Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240712

Azerbaijan. Woodruff all that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. Thats fidelity wealth management. Consumer cellular. Johnson johnson. Financial Services Firm raymond james. Bnsf railway. The kendeda fund. Committed to advancing Restorative Justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. More at kendedafund. G. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff President Trump and democratic rivaloe biden were supposed to meet face to face tonight. Instead, they will wage a kind of ratings war, appearing at the same time, on different television networks. Lisa desjardins begins our coverage. Desjardins in philadelphia today, another strange stage in the pandemic. Former Vice President joe biden will hold a town hall here tonight with abc news, the night when he was to have s second debate with President Trump. That was canceled following the president s Coronavirus Diagnosis nearly two weeks ago. Instead, voters get a network tv faceoff, with Trump Holding a separate town hall at the same time tonight on nbc. Ill see you later on nbc desjardins there was some more traditional campaigning today. The president spoke in greenville, north carolina. 19 days from now think of that. 19 days. Can you believe this . Were going to win the state of north carolina. Were going to win four more years in the white house. Four more years four more years desjardins the crowd was enthusiastic for trump, and many openly defiant of health guidelines, not Wearing Masks and standing closely together. Democrats v. P. Nominee, california senator kamala harris, was also to be in the tarheel state today, but the campaign canceled all harris events through the weekend out of caution, after two people working with her campaign tested positive for coronavirus last night. Test test its Campaign Announced an aviation administrator no flew on biden he pleaj also tested positive for covid1 the Campaign Says harris and biden did no have any recent close contact with the people who tested positive. La night Vice President biden tested negative for covid19. At the same time, there was good news for the biden campaign. Last night, the democratic nominee announced another recordbreaking fundraising haul, 383 million in september. Thats more than ive ever raised in my whole life desjardins the Trump Campaign hasnt yet announced its september fundraising numbers. Bidens cash boost is part of a tsunami of donations reaching other democrats as well. In Arizonas Senate race, challenger mark kelly announced raising 38. 7 million in the past three months, making him the second democrat this year to break the record set by beto orourke in 2018. The other was Jamie Harrison in south carolina, challenging republican lindsey graham. Harrison raised an eyepopping 57 million in quarter three. The question is, how they can spend it all . It is now 19 days until the election. More than 17 million vots in 42 states have already cast their ballots, by mail or by early inperson voting. Woodruff thats a lot of voters. Meanwhile, a new pbs newshour npr marist poll shows former Vice President joe biden with an 11point lead over President Trump in the race for the white hous for more, Lisa Desjardins joins me now. Know you have been looking at these numbers, what is behind this wide gap for joe biden and how much of it is republicans leaving President Trump . We got some of fascinating datee here data, judy, polls can be flawed. He want to look the a things that can be beyond the margin of errors, it is not republican shifting, lets look at what we see, you lack at who is supporting whom. Republicans and democrats are both supporting an overwhelming numbers looking at a graphic, 93 there, 96 , they are supporting thrair candidate. Who is making a difference, independents, look at what in our survey we saw 57 percent of independents going for biden and fascinatingly, judy t is not just any independents who are driving this, lets lack at another graphic a little bit deeper within independents, looking at men and women who call themselves independents, 48 of independents men for biden but look at that, 70 of women describe themselves as independents going for biden. So judy, that is where we see the most movement and where biden is getting the lift. Woodruff interesting. And lisa, i know the poll not only asked people for whom they plan to vote, but how they plan to vote. What did you see there . This is so important, judy. Lets get right to this traffic. First of all people who say that they are going to vote on election day, 62 of them in our survey said that they are voting for trump. Those who are voting early either in person early or by mail, lets look at that. The opposite. You see two thirds or more of those folks voting early are votingor joe biden. Now speaking to a source in the biden campaign, judy, they feel good about this. They say the Trump Campaign is wasting an opportunity by they say making voters scared of mailin voting. But we all need to be aware that it could have an affect on Election Night results if so many of biden support ares are voting early and could be counted later depending on how each state works. Woodruff and i know were going to be following all of that very closely on Election Night and up until then. But just quickly, lisa, with regard, i know you are also following the saddest of these coronavirus economic d relief talks, tell us where that stands tonight. Secretary of treasury mnuchin spoke with House Speaker nancy pelosi for an hour and 22 minute this afternoon, one of their longer conversations. Mnuchin d the Trump Administration have agreed to what pelosi wants, he says on testing. But those two sides are still not on the same page. They will speak overnight and there is one more problem too. The leader of the republican senate, Mitch Mcconnell says he is not close to where the white house is. He wants a 500 billion deal versus 1. 8 trillion. So these talks continue. Well watch them but they are still not there. Woodruff a lot of people waiting to see whether that comes together. Lisa desjardins, thank you so much. Woodruff in the days other news, Senate Republicans vowed to subpoena the c. E. O. Of twitter for blocking a politically charged New York Post story thats uncorroborated. It involved hunter biden, son of president ial candidate joe biden, and his business dealings in ukraine. President trump accused twitter of censoring news to help democrats. The company said the story violated a rule against spreading private information obtained through hacking. The Senate Judiciary committee now plans to vote one week from today on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. The panels republican majority set the schedule today, after a discussion that once again split along party lines. What we are sing here is an exercise of just raw political power. Youre moving ahead with this nomination because you can. But might does not make right. And the American People put us here to dohat we think is right. The disappointment of our mocratic colleagues is real, because theyve been accustomed to the Supreme Court being policymakers. So, i understand their disappointment. But i think their loss is the American Peoples gain. Woodruff republicans are pushing to get barrett confirmed by the full senate before election day. The u. S. Economy is giving off fresh signals that its recovery from the pandemic may be stalling. The Labor Department reported today that new unemployment claims jumped to 898,000 last week. 17 states reported sizeable increases. Covid19 infections in the u. S. Are also surging again, with almost 60,000 new cases a day, spread across 44 states. That prompted fresh warnings today from Infectious Disease expert, dr. Anthony fauci. In an interview, he said things could get much worse, with cold weather coming. You dont want to be in that compromised position, where your baseline daily infection is high, and you are increasing, as opposed to going in the other direction. So we really got to double down on the fundamental Public Health measures that we talk about every single day, because they can make a difference. Woodruff fauci urged americans to reconsider plans for thanksgiving gatherings that could spread the virus. In yemen, warring parties began a longawaited prisoner swap brokered by the u. N. It involves some 1,000 men held by a Saudi Coalition and shiite Houthi Rebels backed by iran. Today, the first of the Saudi Coalition prisoners held by the houthis landed in yemens capital, sanaa, with emotional tarmac reunions. Yesterday, the houthis also freed two captive americans. The president of kyrgyzstan resigned today after a week of protests. Unrest in the Central Asian country started after his allies were declared the winners of disputed parliamentary elections. This is the third time that a kyrgyz leader has been ousted by Popular Uprising since 2006. Thailands capital, bangkok, is under a strict state of emergency over protests aimed at the monarchy and ruling establishment. Despite that, thousands of prodemocracy demonstrators still rallied in the Business District today. Many made a threefinger salute symbolizing defiance. translated a reform of the Monarchy Institution is calling for a change, not an abolishment. We want the monarchy to remain under a democratic system, just like every other nation. The elite system should no longer exist. Woodruff the demonstrations, led by students, have grown over the past three months, calling back in this country, more than 50,000 customers across Northern California went without power today, in the face of extreme fire danger. Pacific gas and electricmposed outages last night, fearing high winds could blow down powerlines and spark new flames. The state has already had more than 8,500 wildfires this year. The u. S. Postal service is reversing changes that slowed Postal Service nationwide. It is part of a legal settlement with the state of montana, and it ends changes that cut retail hours and removed some collection boxes and sorting machines. The agreement also gives priority to election mail. The u. S. Justice department has brought its largest tax fraud case er against an individual. Software mogul Robert Brockman was charged today in a 2 billion scheme. Federal prosecutors say that he used secret accounts to hide and launder money over 20 years. And on wall street, stocks had anotr lackluster day. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 19 points to close at ,494. The nasdaq fell 54 points, and the s p 500 slipped five points. Still to come on the newshour how some investors got word from the white house early on that things were worse than the public heard. With less than three weeks to go before election day, we visit the battleground state of iowa. We compare Media Coverage of the president s campaign to that of his 2016 run. And, much more. Woodruff back in late february, when the pandemic was beginning to take hold in the u. S. , the president and his team downplayed the risk to the american public. But, a new report finds that key advisers to the president were conveying a very different message to other audiences. And, some Financial Traders may have been able to profit in the stock market because of it. Amna nawaz has more of those deils. Nawaz judy, the New York Times reported that in late february, two white house advisers, larry kudlow and tomas phillipson, privately told Board Members of the conservative Hoover Institution that there was uncertainty about the virus and how it could upend life in the u. S. That would later prove true, but neither the president nor his administration were saying that publicly. And, the message delivered privately made its way a number of elite traders, who in turn, reportedly bet the economy would slow down. That would also prove true. William cohan is an author and former investment banker, who worked in wall street finance for 17 years. He joins me now. Welcome to the newshour, that memo from the briefingk we should mention someone who is in the briefings typed up some note, sent them out to a bunch of contacts, made its way to staff, additional contact, basically made its way to a number of Money Management firms within a day. If you are in the business of making money, you are an investor who sees that kind of memo coming from white house officials, what do you do, how does that inform your trading and why. So the question is what is your moral compass. What is your ethical compass. You get a memo like that and you know that publicly these officials are saying one thing, ie the virus is not going to be that bad. 15 cases are going to go to one, it is going to disappear like a miracle, if you are saying things like that publicly and you receive a memo privately that constitutes a briefing from those same officials who are much more worried and your instinct as a trader probably is to trade on that information, and make as much money as you possibly can, which is clearly what happened, what the plication is of the New York Times article. But the question is should you be doing that. And that, unfortunately, is something that you ony you and your morality code an ethical code can decide. As a legal matter its much more complex because youre dealing with information that can move markets but not necessarily nonpublic confidential information of private companies. Or Public Companies that obviously constitute insider trading. Nawaz i want to remind people about the public messages happening at the time. This is what is catching everyones attention. Those meetings we just talked about, the private meetings in late february, the 24th, 259, and 26, publicly President Trump tweeted this on february 24th. He said the coronavirus is very much underontrol in the u. S. A. , stock market starting to look very good to me. Larry kudlow who we know is one of the advisors who conducted those private briefings went on cnbc on february 25th. He was asked about public warnings from cdc official, the virus could spread and this is what he had to say to that. We have contained it. I wont say airtight but pretty close to airtight. Very different messages. The private one delivered as the New York Times reported and these public messages, why would an administration do that . As you know, we know amna from what bob woodward revealed in his book, you know, donald trump said that he was doing that to not get people all riled up, to keep the panic level low. But you know, frankly, if you are a trader, if you are a Hedge Fund Manager and you are getting ahold of that kind of information, your first instinct is to as they said to bet against mart ketgo short, go short everything, to you know, especially essentially bet that the market will fall. And that is of course what happened. And if you do that, you make a lot of money. Why on the one hand they would be saying privately that they are very worried and publicly that it saul under control . Well, frankly t is extremely disingenuous it is frankly damaging. Its probably resulted in tens of thousands of more deaths than were necessary. And there, st rep ri reprehensible. You mentioned this earlier, but there is the question on everyones mind. At the end of the day, what is the accountability . Is there a legal issue, an ethical issue because we should remind people this was all happening and unfolding right before millions of americans plummeted into a recession. Look, there should definitely be accountability for this. A working securities and Exchange Commission, a well working securities and Exchange Commission would be all over this, trying to figure out who got ahold of those memos, who traded on it. What they got out of that, how much money they made. But im afraid am this administration all the people, many of the people who ran these agencies are beholden to done all trump and they dont investigate things like this. I have been writing since last year, last july and then again in october and again in january about suspicious trading that was going on at the chicago board of options. In something called e mini future options when people go ahold of this information that s moving markets before other people and then traded on it. And they made tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars. But theres neer been any investigation and unfortunately this is just another one of those examples. It is big news for a day but nothing ever happens about it. And the people who have made money are happy as clams. And st not right and st unfair to the rest of the people without dont have that information. And frankly who are suffering from this covid virus that was not fully explicated and the damaging nailt of it was not fully shared by the people in highest post in the government who knew about it. Nawaz some important reporting from the New York Times that absolutely begs more questions that is william cohan, author and form are investment banker joining us tonight. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Woodruff president tmp spent last night rallying supporters in iowa, a state he won by ten points in 2016, but is now seen as a tossup by the nonpartisan cook political report. The state also has one of the closestwatched and most Expensive Senate races in the country. With more than 100 million in outside money pouring in, recent polling shows the incumbent republican in a dead heat. Andrew batt of iowa pbs has our report. Were seeing more money pumped into these races this year than weve seen in president ial election cycles of the past. It is outrageous. Reporter the tone of senator joni ernsts recent Campaign Rally in iowa epitomized republican fears just three weeks before election day growing concern about a blue tsunami of Campaign Funds aimed at iowas junior senator. Facing her first reelection since winning iowa by more than 9 and catapulting onto the National Political stage in 2014, ernst is framing her current race as a litmus test with rural voters. It is important that you hear not just from those in the metro areas but also hear from those that live in the most rural counties, like in my area in southwest iowa. Oftentimes they feel neglected. Even looking at the map where ms. Greenfield has been and where she hasnt been, the neediest and poorest counties are those she has not visited. Whats your name . Hi, mary. I love waverly. Reporter with senator ert spending crucial october Campaign Days in washington for Supreme Court hearings, challenger theresa greenfield has made a concerted effort to blunt the republican criticism that she spends too much time safely campaigning online during the pandemic. We certainly work real hard to get all over the state. Physically all over the state, but virtually all over the state, too. Reporter and she has increased her trips into some of those rural iowa counties previously won by both barack obama and donald trump. Hey, guys, how are you . Hello reporter greenfield, a former businesswoman and real estate executive, has never held elected office, but was an early fundraising choice in 2019 by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee. Hr recent Third Quarter haul of more than 28 million shattered iowa record books. On a recent swing to waverly, iowa, greenfield emphasized main street Business Issues amidst a Global Pandemic and economic uncertainty. Theyre in dire shape. Reporter and, she is on the attack, claiming her own farm roots and working to undercut ernsts strength in farm country by blasting the senators work with iowas ethanol industry, in an ongoing battle with the Trump Administrations e. P. A. And oil companies. The tense dynamic between ernst and greenfield on topics of dark money and the farm economy boed over in their statewide debate on iowa pbs. Heck, a bushel of corn right now is about 3. 30. Thats goingoutofbusiness prices. Senator ernst, she sold out farmers for her big l deals. On one hand, shes saying oh, no, were not going to have dark money in this campaign. Shes got the other hand behind her, saying please hand me some dark money. Reporter on commercial airwaves, the messaging contrast from the 2014 republican primary to the 2020 general election is stark. I grew up castrating farms on an iowa farm. Reporter six years ago, state senator joni ernst promised to make em squeal in washington and take aim at the Affordable Care act. And once shsets her sights on obamacare, joni is going to unload. But my sister always had my back. Reporter this fall, her health care messaging is softer, and ernst is promising to defend a key tenant of the a. C. A. , leading democrats to cry fl. No american should ever be denied coverage because of a preexisting condition. Just because you support the repeal of the Affordable Care act, doesnt mean youre against protecting people with preexisting conditions. Reporter for greenfield, protecting the a. C. A. And Social Security are defining themes in the final weeks. And i stay focused on the issues we all care the most about, and thats health care, health care, health care, and certainly this pandemic and the economic crisis. Reporter its a senate seat many Iowa Republicans never thought would be a tight race to the finish line with only weeks before election day. Reporting from iowa for the pbs newshour, im andrew batt. Woodruff both President Trump and former Vice President biden were originally supposed to be debating tonight. But, as we know, the commission on president ial debates insisted on a virtual second debate. Biden agreed, but mr. Trump refused. Instead, both men are now participating in separate town halls airing on two different broadcast television networks, at the same time. Tonights dueling town halls sparked fresh criticism about how the mainstream news media are covering the election and whether or not they are being too deferential. Those concerns date back to the 2016 president ial election, when thencandidate donald trump was given a disproportionate amount of airtime, compared to his democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump drew attention for many reasons, but democrs and other critics say his sheer shock and entertainment value and the viewers they draw, higher ratings fueled lopsided coverage and let him float through the primaries without enough scrutiny. The tyndall report found tt mr. Trump alone accounted for more than twice the 2016 election coverage on the abc, nbc, and cbs evening newscasts than did Hillary Clinton and her campaign. A New York Times analysis found he secured roughly the equivalent of 2 billion in free Media Coverage during that campaign. That was more than 2. 5 times the free coverage given to clinton. The fake news. Woodruff the president s supporters, and many conservative voters, have long argued the press is unfair to their candidate a problem they say became much worse after trump unexpectedly won. They argue that much of the news media is obsessed with trying to take him down. But many journalists say it is the president s own headline making statements, insults, falsehoods and frequent distortion of the facts that precipitate such extensive coverage. When mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. Woodruff a number of studies show that immigrants and unauthorized residents do not commit crimes at higher rates. A new documentary titled enemies of the people, airing today on vice tv, takes a closer look at how the news media covered the president in the last election, and sits down with news leaders like cnn president jeff zucker. Donald trump would say outrageous this or say things that werent true, and it just became accepted oh, well, thats what he does. Not calling that out for re than what it was, and then holding the other side more accountable, that was probably a mistake. Woodruff another notable difference . A 2017 analysis from the columbia journalism review found that coverage of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server dominated mainstream News Coverage more than any other topic during the 2016 election. This time, republicans and some journalists say joe biden is the one not getting his fair share of scrutiny. Voters have one last opportunity to watch the president and the former Vice President debate together, one week from today in nashville. Yet another story broke late today, adding to the controversy over the fall debates. Steve scully, the Political Editor at cspan who was supposed to moderate tonights debate, was suspended by cspan r lying and saying his twitter account was hacked. Scully made that claim last week after he exchanged messages with a former trump spokesman who is now opposed to trump. Scully apologized. But President Trump tweeted that he was right. The debate was rigged. And the Trump Campaign was not treated fairly by the debates commission. Lets take this moment to look at the news medias coverage of the campaign. James fallows is a writer and author, who wre all about this for the atlantic. And, Susie Banikarim is the director and producer of the documentary we just mentioned. Shes the executive Vice President at vice news. Vice new, we welcome you to the newshour, jim fallows what do you make of d abc had scheduled a town meeting with joe biden and nbc scheduled a town meeting, President Trump, at the exact same time. In my view this was a very, very serious misjudgment by nbc which i think, i dont know whether this will have any lasting political significants, but i think it will be seen as a real miscalculation on their part. The reason is one of the lessons the news media looking back four years ago was yus their attraction to the spectacle of donald trump, covering his rallies in 2015 onward. We have seen that recently with the coronavirus, the coverage of the the helicopter from walter reed, the only reason to run these events headtohead is for the spectacle value. Seeing who is going to win the ratings value, et cetera, et cetera. I think nbc could have given donald trump a time after joe biden, the next day or whatever. So i think this was an unfortunate judgment on their part. Woodruff susie what about that, you work with the networks, you know how these decisions are made. What do you think happened here. I think this is incredibly disappointing but it is not a surprise. What trumps real skill is is knowing how to draw attention away from a story that is not working for him. So he didnt do well in the first debate. He really didnt want to do the second debate and was getting criticized for that. And now anybody is talking about is nbc and not him and the things that arent working in his campaign, right. And when nbc agreed to do there they just played completely into his hands. They let him control the narrative and he has already, you know, talking about how they are fake news on twitter. So it is also just so disappointing that they would give him this kind of opportunity tuse them and also malign them at the same time. Which does raise the question, jim fallows as we mentioned, there is sco much criticism of what the media did to enable donald trump in 2016. How do you see coverage this year i think that the two bick problems i tried to write about in the atlantic from the previous cycles coverage, one was this attraction to spectacle, sus yee banikarim was saying, as you did in the setup piece, the other one was the difficult the media in dealing with both ciderrism frk one person is i saing something that is true and somebody else is saying something that is smply beyond the realm of reality like the u. S. Is doing fine with the pandemic, et cetera, it is difficult for the media to try to have our standard pose of sent rich while having these two conflicting views. I think more of the media have been trying on this second front to deal with both upsiderrism than have been trying to resist the spectacle of donald trump. I thinkait is an evolutionary process but basically i think donald trump has played the media more than the media have been aware of being played. Susie banikarim, what about that, it is something that all of us in the media struggle with, of course, not wanting to take sides, wanting to cover fairly but you are covering a candidate the likes of which we have never seen. Yeah, i think it is just an incredible push to balance which is naturally how we are taught to think about things as journalists, but the reality is sometimes two thunkings are just not equal and it is our job to con sexualize that for people and help them process it, an when we dont do that, when we sort of just give equal weight to everything, at the dont have anyway of understanding that at the same time as trump is saying that he wants Amy Coney Barrett confirmed so she can weigh in on the election if it goes to the Supreme Court, that the media is spending a lot more time asking biden about and those two things arent equal, they are really different issues and really different erosions of democracy. An when we play into that, when we sort of push the balance just because we dont know another way to seem objective, we are doing a disservice to the audience. Woodruff jim fallows, talk for just a moment about what are the values that come into play here . I mean there is no more equal time for television, for broadcast networks to have to abide by. So what are the standards that journalists should be thinking about . So i think back in the earlier days of journalism when i was getting a start, there were certain norms that we could expect politicians to separate within. There were as you say the legal requirements of the fairness doctrine where broadcast networks had to put on things from some opposing parties. And most journalists could assume that most politicians would try to avoid saying things that were proveably untrue. As we move into different terrain wheres no norms dont apply in the same way, i think there is a new movement that is necessarily under way in journalism to say our two loyalties should be to the process of democracy, and to observable truths. And sometimes this puts us in a difficult position of sayg we think this side is saying something that is true and this side is not am but our larger, longer term loyalty should be to democracy and to the truth as we can best determine it. Nd Susie Banikarim, that does take as susie suggests away from what many journalists were taught. And that is you try to give as equal as fair treatment and time to all candidates as you can. Yeah, but i think its all the thinking there is a certain sort of pattern that we established that donald trump just doesnt adhere to, he is unwilling to adhere to these norms and he uses them to manipulate the media. So when you see that you are being played or manipulated, its time to change the playbook and add just to what is happening. To some degrei think what donald trump really took advantage of in 2016 is that political journalism had become very akin to entertainment, had become very sports like, constantly tacked about who was up and who was down. And you know, if we just contin in that same pattern, were going to just continue to have elections where people arent getting good information, right . And i think this is the moment as we go into what is going to be a very difficult election week and where a lot of information is going to be coming in and were going to have to be processing it and helping people to understand it, to really take a step back and ask what is the role we play in making sure people get the best information, information they need to really assess things accurately. So jim fallows, what is it that viewers, consumers of news who care about this election and want the best possible coverage, what should they be demanding right now from the news media, and especially from television . So i think it will be awkward for me to say this right at this moment. But i personally appreciate the effort that your Program Makes to try to say, you know, to represent different sides and arguments but to say sa at this moment we think certain sides are more grounded in reality. I think for readers, viewers, listeners, there is a tremendous array of material available now and i guess the main thing that the public can do is similar to what we in the media can do which is to try to avoid this the distraction of the spectacle minute by minute by minute. That if we find ourselves as citizens or as reporters being in a mode of a cat chasing a laser dot t is exciting in that instant but we are noted deciding about the things that matter in the longterm. There is a lot of material out there to listen to, to watch and to read. So seek it out. Woodruff were going to have to leave it there, we thank you both so much, jim fallows, susie ban kairmk we appreciate it. Banikarim, we appreciate it. Thank you, judy. Thank you. Woodruff as the war over the ethnic armenianenclave of nagornokarabakh continues between armenia and azerbaijan, the push for a cessation of hostilities accelerated this week but thats hard to tell on the ground. With the support of the pulitzer center, special correspondent simon ostrsky reports. Repter the fighting here is approaching its fourth week, despite attempts by moscow to mediate. Hundreds are dead, thousands displaced, here on the southeastern fringe of europe. Yesterday, Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov made another offer, after armenia and azerbaijan agreed last week to a ceasefire that did not cease fire. transled all the agreements that have been discussed lately, which were being taken seriously by the parties, assume the relinquishment of five districts and peacekeeping troops. Reporter at issue are seven districts of azerbaijan that surround the nagornokarabakh region, that have been under the control of ethnicaremnian forces since the first war here between the former soviet republics ended in 1994, after the u. S. S. R. Dissolved. The de facto authorities in karabakh have long contended that they need to hold on to these areas in order to have a link to the republic of armenia and as a security buffer with azerbaijan. But, that calculation may have changed, as ethnicarmenian forces sustain high losses in this new round of fighting that started with an azerbaijani surprise attack on september 27. The Russian Foreign minister said that under the proposal, the status of karabakh and control of areas linking it to armenia would be decided at a later date. translated let me show you guys, come, ill show you explosions reporter reactions were mixed in the capital of nagorno karabakh, stepanakert, which sustained a steady stream of bombardment in the first weeks of the conflict, destroying alexander hagopjanians brand new stoneworks. translated it would be reasonable to relinquish five districts. It would not be reasonable to talk about all seven. We cannot lose our link to mainland armenia, and there cant be an artificial buffer in between us, like the one that was artificially created by the soviets. Reporter as mediation continues behind closed doors within the framework of the socalled minsk group, chaired by the united states, russia and france, the leaders of the two warring nations have ratcheted up their public rhetoric. translated at this crucial moment, we will not back down, the armenian people have only one thing to do unite, mobilize all the potential we have, halt the enemy with a decisive blow and achieve a final victory. Reporter meanwhile azerbaijans president confirmed that turkish f16 fighter jets were indeed parked in azerbaijan, but said they were only there for support. translated turkish f16 jets are here. They came here for military exercises. After these exercises, and after the armenian attacks, they remained here. But they are on the ground, not up in the air, and none of them were used in this war. Reporter sounding equally warlike . The man who supplied those fighter jets, and mercenaries from syria, turkish president erdogan. He spoke yesterday with russian president vladimir putin, who holds a mutual defense treaty with armenia, but also supplies weapons to azerbaijan, stoking fears the conflict could expand, pitting a nato member against russia. For the pbs newshour, im Simon Ostrovsky in stepanakert. Woodruff street art now hits gallery walls in new york. It began in mexico with a trio of muralists in the 1920s. Jeffrey brown traveled to mexico city before the pandemic to explore the movements influence then and now. It is part of our ongoing coverage of arts and culture, canvas. Brown in mexico city, along bustling streets, wellkept parks, and giant walls of lowincome housing signof a vibrant public art scene. The art movement of the world is street art. Brown Cynthia Arvide is author of muros somos, or we are walls, a look at this rebirth of mexican street art. The artists here, she says, are part of a generation largely exposed to public art online, influenced by International Graffiti stars like banksy. Some of their themes are distinctly mexican colors, prehispanic symbols and imagery, local plants and animals. Some focus on the countrys problems drugs, violence, poverty and corruption. Mexico is definitely a country of contrasts. You have these vibrant colors side by side with this really grim, violent society. Its happening, its alive, with all of the good, all of the bad, all of the inbetween. And i think artists, they feed their art from that. Brown in recent years, the government has played a role in this movement, offering up wall space for works with positive, unifying messages. But muralism here also looks to an extraordinary past, and one of the worlds great art movements. It began a century ago, at the end of mexicos bloody revolution, when a new government looking to unite a fractured nation commissioned the likes of diego rivera, Jose Clemente orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros to help create a sense of shared identity. You can still see it in spectacular form at the ministry of public education, where rivera painted thousands of square feet of frescoes in the mid1920s, highlighting a world of workers, domestic life, conflict, and continued political volatility. At another mural mecca San Ildefonso we met art historian Renato Gonzalez mello. Once mexicos National Preparatory school, this is home to riveras first commissioned work, the creation, as well as a number of orozcos key works, including one called the trench, depicting revolutionary soldiers. translated the murals are historical paintings. Historical paintings are still considered the highest form of art. And when this project began, they were obviously thinking about explaining what the new order was. They represent a part of society that had never been represented officially, that had never appeared in paintings, nor photography, nothing that had been excluded from the national image. Brown by the end of the 1920s, mural commissions in mexico were declining, and the big three painters moved north, where they began to influee a generation of u. S. Artists. Thats the focus of a major new exhibition at the Whitney Museum in new york. Its now reopend after temporarily closing, vida americana mexican muralists remake american art has some 200 works, including sidebyside comparisons. Curator barbara haskell. This show proves that the mexican artists had the most profound influence, far exceeding the french during these two decades. Brown the most . Absolutely the most. They allowed american artists to get a new conception of what art was, that it was something social, that it wasnt just about form and color, that it really had to relate to peoples lives and to tell stories that were accessible and modern. Brown diego rivera famously created a 27panel mural in the courtyard of the Detroit Institute of arts, funded by edsel ford. Jose Clemente Orozco received his first u. S. Commission in 1930, at Pomona College in california. He painted a dramatic image of the greek titan prometheus. Nothing like it had been seen in the states, and his work caught the eye of a Young Jackson pollock. Jackson pollock sees this and he changes his work. Brown pollock also attended a workshop in new york led by david alfaro siquieros, who encouraged unconventional techniques. Doing things like, they would put canvas on the floor and throw paint splatter paint on it, throw things like cigarettes and pieces of wood on it. It liberated the idea of how you could make a painting. Brown an influence of style, but also subject matter, as here in a large painting by the american artist charles white. The idea that the muralists had presented indigenous rural population as being the bedrock of mexican identity. Brown changing mexican history gave him an idea. Exactly. So, charles white, the idea that you would insert African Americans into the sweep of american history, was something revolutionary. No one had ever done that. Brown back in mexico city, todays street art, where the influence of the past is still seen. They were trying to to make the common man appear on these works of art. And these street artists do the same. They bring, like, ordinary people out into the walls and they put their faces on them. So i think it has this parallel. Brown one leading contempora mexican street artist, edgar flores, known as saner, first saw an image of orozcos trench as a boy, printed on a mexican peso. He didnt know it was from a mural until he saw the real thing. They took me to the San Ildefonso museum and there was that mural impressive, large, with other colors, and it was very dramatic. It was practically like seeing someones suffering. And to try to understand how this connection of the bill and the mural was very impressive. Brown today, saners own work can be found on walls around the world including his hometown of mexico city. He wants to explore political and social issues of his day, he told us, in a way that is positive and public. Public space is very sacred for me. You can paint violent scenes, you can paint aggressive scenes, but people dont need that anymore. Instead, i try to make a connection to the positive that society can be. Brown big problems, Big Solutions and very big art. For the pbs newshour, im Jeffrey Brown in mexico city. Woodruff pediatric Nurse Practitioner Deborah Fisher spent the early part of her career working in intensive care units. That experience made her feel that more needed to be done to improve end of life care for children. Fisher now specializes in providing Palliative Care at Childrens National hospital in washington, d. C. This is her brief but spectacular take on an important subject that can be hard to talk about. There are times that im asked what my career is what, what do you do for a living . And i have to say that, sometimes, i dont tell them the whole story. I dont give them the specialization. I say, im a pediatric Nurse Practitioner. And then, whenever ive told them what my specialty is, even when i worked in oncology, families, people would say, oh, that must be so sad. And then conversation would stop and theyd leave. Because they didnt know what to ask, and they didnt want to hear it. This is really not about death. And thats what everyone seems to assume, that, oh, all children with cancer must be suffering and laying in the bed. They might have a bald head, but these children are really living their life, and theyre trying to have the best life possible. And we help them to do that. Im a pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and ive been one for over 21 years. Now, i am in pediatric Palliative Care. I was interested in pediatrics back in nursing school. I really loved being with the kids, and i loved being able to care for them. To treat suffering was very important to me. I felt like that could be done better. I also felt like the conversations werent always clear to these families, and they didnt understand what was happening and what their choices really were. Now, for Palliative Care, you are attending to not just the physical suffering, but you attend to the emotional, the psychological, the spiritual suffering. How do we provide that good ality of life for that person who doesnt know how much to be scared . And they dont know how much time they have, and they dont know iey can stay in the hospital or come home, or if theyre going to graduate from high school. Theres so many unknowns with pediatrics, and you want to be able to provide them with choices and options. We know that we want to be able to support families and help children to live at the best and the fullest of their capacity for however long theyre going to be with us. I felt like there was a need to improve endoflife care. There was a need to improve honesty and how to teach parents and to support them in having honest conversations with their children. Theres so much of focus on life, and people dont realize life continues up through the moment you die. And how youre going to handle that time is very important. When we think about children and being honest with them, we think about, how can i possibly talk them about death and dying . And people are afraid. They are fears that theyre going to make the child sad or that theyll tell the child something they dont want to know when, the fact is that these children already know. The fouryearold that i keep thinking about is a child i took care of many years ago, and we did so many different things, so many different treatments for this child. He kept relapsing, and he was not going to survive, and his mother was having a really hard time with that. And she didnt know what to say to him, and was really finding it difficult for her to even be in the room, because looking at him, she felt like she was crying and she was afraid. She was upsetting him with the crying. And the lot of us, we knew that he was not going to be there long, that he maybe was going to live a couple more days. We said, you know, were really enjoying seeing you. And its been really fun. And thank you for letting me be your friend and to take care of you all this time. And he would look at us and say, you know, im going away on a trip. You know, im going away on a trip. And so, he knew he was going somewhere and he was not scared. And that was the best thing, to be able to share with that mom, was to say, you know, hes been telling us this, this is what hes saying. So, he knows. He knows whats happening. And hes not scared. Hes saying goodbye to us. Hes not scared. Ive witnessed so many beautiful things, that i feel like it was such an honor and a privilege to be there with these children in their last moments, and to see them with peace on their face. Its not sad to me. We dont have a cure for death and dying and terminal illness. And in the meantime, we need to be able to do our best there too and so thats what were doing in Palliative Care. Its really about life. My name is deb fisher, and this is my brief, but spectacular take on providing Palliative Care for children. Woodruff and you can find all of our brief but spectacular segments online at www. Pbs. Org newshour brief. And that is the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and well see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by life wellplanned. Learn more at raymondjames. Com. For 25 years, Consumer Cellular has been offering nocontract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. Our u. S. Based Customer Service team can help find a plan that fits you. To learn more, visit www. Consumercellular. Tv. Johnson johnson. Bnsf railway. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Fidelity wealth management. The alfred p. Sloan foundation. Driven by the promise of great ideas. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. 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