♪ anna: good evening, and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, hiring surges nationwide, but longer term trends show an increasing number of working age men are dropping out of the labor force altogether. anna: what u.s. officials call a chinese surveillance balloon spotted flying over the central united states raises tensions in the already strained relationship between the two nations. geoff: and western states that rely on the drought stricken colorado river fail to reach an agreement on cutting water consumption. we take a look at what it means. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs

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♪ >> fostering iormed and engaged communities. ♪ >> and friends of the newshour. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. anna: welcome to the newshour. we are following two major stories tonight -- defense department officials are tracking a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that is making its way across the central part of the u.s. geoff: and job growth surged

last month, shaking off fears of a hiring slowdown. let's delve first into the economic news, employe added 517,000 jobs last month -- a hiring boom far stronger than anyone had expected. the jobless rate dropped to 3.4%. that's the lowest level in 53 years. the latest jobs report also underscores the challenges facing federal reserve officials, who are focused on slowing inlation. and as economics correspondent paul solman tells us, it fuels more questions about a labor market that's proven more resilient for months now. >> a big surprise. reporter: labor economist julia pollak, on today's jobs report. >> so many leading indicators turned sharply negative in the fourth quarter. investment has been slow. consumer spending has also been relatively sluggish. and yet, against that backdrop, job growth is exploding. reporter: in fact, the latest jobs report found widespread hiring, particularly strong in hospitality, leisure, and health care. the latest revisions also found

job growth was stronger than first reported in the past two months. but the pace of wage growth slowed in january, something the federal reserve wants to see more of before it stops raising interest rates. >> this report is sort of the stuff of economics fiction, though, at a time of rapidly rising interest rates to have both falling inflation and falling unemployme is almost unheard of. it's almost as though we're in the world with $20 bills on the sidewalk and free lunches. reporter: president biden didn't go quite that far this morning, but he did take credit for a surge of hiring since he took office. >> we have created more jobs in two years than any presidential term within two years. that's the strongest two years of job growth in history, by a long shot. reporter: and yet, employers still need more workers, a reported two job job openings for every officially unemployed person in america. that's why the fed may be concerned about the hiring boom announced this morning.

the slowdown it wanted to see hasn't happened yet. but a major puzzle remains -- the cost of living is up substantially, and yet the labor force participation rate is even lower than it was before the pandemic, which helps explain why there are millions of jobs unfilled. >> so, why the shortfall? julia : the main reason is a huge decline in participation among older workers. and part of that may be driven by long covid. we've seen an increase in the number of people reporting disabilities, especially cognitive disabilities. reporter: a bigger factor may be the workforce exit of healthy prime age working men between the ages of 25 and 54. one familiar explanation, says pollak -- julia: the u.s. economy has experienced a hollowing out of the jobs in the middle. high wage jobs with strong retirement benefits that used to be common among men without college degrees. now, software has eaten many of those jobs. and so, non-college educated men have actually seen their working prospects fall.

>> i do have lotof friends who just stopped working. they're not even trying. they've fallen off the worforce. reporter: 54-year-old john lilly, recently laid off and looking for work, has a few friends without degrees who have just given up. how can they afford it? >> i think they're just couch surfing on their parents' couches at 50 years old, waiting for people to die so they can inherit the house and that sort of thing. it's a really bizarre situation right now. reporter: and some of his peers simply balk at conforming to new workplace norms. >> something like the pronouns, the gender pronouns seem stupid to a middle aged person. but it's not stupid. if you want to get a job, if you want to get along with the work culture, you have to keep up with culture in general. reporter: but a hollowed out labor market as the main cause of the male worker shortfall seems a stretch to economist nicholas eberstadt, who published "men without work" in 2016, now in a post-pandemic edition. >> the received wisdom is that economic and structural change is driving the decline in

workforce participation for them, outsourcing, decline of manufacturing, less demand for less skilled work, but it's fine afar as it goes and it's really only part of the story, and i don't think it's even most of the story. reporter: and most of the story is? >> disability payments, drop outs, unintended consequences of our social welfare guarantees, and the invisible ex-con population, which is now maybe 25 million people in the united states. reporter: and when you say ex-con, you mean they are formerly convicted? not necessarily formerly incarcerated. >> only one in 10 persons who has a felony conviction in their background is currently serving in prison. it's an order of magnitude bigger than our incarceration situation in the united states. >> it's been almost impossible to get a job that pays a living

wage. reporter: mike tyner is one such american, though he d serve time on a bank robbery conviction. a college grad with a 3.7 gpa, even some grad school, he's had six actual job offers all rescinded because of his felony conviction. >> i get it, you don't want me working in a bank, if i robbed a bank. i get you don't want me working around money, if i have had an issue with money in the past. but i can't clean a bus? reporter: okay, felony convictions, hollowing out economy, government benefits, long covid, a longish list. but even that's not all. >> child care is very expensive and hard to acquire right now. reporter: 33-year-old new stay-at-home dad tom mcfarland offers yet another reason. >> financially, it turned out to be where child care was basically going to take up our whole paycheck. so i chose to become a stay at home parent. reporter: his wife, a veterinarian, supports the family on her salary. no surprise, as women keep outpacing men in college

degrees, and thus, in earning potential. >> in our case, it made financial sense and good professional sense. reporter: has he noticed more men his age becoming house husbands? >> yes. it made me feel more comfortable making the decision. reporter: and how does he respond when asked why he's not working? >> i'm currently working. i'm just working as a parent at home. i'm very proud to become a stay at home parent and, you know, very proud to be a father. reporter: so the moral of this story is pretty clear -- prime age men have dropped out for lots reasons, contributing mightily to the curious case of a high-cost-of-living economy with not enough workers to go 'round. for the pbs newshour, paul solman. anna: turning now to our other lead story tonight, secretary blinken decided to postpone a high-profile trip to beijing this weekend, in response to what the u.s. calls a chinese spy balloon, currently floating eastward across the country.

nick schifrin has that story. >> it's about 5:30 p.m., wednesday, february 1, 2023. reporter: it was first spotted over montana. >> i have no idea what this thing is. i hope it is in focus. reporter: this morning spotted 1000 miles to the southeast above st. joseph, missouri. the u.s. calls it a spy balloon. beijing called it a civilian airship used for research. the chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship and the u.s. airspace due to forced uncontrolled forces. but senior u.s. officials say it is maneuverable and beijing was trained to fly the balloon over sensitive sites. montana is home to one of the u.s.'s three intercontinental ballistic muscle silos -- missile silos.

administrative officials say president but into because -- took his military advisors' advice and decided not to shoot the balloon down because of the risk to people on the ground. >> we do recognize any potential debris field would be significant and potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage. reporter: today the u.s. secretary of state canceled what would've been the most senior trip of the biden administration to china. >> what this has done is create the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip including ongoing efforts to build the floor under the relationship and to address a broad range of issues that are concerns to the american people and to the chinese people internally as well to people around the world. reporter: u.s. officials say china has sent spy balloon's over the u.s. before but never for this time and never right before a secretary of state visit. >> the most important thing right now and the moment is to

see that this surveillance as it gets out of our airspace. >> but chairman resented if mike mccall said the initiation should've shut it down earlier. this balloon should've never been allowed to enter u.s. airspace. it now poses a direct and ongoing national security threat to the u.s. homeland. >> it is certainly not a standard weather balloon. that is a given. reporter: he owns the largest american provider of meter illogical balloons to the u.s. government including the military. >> we can see on it that there is a solar right to have power supply to a camera or heat source, the fact that they don't want us to bring the balloon down in our territory and have us go grab it for them is kind of saying something to me that they don't want anybody to get their hands on thisalloon. >> this thing is weird. reporter: the current trajectory shows a blow will flow toward the atlantic ocean. u.s. officials will reveal plans other than to say they are monitoring.

>> it is not the moon. ♪ geoff: in the days other headlines, some of the cdest weather in decades descended on the northeast and new england. those venturing outside faced wind chills that could reach 50 below this weekend. many committees opened warming centers and closed schools today. the weather began to warm in texas this week. utilities said they could not estimate how long repairs will take. the u.s. has announced another big military package for ukraine worth more than $2 billion and including longer-range rockets. they can fly nearly twice as far antime kyiv day,vided so far. european union leade pledg their continued support. ukrainian president volodymyr

zelenskyy said the war has reached a pivotal point. >> we are preparing. i believe -- we believe intelligence and military that russia will increase pressire in the country's east. russia wants revenge in the area where they did not succeed. our task is to prevent this from happening. and i believe we have a chance. >> he vowed his forces will resist russia's ongoing assault on bakhmut -- in eastern ukraine -- for as long as possible. pope francis arrived in south sudan today, urging the country's leaders to make peace after years of war. he was welcomed by the president and thousands of well-wishers. later, he warned that history will judge those who worked to end the fighting and those who did not. the pope was joined by anglican and scottish presbyterian leaders, along with catholics, their followers make up most of south sudan's population. back in this country, the u.s. agriculture department is calling for school cafeterias to cut back on added sugar and

sodium. the agency today proposed new standards including the first-ever limits on sugar and yogurt, cereal, and other foods. those rules would take effect by the fall of 2027. pets and sodium levels would take effect two years later. police and dallas have arrested a man in a series of strange events at the city zoo. he's charged with animal cruelty and the taking of two emperor tamarind monkeys this week, they disappeared from their enclosure. police found them the next day at a vacant house. zoo officials said today that the monkeys are recovering. >> we are treating their return to the zoo as if they were coming from an unknown source. so they're in a medical quarantine right now, to make sure that they settled back in, that they re-gain some weight and that the stress of their theft and removal from known habitat doesn't have longer lasting effects on them. >> the same suspect is also charged with burglary -- for allegedly letting a small

leopard escape and trying to cut open another monkey enclosure. the leopard was found later, still inside the zoo a fourth incident -- the death of a vulture -- remains under investigation. there's no word on a motive. and on wall street, the january jobs data revived fears that the federal reserve will push bigger interest rate hikes to slow the economy and dampen inflation. the dow jones industrial average lost 128 points to close at 33,926. e nasdaq fell nearly 194 points, 1.5 percent. s&p 500 was down 1%. still to come onhe "newshour," abortion providers resort to mobile centers to meet women's health care needs david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines a global music -- headlines. and a global music festival helps international musicians reach larger audiences. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter

cronkite school of journalism at arizona state univsity. anna: beyond today's headlines about an apparent surveillance balloon and secretary blinken's canceled trip to beijing lies the much broader relationship between the world's two largest economies. the u.s. and china are competing for influence on many fronts across the world. here again is nick schifrin. reporter: to better focus the u.s. government's efforts to confront china, the new congress created a new panel to examine the relationship. the select committee on the strategic competition between the united states and the chinese communist party. with me now are the new committee's two leaders, republican chairman mike gallagher of wisconsin, and democratic ranking member raja krishnoorthi of illinois for their first joint interview. thank you very much. welcome to the newshour. let me start with you on the news of the day. . defense officials told congressional staffers today that the balloon entered continental u.s. airspace on

january 31. do you believe they could have and should have shot this balloon down safely at that point? >> yes, i do, particularly if you are tracking it is a transited over the islands in alaska, i don't think there's any serious concern about debris in that area, furthermore i don't know why we didn't have the same ability to shoot it down over sparsely populated areas over canada and in partnership with our allies in canada or even montana. if the pentagon is telling us that they don't have this capability, well then that is a capability we absolutely need to develop going forward and we need to be using our defense budget in order to develop that capability. >> ranking member, the chairman today told congressional officials that dod needed a 20 mile by 20 mile box to safely bring this down, and it wasn't safe to bring it down for fear of some kind of civilian casualties on the ground. do you agree with that? >> i think we shoulddefer to

the military leaders. they pointed out that this particular balloon is no longer collecting intelligence. perhaps because of countermeasures. at the end of the day, there's the risk of is the of the debris field entering somebody or. using property damage we also want to preserve the tech. we are members of the intelligence committee as well, we want to be able to know exactly what the technological capabilities are. of the chinese communist party. so preserving that technology. and being able to learn more about it is invaluable as well. >> you believe that they could have brought the balloon down safely and preserved the tech. >> if they can do that, i think they will probably do everything they can to make that happen. perhaps it will lose altitude in

a sparsely popular today area of the country and they will be able to recover it and then we can examine it and then i'm sure the chinese will wanted back and will say, return it upon determining that it's proper for weather purposes at the appropriate time. >> u.s. officials tell me they were concerned about sending server terribly can to beijing -- sending secretary blinken to beijing while the balloon was over u.s. airspace. do you believe they made the right decision in postponing the trip? >> i do. i think you should just cancel the trip as opposed to postpone it, but that is semantics. the next time we meet, the chinese officials come to america, we deserve an apology for this violation of u.s. sovereignty. this tells us something for the mental about the regime we are dealing with here. remember the way in which chinese diplomats acted in the first meeting the head with secretary blinken in alaska,

berating them and talking about the horrible human rights record in america, what they did to wendy sherman. sot's definitely in their playbook to do some day like this in order to embarrass her diplomats. i think this would've looked bizarre so soon after this incident. they made the right call and gets the local mission -- the core mission that we have on china, we believe our foreign policy is stronger when republicans and democrats are working together. that's why i'm so thrilled work with raj. we have a long history of working together on foreign policy issues. i know we have a shared understanding of the ideological economic and military threat posed by the chinese communist party, so we are really excited to work together on the preeminent foreign-policy challenge of our lifetime. >> ranking member, the administration says it wants to keep dialogue open with beijing. so, why not send the secretary

to read them the riot act during every meeting and also discuss many of the issues that your committee is also going to be discussing publicly? >> first of all i want to thank mike for those kind words. i echo his sentiment about working with him. even though he's a green bay packers fan. setting that aside for a moment, have to say that with regard to secretary blinken going to china, the people's republic of china, that would be a bad move. because what they didas they violated american airspace and our sovereignty. and that basically undermines their diplomatic overtures. it calls into question the sincerity of those overtures. i think it is appropriate for secretary blinken to postpone the trip. i'm sure they are comedic hitting another was right now. i hope that they make it very clear -- communicating in other ways right now and i hope they make it very clear especially if we want to set a floor forur

relationship, because it has not been improving the way it should be over the past couple of years. >> let me ask you both about taiwan. yesterday bill burns said as a matter of intelligence, the u.s. believes xi jinping ordered his military to be prepared. not necessarily a decision but prepared to invade taiwan by 2027. do you think the u.s. is willing to go to war over taiwan and the american people are prepared to suffer the massive casualties the military believes might happen if that were actually gets instigated -- war actually gets instigated? >> i am concerned that we are doing things counterproductive to the defense of taiwan, such as trying to cut the size of the u.s. navy. the biden administration's defense plan they submitted last year would've had the navy bottom out in 2027 at the worst possible point. we are talking about a priority force in the priority theater. i've been concerned at the lack

of urgency. i believe we've entered the window of maximum danger. we've obviously had a memo recently by an air force general saying that things could get frisky in 2025. i'm worried about 2024. particularly after the taiwanese elections in january of 2024. we need to be moving heaven and earth to restore our deterrent posture in the indo pacific. that being said, i salute the administration's recent announcement of agreements with both japan and the philippines. that's a massive step forward. what we are seeing the japanese do on their own, increasing their defense spending, is a massive help to our efforts. those are good things. we need to be moving with a greater sense of urgency. >> ranking member, we hear a lot about the military not moving fast enough. despite some of the moves chairman gallagher just mentned. i also talked to experts who fear the opposite end say that alongside the steps the u.s. has taken alongside the assurance given to allies,here needs to be more reassurance to beijing.

that without that reassurance, beijing could feel backed into a corner leading to the very worthy are trying to deter, what you say to those voices? >> i think we should provide clear messages about redlines. i think the biden administration has been communicating those, just as president biden did recently with chairman xi. but at the end of the day the chinese, -- the chinese communist party is throwing its elbows in the neighborhood whether it's with roberta china sea or taiwan or with regard to others will desperately seekan internationaln rules-based order in that region of the world. that's what we have to work with our partners and friends and allies in the region to help supply their defense needs and help work with them to deter aggression. we don't want a cold war or hot

work, we don't want open hostilities. but the only way to do that is to prepare our mutual defense to discourage and deter aggression. then hopefully work with beijing on common long-term challenges, whether it's fighting climate change or even bringing an end to the war in ukraine. but right now, with this below situation, it obviously exposes the threat israel from the chinese coming is pretty. >> ranking member, chairman gallagher, thank you very much to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: this was a major week in the battle out west over water use. seven states along the colorado river basin were supposed to have reached a collective agreement on how to use less water from an ever-shrinking river. but they failed to do so.

six states reached a modest agreement, but it would have required major cuts in water use by california, the largest user. california for its part submitted its own proposal. but that stalemate may force the federal government to make difficult cuts, instead. william brangham has more for our occassional series on water issues, called "tipping point." reporter: geoff, the central issue is that the amount of water flowing down the colorado river is shrinking, while the demand for that water by those states is growg. a megadrought, compounded by climate change, is directly at odds with the thirsty cities and farms of the american west. the water of the colorado river is collected in the country's two biggest reservoirs, lake mead and lake powell, and those lakes are now three quarters empty. the biden administration asked those seven states to cut their collective withdrawal from the colorado by about a third, but we're a long way from getting there. for more on all this, i'm joined

by rhett larson, he's a water rights professor at arizona state university. rett larson, so good to have you on the newshour. could you just elaborate a little bit? i laid out what seems to be the essential issue here, is that -- what would you add to that? >> well, what we're going through right now is a little bit like a bankruptcy proceeding. it's like the river declaring bankruptcy from the very beginning of the way that the states had shared the colorado river, we had made assumptions about how much the river could pay out in any given year. those assumptions that were made now a century ago were wrong, and we're paying the price for those incorrect assumptions. now, those assumptions were wrong, both because the data was bad 100 years ago, it's also wrong because the population is obviously changed a lot. and it's wrong because the climate has changed quite a bit. so, even though we're getting around 90% of our normal snowpack and precipitation, our winters are so short, and they're so hot, that a lot of that water just isn't reaching

the river. so this combination of factors has caused what is something like a bankruptcy proceeding, where you have lots of people who have a claim to a common resource and the resource just can't pay out to everyone who has a claim to it. reporter: so those seven states were supposed to come up with a plan. six of them did come up with a plan, not including california. the six states that did submit a plan relied a lot on the issue of evaporation in their argument. can you succinctly explain what they were arguing? >> sure. so, it's -- you mentioned having too many straws in the river, too many users. well, there's a user that we've never really accounted for, and that user is the atmosphere. the atmosphere takes away about 1.5 million acre feet away from the lower basement of the colorado river every year. but we don't treat that as if it's a use that's being taken out of the river. so part of the proposal of the six sin states is, let's just treat that.5 million acre feet

like it's a user taking that amount of water out. and we'll just read those cuts out amongst everyone who is using the river. now, the way to spread those cuts out is complicated, but probably best that the people who have to move the water the farthest are the people who have to take the biggest cuts because they're moving it through canals that are open to the air and they're losing the most water to evaporation. reporter: so what is california arguing in this? it's the biggest user by far, principally california agriculture, and it's the longest owner of those rights. what are they arguing? >> well, we've been through a series of negotiations in the last several years about how to share in shortage. but for decades, california has had what is senior priority. so, in the western united states, we operate under a prior appropriation regime, the first and time, the first and right. california, for a host of reasons, sits at or near the front of the line, when it comes to those water uses. so califnia's argument is, we have senior priority.

we are the first user with legal rights, so we shouldn't have to take cuts first. reporter: amidst all of this haggling and a shrinking river, there's this issue of what's called deadpool. can you explain what deadpool is and what would happen, if we hit that point? >> deadpool is the point at which the reservoir levels have sunk so low, that we can't take water out of the reservoir anymore. so effectively, we're no longer regulating the river with a dam, it just becomes a run of the river, meaning the river's just flowing and there's no storage. when you talk about california's power, it's political power, it's economic power, it's legal power. you might ask, why would they ever make a compromise, why would they ever compromise? part of that is the risk of deadpool is so real and its risk is so imminent within the next couple of years, and deadpool would affect all of us that it is in everyone's best interest, all the basin states to come up

with a solution because deadpool is is a legitimate risk within the next couple of years if we don't act soon. reporter: all right. brett larson at arizona state university, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. thank you. ♪ anna: in some parts of the country, access to abortion care depends on how far a person can travel. missouri has banned the procedure, but in neighboring illinois, abortion remains legal, and providers there will soon be working along the state border to be able to reach more patients. pbs newshour communities correspondent gabrielle hays joins us with more on the abortion landscape in the midwest. it's good to see you. abortion, outlawed in missouri for more than six months now, no exception for rape or incest. limited exceptions for medical emergencies. in that time as you've been reporting, what have you same in terms -- seen in terms of how

many people are seeking abortion access and how providers are meeting that need? >> the first thing is, 100 days after roe fell, providers, planned parenthood made the announcement that they would be launching a mobile clinic at the southern illinois border and that's the first time that they've ever done anything like that. providers tell me that that is in response not only to a stark rise in people looking for care, but it also serves as a symbol of their active defiance in a post roe era. that clinic is set to large in the coming months -- launch in the coming months. we are talking about a state ban where people are traveling across the western border. we know that kansas now has

telemedicine abortions and providers tell me, when they look at their parking lot, they are seeing license plates from over the country because people are coming to utilize their resources and that's also important to know those things come with stipulations, so you have to be in kansas in order to utilize the telemedicine abortions. i think although it's not legal in the state of missouri, the states around us or try to figure out a way to provide those resources to people who are looking for care. anna: we are talking about abortion being outlawed. but in the state of missouri, what about access to other kinds of reproductive care? >> that's a good question. the one thing that providers have stressed to me is that we are not only looking at a heightened sense of trying to figure out where people can find access to abortion. but access to health care period. there's an emphasis on rural areas. in the state of missouri,

according to the states own data, we are looking at 33% of people in our state living in a rural county, that is more than 2 million people. 2 million people looking for access to all kinds of care. so planned parenthood recently took over a clinic in missouri and that is where they are hoping to provide access to other types of reproductive care to people who live in rural missouri. i am told they are hoping to move forward to be able to expand to vasectomies and other types of care. >> we know that abortion ban and misery is being challenged, where do the challenges stand right now? >> just days before the anniversary of roe v. wade, we had 13 clergy members from six different faith backgrounds who filed a lawsuit here in missouri challenging the abortion ban. what they are arguing is that it is unconstitutional because it takes one religious doctrine and imposes it on everybody else.

we will be following that lawsuit closely. but that is the latest challenge here in missouri. >> that is are committed his correspondent reporting for us. thank. -- thank you so much. you can read more of gabby's reporting on abortion access online at pbs.org/newshour. ♪ geoff: democrats map a new path to the white house, the previous president's third run gets off to a sluggish start, and a balloon raises tensions between world superpowers. for analysis of the week's news, brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. great to see you both. let's start with the race for the white house. donald trump's third presidential campaign appears to be off to a slow start. his fundraising haul is less then what -- -- he certainly

expected than -- less than what he certainly expected. he's a base of suppo larger then his gop rivals. what is your standing right now? >> he is thinking. the polls show significant slippage. if you look at how many times he's mentioned on things like fox news, it's plummeting. if you listen to talk radio, they say there's hostility, there was bitterness and hostility. is running a much more conventional campaign, in 2016, he was the woody outsider. now he's running a normal campaign trying to woo the republican establishment. hispponents are a lot better informed about what their party really wants. i think all and all, he could be safe by the fact that the republicans have when or to call primaries. >> if he gets 20%, he could get

the delegates in some states, but i think there's a lot of evidence to show serious slippage. >> nikki haley is expected to announce her presidential run on the 15th of february, former vice president mike pence is set to be in consideration of a potential 2024. how do potential trump challengers thread this needle of building a coalition without alienating from supporters? >> that's a great question for david. [laughter] that means getting into their heads. i don't know. we are about to find out. nikki haley is going to be the canary in the coal mine. mike pence could be the next one. the republican electorate is better informed. but these people considering jumping into the race against donald trump are better informed about who he is, how he reacts. the only thing we don't know is,

how will they react, when they get punched in the face rhetorically by donald trump? how do they react when the big negative stories come out if they come out about them, and then he attacks them? how do they respond? i think right now they have more to fear about their own abilities to run the race than they do about anything donald trump will do to them. as an opponent. >> republicans who say they want to turn the page away from the trump era note the gop needs to keep the field from being too crowded. that's what happened in 2016 that led to the emergence of donald trump as a nominee. might that happen again? >> if you go back to where we weren't when he 16, there were a lot of people with nine or 10 points. christie, rubio, ted cruz. right now tre's trump and desantis. right now it's those two.

i think the pressure on the two were three others will be in orbis. i'm curious about the republican field. will the electorate split into two wings? will there be a trump wing that could include both trump and desantis and then a regular republican wing which could conclude people like mary hogan and glenn youngkin, the governor of virginia? it could be like trump and desantis are fhting over the same voters. i'm not sure the party will split that easily but it could. >> let's talk about ron desantis. the florida republican governor widely expected to run for president. the college board this past week changed the course offering for their ap african-american studies course following criticism from the santos. he says that changes were made to the course had nothing to do with the public discussion with the criticism the college board faced.

take a look. >> the revisions were complete by the end of december, far before this public discussion. with the revisions were based on were two sources, the feedback from professors and students and teachers in a pilot course, and returning to presuppose that our true of every single ap course. >> do you buy with the college board is saying? >> i do. we are talking about academics. not politicians. these sorts of things happen in academia all the time. just because you write a book and just because you teach a course or written an important article that was big in the social discussion does not automatically mean that it needs to betaught in a classroom. i know i'm going to get in trouble with a lot of people but i want to pull the aperture back here, what ron desantis is doing is deeply insulting. what he's basically saying to

the nation's african-americans and particulars, that your role in the building of this country and the mainnance of this country means nothing. and that without you, we could've gotten along just fine. and that is what is so -- it is insulting. it is hurtful. and think about this, the fact that you and i are sitting here right now, you and an anchor chair and me as a guest on television, would that have happened 50 years ago or 100 years ago? 1619? no. it couldn't. it couldn't have. one thing i would like to remind people particularly young people is history is not really history when you are talking about african-americans in this country. my cousins and i are the first generation in my family to not have to pick cotton. we are the first generation that did not have to live under m crow. i am 55 years old. that is how long this has been a democracy.

governor desantis, if you want americans to truly understand how great this country is, you cannot understand how great this country is without filling in those gaps and holes with the history of african-americans in this country. >> i've known david coleman a bit over the last several years. is always struck me as a remarkably outstanding guy who is very fair. they want to rebut it to feel represented in this. they have documents, stated documents showing they made the changes. i would've told him, waiting month, show a political ear, because our pe -- because our people that said was going on, there's questions people have. i take them at their word. the big change was the realize haskell students don't like the theory, they like primary documents. i could've told them that. i know haskell students -- high school students. [laughter]

i agree with jonathan on desantis. at any time in american history, one needs to be forward leaning about african-american htory. that's been true and should have been true since 1619 and certainly should have been true today. he should go to the african-american history museum. it is a very fair portrayal and very moving portrayal of american history. clarence thomas is in the museum, susan rice, condoleezza rice. they spend the diversity of back history. you can do that. i trust that at the end of the day, this curriculum will end up doing that. geoff: in the time that remains, let's talk about what democrats are going to be doing this weekend. they are going to vote on this new primary calendar proposed by president biden that would do a number of things, remove iowa from its primary position and push succulent forward in the calendar followed by nevada and primaries in georgia and michigan. what is your assessment of this new strategy here?

>> those states are more a percent of our country than iowa going first or new hampshire going next. the democrats tried to rectify the situation by adding nevada and then south carolina, but look, this country is changing quickly. and if we are going to have an electorate that looks like the country voting for the president, we've got to change the system. i think the way that works, those states, are great. my only question is, one week after the other? that's the thing that gets me -- gives me a little pause. >> what about that? we expect resident button to make his intentions known after the state of the union address. he wants to delivered as a president. wh difference does the calendar make? >> i'm not sure. sure he's going to run.

long-term, when i look at a calendar, i want three things -- one, i wt the early states to be diverse, there's a period, i think biden used to make this point, a lot of candidates that dropped out of the race by the time 98% or nine and a percent of black and latino voters could vote that seems wrong, second i wanted to be a small state. i don't want to big state. it just takes so much money to run. if you are not an insider candidate with tons of fundraising you can't compete in pennsylvania and michigan. third and most important, i want the state to be biased in the way i like democratic candidates. [laughter] so south carolina is an older state. a military state. so it tends to select the more moderate. if i am sanders, i am probably not happy, but a moderate democrat, it will probably tend to favor them. geoff: thanks as always for your insights. david brooks and jonathan

capehart. ♪ anna: the sounds of the world brought to new york for one night, and from there, perhaps, to a club or concert hall or festival near you. jeffrey brown reports on the phenomenon called globalfest, for our arts and culture series, "canvas." ♪ reporter: you've likely heard the marimba before, but not played quite le this. this is the mexican band, son rompe pera, who've created a distinctive blend of, as the t-shirt says, cumbia, the traditional latin american music, and punk. and here they were recently in what is for them a very unusual setting --.

-- setting, new york's lincoln center. jesus gama is one of three brothers in the band. >> to come here and play and be seen by different people from all over the world, that's something unique. for a street band to arrive in these places is something very very good, especially in mexico where it is difficult to get support. ♪ reporter: international musicians being seen and supported to tour in the u.s. it's what the annual globalfest gathering is about. the audience is a mix of the general blic, and, crucially, more than a thousand representatives from performing arts centers around the country, eager to learn about new acts, and, if the stars align, bring them to their audiences back home. >> it's a unique place, because you have an audience that's mixed with arts professionals and the general public, and you don't know who's who. so you don't know who you're sitting next to, but they might be booking a major festival or concert hall anywhere across the country, or around the world.

reporter: isabelle soffer co-founded globalfest twenty years ago with bill braygin and shanta thake, who's also chief artistic officer here at lincoln center, which has now given globalfest a new home for the festival. ♪ it began, says soffer, after 9/11, amid fears of isolationism, a way to ensure more americans are exposed to global culture. >> we know that music plays a key role in people's understanding of the world, and we take that really seriously. and we do want to challenge both the audiences and presenters to just thinkore critically about where these people come from. ♪ reporter: this year, chosen from among hundreds of submissions, they came from countries including morocco, the ecstatic singing and playing of the all-women group, bnat el houariyat, joined by algerian-american dancer esraa warda.

and spain -- singer maria jose llergo. ♪ and they represented varying stylesf music, like that of the new york arabic orchestra. the event spreads across three stages, with overlapping performances, allowing the audience to move around, hear all 10 acts, and, for professional arts presenters, to do some serious business. jamilla deria is director of the fine arts center at the university of massachusetts in amherst. >> it's critical, particularly as a presenter who isn't in a major market. i think that to be able to fly to marrakech, to be able to fly to niger and then france and mexico city is a bit outside my budget range. reporter: much as you might want

to. >> yeah. but the ability to just, you know, fill up the gas tank and drive down to new york for a few days to be able to see these artists in person, not only experience their music, but the impact of their music on a western audience, is invaluable. reporter: globalfest is actually a satellite festival held at the same time as a much larger annual convention, the association of performing arts professionals, or apap. here, deria and thousands of others survey the current music, theater, and dance worlds, and meet performers, agents, and managers to set up performances and tours -- part of the country's performing arts ecosystem. they also meet other presenters who can band together, in the case of bringing global acts to this country to defray the often large costs of travel, visas, and other touring expenses. >> so you can talk to the presenter in east tennessee or

the presenter in maine, and they could be like, standing alongside you and say, hey, do you lo this guy? i love this guy. let's do this. let's bring them to our region. reporter: and that makes it work economically. >> you know, the cost of bringing a group from across the world is not for the faint of heart. [laughter] ♪ reporter: there's always at least one act at globalfest that doesn't have to travel so far, an american musician or group -- the festival curators believe is ready for a bigger audience. this year, it was "the legendary ingramettes," wonderfully named, powerfully void. ♪ started in by maggie ingram, now led by her daughter and based in richmond, virginia, this is a group that's been singing, in one form or another, for some six decades, suddenly getting a new kind of attention. >> we didn't really realize how many people have been watching what we do. we're still homegrown folks.

we're still, you know, richmond's first family of gospel. ♪ reporter: true to their gospel roots, miller says, the ingramettes are about service, typically singing in churches, community centers, or schools. this, she knew, was going to be different. >> there's going to be hundreds, or a few thousand presenters. >> no, my goodness. listen. reporter: you know that, right? [laughter] >> i do. reporter: does that make you a little nervous? >> you know what? we're going to have a good time. we're just going to come to have a good time and to share who we are. and to sre the music that we bring. ♪ reporter: onstage a short time later, the legendary ingramettes were sharing away to a happy crowd. and possibly, if globalfest magic holds, they'll be sharing

on a stage near you one day soon. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown, at lincoln center in new york. ♪ geoff: tre is much more online, including our interviews with several of the musicians up for grammy awards this weekend. be sure to join yamiche alcindor and her panel on washington week later tonight for more on this week's meeting between president biden and house speaker kevin mccarthy, and on police reform efforts. anna: watch pbs news weekend with john yang tomorrow for a look at the political and humanitarian crisis in haiti. that is the newshour. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: i'm geoff bennett, have a great weekend. >> funding tonight for the pbs

newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. the engine that connects us. bnsf. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation. working for solutions to protect water during climate change. so people and nature can thrive together. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting a better world. at hewlett.org.

♪ >> and friends of the newshour. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions for your pbs station from reviewers like you -- from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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