio, and they protect them other viruses. reporter: these parents require no convincing. month by month, and vaccine by vaccine, health workers hope to bring immunization rates in these isolated areas back to normal. but elsewhere in the congo, tting vaccine rates back to normal requires rebuilding trust.

vaccine disinformation, especially on social media, is perhaps the most influential reason why overall vaccination rates are going down. less than 5% of the country is vaccinated against covid-19. videos like this one, often iginating from outside africa, spread lies that covid-19 vaccines cause infertility or even death. that makes some congolese resistant. not only against the covid-19 vaccine, but increasingly, against other routine vaccines, as well. >> the pandemic has affected our vaccination system, and created reluctance among the population regarding all vaccination. the information comes from social media. in some communities, they could not distinguish what is true and what is not. reporter: covid vaccine centers like this one in the center of kinshasa vaccinate only only -- vaccinate only a few hundred

people every day. that's a trickle, for a city of more than 17-million people. 28-year-old acha cristel was one of the few in line. he says he had to overcome his own fears before coming here. >> i said what is the vaccine for if it kills me? why take it? it really discouraged me, but i said to myself, i will not be discouraged. i have to take the vaccine. reporter: that is why education is key and restoring trust, not just in the covid-19 vaccine, but in all routine vaccinations, starts here at kinshasa's central vaccine warehouse. this vaccine storage facility on the outskirts of kinshasa is one of the largest in africa but it's not just a warehouse. it also serves as a center of education. community leaders are often brought here, to learn about vaccines, and the influence of disinformation. drc is home to huge revivalist christian ministries, and those churches are sometimes hotspots of vaccine hesitancy.

as part of a un children's fund and ministry of health campaign, the leaders from many of kinshasa's parishes get a vip behind the scenes tour and see for themselves the high-tech infrastructure required to refrigerate and store the country's stock of vaccines. they then spread the word, vaccines save lives. >> pastors need to care t just about the spiritual health of their community, but also, about the general wellbeing of their community. and for kids, with regards to vaccines, they need to find an environment that is favorable to their well-being. back at the community health center, health workers know that focusing on education is an approach that works. today, vaccine rates here are high. but that wasn't always the case. >> as there were rumors everywhere on social media, people were scared. even the

women were not coming here. now with the sensitization, the community has approached us. now everyone has access to vaccinations. and the children, even the covid vaccine, people tend to come asking for it, even if it's not in stock. reporter: it's a small success story, that health workers hope can apply to the rest of this vast and sprawling country. for the pbs newshour, i'm benedict moran in kinshasa, in the democratic republic of the congo. judy: and we'll be back shortly with a look at how a museum es technology to deepen visitor engagement with ancient art. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it is a chance to offer your su judy: ancient sculptures at

boston's museum of fine arts are getting a new look.

muarser umaf h ras fyeound waysw threads from thousands of years ago to today. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston reports for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> this is a moment to experience the divine. >> it is in the philosophy of the greeks to aspire to be like the gods. these are idealized, the hero heracles, perfectly muscular; aphrodite, perfectly sensual in all the right places. bowen: the gods and goddesses are within reach here at boston's museum of fine arts, which has just unveiled a series of reimagined galleries featuring the work of ancient greece, rome, and the byzantine empire. they take visitors back thousands of years scaling the heights of a veritable mount olympus and dipping into the bustle of daily life. >> we are listening in on conversations of folks that lived 3,000 years ago, who drank good wine, who had parties in which they sang odes to the

heroes, told stories about the gods, and had philosophical discussions that resulted in democracy, major drama that we still perform. bowen:hristine kondoleon is chair of the museum's greek and collections. she says in this gallery of the gods, these statues represen thr stand-ins, often sculpted for worship in temples. zeus might still be the front and center king, but it's the flanking gods who got down to business. you could pr to them. if you were sick, you would go to a place like epidaurus and seek help from asclepius, the god of medicine. hygeia, who is the goddess of health. we really need her in the world today. you could invoke help from them and you could honor them. because if you didn't honor them, they might hurt you. so this is part of the deal. bowen: a formidable thought when it comes to the 13-foot tall,

13,000-pound juno, married to jupiter or zeus. the largest classical sculpture in america, she descended from the sky into the museum ten years ago, after standing anonymously in a suburban boston estate for more than a century. >> my research has tracked her back to the late first century b.c., standing in the theatre of pompey, the first marble theater of rome. bowen: these galleries meander from the monumental to the matters of every day, to fashionable hair, tools, and drinking cups. to commemorations of creativity and carousing. >> what really touches me, it's the human connection. it's this thread that, you know, ties you to this person 2,0 years ago that touched the objects. bowen: laure marest is one of gallery's curators. e says some of what we find here carries the same urgency it did thousands of years ago. like a seemingly simplistic triangle. it carries a much deeper meaning.

>> it's shaped like female genitalia, and on the top there is an inscription. and the inscription clearly says it's a gift given by a woman named daphne as a thank you to zeus hypsistos for having healed her. and, you know, those are things that we still experience, and when you might not have the modern medicine we have today, you have to turn to something, someone, maybe a greater someone, to try to help. >> meet andokides, a highly regarded master potter. bowen: marest was also instrumental in bringing technology into the galleries. >> in the sixth century b.c.e., athenian vases were prized far and wide for their superior shapes and designs. bowen: this film describes a fictional story about the very real and revolutionary practices at play in creating this athenian vase from the sixth century b.c., when artisans discovered a way to depict figures in red and not the usual black. >> it's not only a history of

aesthetics, it's also a history of technology, because really this requires huge experiments in firing, in basically chemistry that probably had to do thousands of experiments to come up with this really complicated system. bowen: back in the gods and goddesses gallery, a roman replica of a statue at the acropolis is a digital revelation all its own. >> for a long time, i think we've all looked at ancient statues and thought, "well, this is how they were created." is this how they were created? >> it is not. originally it was very brightly painted. it's almost garish sometimes, we think today. and so we decided that really part of our mandate here was to convey this because we need to show how the ancients encountered those works. bowen: to determine how the statue originally looked, the museum employed a host of methods from old-school scrutiny. >> if you look really closely, for example, here. bowen: i do see those, yeah.

>> you see the reddish cues. so our lady athena had red hair. bowen: to special lighting, photographic techniques, and chemical analysis. >> what especially reacted is a blue pigment called egyptian blue that reacts under specific light conditions. and we did find a lot of it on the aegis, on her helmet. bowen: it all means we mayeed to credit the greeks and romans with giving us technicolor, too. for the pbs newshour in boston, i'm jared bowen. judy: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. >> for 25 years consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect.

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