the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. >> additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. there is new fallout from president trump's reported use of vulgar language to describe haiti and some african nations during thursday's immigration meeting with senators. u.s. ambassadors serving in several countries including botswana and haiti were summoned to explain the remarks. at the united nations, ambassadors from african nations issued a statement calling the remarks "racist and xenophobic." in addition, the president of ghana tweeted, "we will not accept such insults, even from a leader of a friendly country." in an open letter obtained exclusively today by the newshour, a group of haitian- american diplomats in the state department expressed their "heartbreak and despair" with the president's reported remarks. president trump denies using the expletive, but senator dick durbin, the only democrat present at the meeting, said yesterday that trump did indeed use that expletive. this controversy comes as haiti marks the eighth anniversary of the earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people. in november, the trump administration announced it was ending a special immigration status for nearly 60,000 haitians affected by that quake. president trump, who is spending the holiday weekend at mar-a- lago in florida, blamed democrats for the stalemate on immigration in an early morning tweet. "they are all talk and no action." lawmakers have until next friday to pass a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. among the sticking points in any deal are two immigration-related matters: dreamers, people brought to the u.s. illegally as children; and border security, including the president's proposal for a wall along the u.s./mexico border. hawaii's governor says someone pushing the wrong button led to today's ballistic missile alert scare. the alert sent to millions of people even included the line "this is not a drill." it t38 minutes for authorities to send out a second alert correcting the first and assuring the public that it was a false alarm. iran is warning of a "severe" response to the latest round of sanctions from the trump administration. the administration is targeting 14 high-ranking iranian individuals and entities over alleged human rights abuses. this comes as the white house agreed to renew the suspension of other sanctions under the nuclear deal "one last time." this is being described as a last-chance opportunity to fix what the president sees as flaws in the 2015 agreement. iran's foreign minister tweeted his response, calling the announcement of new sanctions a desperate attempt to undermine the nuclear deal. residents of montecito, california, are being told to evacuate today as the city works to recover from deadly mudslides. the mudslides are blamed for 18 deaths in santa barbara county. it was a one-two punch for the region that battled the thomas fire, which left hillsides scorched and destabilized before heavy rains triggered the mudslides. the thomas fire was the largest wildfire on record for the state of california. it was declared 100% contained yesterday. haitian-american state department diplomats respond to president trump's comments. read their open letter at www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in a new year's day tweet, president trump took on the pakistani government, criticizing what he called their "lies and deceit" and saying that the country gives "safe haven to the terrorists." referring to financial a sent to pakistan from the united states, mr. trump added "no more!" u.s. officials later suspended approximately $2 billion in such aid. this week, pakistan responded by halting the sharing of intelligence with the united states, something of consequence for the war in afghanistan. for some analysis of the complex relationship between the two nations, i am joined from washington, d.c., by reuters reporter arshad mohammed. so, let's first talk about the most recent news. pakistan not sharing intelligence. how important is this? >> well, there are different ports about this, and to be honest, we haven't quite gotten to the bottom of exactly what has or has not changed. what i think is significant is that the statements made by some pakistani officials about not sharing intelligence is their way of retaliating for the planned aid suspension. and it's also their way of basically underlining that the united states needs pakistan if it's going to try to stabilize afghanistan. >> sreenivasan: when the president sent out his tweet, it seems like he was ahead of military advisers, intelligence community, state department, people who usually would be in on something like this. >> absolutely. there are two ways to look at this. on the one hand, the direction, or the general direction of american policy had been clear, atstince august. in august, president tru gav a speech. he made abundantly clear that he was going to get tougher on pakistan, and that he wanted pakistan to do more to fight the pakistani taliban and the haqqani group. so the general direction of a harder line was obvious. on the other hand, you know, the new year's day tweet stunned people across the agencies in the united states. and you're right, it included you know d.o.d., the state department, the intelligence community. there had been a longer timeline expected on this decision. we were told that an assessment of pakistani compliance with american demands that they crack down on the militants was expected to be completed in january or february, and that a full kind of policy roll out, if they were going to cut the aid, wasn't expected until march or april. what ultimately happened was basically you had a bunch of officials who ended up having to work on their new year's day holiday, and in four days come up with a policy to suspend aid. the most telling detail for me was that thursday night at the state department, two state department officials briefed us, and they were unable to say how much aid was actually going to get suspended. that is completely atypical. and a couple of officials told us that as of thursday night, january 4, the state department didn't have a national security council decision memo. normally, that's a memo that's written that lays everything out in precise detail what's going to happen when, and it's all sort of tied up in a bow. and as of thursday night, they were still waiting for that memo. that shows-- that's the clearest indication of how surprised, caught off guard, and unprepared the broader washington bureaucracy was for the president's tweet. >> sreenivasan: all right, arshad mohammed of reuters joining us from washington wash. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: rex tillerson has said that ukraine is the single most difficult obstacle to establishing normal relations with russia. and just a few weeks ago, the trump administration decided to provide additional assistance to ukraine in the form of lethal anti-tank missiles as they fight against russian backed separatists. newshour weekend special correspondent christopher livesay traveled to ukraine to see how that conflict continues to impact residents caught in the crossfire. >> reporter: kiev, the capital of ukraine, looks peaceful in the first winter snow, but, just 500 miles southeast of here, a war has claimed 10,000 lives, including the soldiers memorialized on this wall. it's a conflict that's inflamed teions between the u.s. and russia like nothing since the cold war. russia has portred it as a civil war, ukrainian vs. ukrainian. ( gunfire ) but at a ukrainian military training camp about an hour from kiev, soldiers we met had no doubt who they were fighting. >> ( translated ): against russian aggressors who are coming to our country. it's a fight against russian terrorists, in my opinion. >> ( translated ): i believe that there would be no conflict if the russian troops did not enter the territory of ukraine. >> russia sees ukraine as part of it's sphere of influence, and i think russia would like to insure that ukraine is not an independent actor. >> reporter: marie yovanovitch is the u.s. ambassador to ukraine. she says ukraine has steadily been turning westward, seeking closer ties with nato and the european union. tension reached a boiling point when ukraine's pro-russian president, viktor yanukovych, turned his back on a western trade pact in 2013, and pro- european protesters took to the maidan, kiev's main square. the protests were pro-european, anti-corruption and overwhelmingly peaceful. they braved months of cold and brutal police crackdowns that claimed dozens of lives. eventually, after three months, president yanukovych fled to russia. the pro-european protesters had won. >> i think the russians were angry over this. and so, the first move that we saw was the infamous little green men in crimea, a part of ukraine. men arriving in uniform, in green uniforms, but no identification, and they denied sort of that they were anything but people of crimea. and within a matter of days, really, crimea was taken over by russian forces. so, when a part of europe is attacked, that is not good for stability, it's not good for security, it's not... of ukraine, but also more broadly of europe, one of our best partners. >> reporter: the u.s. and e.u. responded to the russian occupation of crimea with stiff sanctions, but the crisis in the south was followed shortly by another crisis in the east of ukraine, in the region known as donbas. prorussian separatists took over entire towns declaring independence, further dividing ukrainians from one another. but who were the separatists? according to yuriy boyko, a pro- russian member of parliament, they were simply local ukrainians who felt threatened by the maidan protests and the new pro-west government in kiev. >> people on the... in the east of ukraine didn't understand what is happening in kiev. they saw the blood, they saw the shootings, they were frightened. they were speaking in russian. they were closer to russia. >> reporter: so, the russian- speaki peoe in eastern ukraine, they... >> they were afraid. >> reporter: they were afrai and they felt closer to russia than to the country of ukraine? >> in this situation, yes. >> reporter: is this a civil war or is russia an aggressor? >> it is civil war with russian support. >> this is not a civil war. i think that's part of a russian disinformation campaign. >> reporter: so, we know that russia is operating in these areas. >> yes, we do. >> reporter: it's not russian- speaking, pro-russian forces who are ukrainians. these are russians operating in eastern ukraine. >> the russians are controlling both the civil administration as well as the fighting, and they can turn it up and they can turn it down. and we've seen that. >> ...along the contact line. >> reporter: there is a cease- fire in place, but it's constantly being violated, according to alexander hug, who monitors the conflict for the organization for security and cooperation in europe. the o.s.c.e. has more than 600 monitors on both sides of the contact line documenting fighting like this-- firing from howitzers, nighttime attacks on the water system in donetsk, and mortar explosions in the town of avdiivka. so, at least, as far as ukraine is concerned, this is no cold war. >> it is a very active war. we see on a daily basis thousands of cease-fire violations. and we continue to retrace the suffering of the civilian population that often live very closely or actually on the contact line between positions. >> reporter: who is breaking the cease-fire? you're on the ground, what have you seen? >> we know that both sides do not adhere to the cease fire. both sides maintain positions too close to one another. and both sides do keep heavy weapons in areas where they have agreed these weapons-- tanks, mortars, artillery, multiple launch-rocket systems-- should not be. this is one example of an area where we see fighting. >> reporter: we decided to go to avdiivka to see the front line ourselves. our trip began with a six-hour train ride southeast from kiev to the town of sloviansk. in the early days of the war, this road from the train station was dubbed "sniper alley." it was one of the first towns to be taken by rebels in 2014. right behind me is a mental facility that they occupied and used to launch mortar attacks on the ukrainian forces out there in the distance about where the woods are. caught in the middle: villagers like 59-year-old yuriy, a car mechanic whose house was destroyed by shelling. although he has russian roots-- his children fled to russia for safety-- he stayed behind to rebuild the family home. >> ( translated ): how can i feel russian? i'm ukrainian! >> reporter: eventually, the ukrainian army bombed the mental hospital and retook the town, moving the contact line about 60 miles south to our destination: avdiivka. to get there, we needed to cross checkpoints we weren't allowed to film. we started out early in the morning on roads pockmarked by shelling. the donbas region of ukraine is rich in natural resources and farmland, but many fields are off limits because of the possibility of landmines. avdiivka is in the so-called "grey zone." we're told it's safe during daylight hours. most of the shelling happens at night. after more than three years of fighting, people have grown used to it. we found this woman selling handmade items by the side of the road. knitting calms her nerves, she tells us. water, heat and electricity are sporadic, with infrastructure constantly being damaged in the fighting and needing repair. suffering the most are smaller villages like kamianka, just outside avdiivka. 78-year-old valentina shmatok has lived here her whole life. she points to the front. "there," she says, "just across the highway. there was shelling just last night," she says. farhana javid, a psychologist with the international red cross, has been visiting this village weekly. she points out a root cellar where more than a dozen of the villagers are forced to take cover on a regular basis. >> can you imagine this is the place they live? >> reporter: they'll sleep in here? >> they don't sleep. basically, they bring their small stools, and they just sit here. there is no place to sleep here. it's cold, it's stinky, ere is no electricity, and they have goough hell because many of their children are in different parts of the world. so, they are not able to meet them; they are not able to speak to them; and also they lie to them, telling them that they are fine, they're all right, because they don't want to get them worried. >> reporter: we ask valentina how the red cross has helped her. >> ( translated ): they bring us different things and talk to us. that's the only outlet for us. we never have rest here. >> reporter: the fighting is at a stalemate that's injured or killed more than 400 civilians last year alone. both sides have called for u.n. peacekeepers, but talks have not gotten far, and there is a risk this conflict will escalate. the u.s. is upping the ante, announcing last month it will allow the sale of lethal anti- tank weapons to ukrainian forces like those training near kiev. russia sees this as another provocation. meanwhile, some say russia's strategy has backfired. you see the signs everywhere-- e.u. flags, anti-putin paraphernalia. on this monument in kiev, the people's friendship arch built by soviets in the early 1980s, the russian writing has been defaced and replaced by the words "glory to ukraine." nadia vivchar is a student originally from western ukraine, now living in kiev. the conflict in crimea and then in eastern ukraine, has that united the country? >> it has united the people, actually. so, before this conflict actually started, i really didn't feel that much patriotic feelings toward ukine. and now, with all of these events and my friends going to the eastern part to fight, it makes people unite. it makes us unite not against somebody but to protect ourselves. >> reporter: svitlana zalishchuk agrees. one of the original pro-european protesters, she's a member of parliament now and says ukrainians are united like never before. >> people think that kind of it's western ukraine chose the west and eastern ukraine chose russia, and this is not true. 70% of our soldiers who were... who went voluntarily to fight, they are russian-speaking people. you can speak russian, you can have relatives in russia, but it was choice not of the language or nationality; it was a choice of the future. and we are a country that... that has for sure a democratic future. >> sreenivasan: a number of american companies are handing out bonuses and raises to workers as they expect to reap the benefits of the recently passed tax cuts. this week, walmart joined in, saying they will increase the starting pay for hourly workers to $11 and provide one-time bonuses of as much as $1,000 to eligible employees. but the news was mixed because the retail giant also said it would close 63 of its sam's club stores and cut 3,500 store managers. those jobs would be replaced by lower-paid positions. for some analysis, i am joined by michael corkery of the "new york times." so, 11 bucks an hour. that's a good thing for lots and lots and lots-- the the largest private employer in the country, right? >> it is. it's a big move. you know, labor groups have been, you know, on walmart's case for years to raise that starting wage. they moved $2. it's, you know, some would say they're playing catch-up to where other retailers are. target is at $11 and they moved that up in september. but nonetheless, they're the largest private employer in the u.s. it's more than 1 million people. it's a lot more money in their pockets. but as you mentioned, this news, which was generally received positively, was somewhat complicated and marred by, on the same day they're announcing this, "this raise, they also closed 63 sam's clubs stores. so their critics saw it as, "wait, so you're giving here and take away there." what suld have been a great news day for walmart turned into a complicated one. >> sreenivasan: let's talk a little bit about the doanses. roughly, how much are they going to spend on the bonuses and how much are they going to save on the tax cuts? >> so what they've said is bonuses will cost the company about $300 million. the raises that they're giving for the starting wage about $400 million. so all told about $700 million. we're not sure exactly and the company hasn't said how much they're going to say from the tax cut, but an estimate we got shows it's probably about $2.2 billion a year. so much of it is going to be spent on employees, but most of it is going to be spent elsewhere. >> sreenivasan: what about the timing of these announcements? there are 120 or 130 different companies that have all announced this. but this is also part of the narrative that the trump administration is saying, "hey, look, tax cuts are good." >> it was a gift to the trump administration. republicans taking a lot of heat that the tax cut is mainly going to benefit the rich, and here's walmart that employs a million hourly workers, the working class-- some would say they're not even working class. they're even below that in terms of a working wage. and here they're saying it's company is saying we're going to use this tax cut, thank you very much, to invest and give more money to these, you know, lower wage peep. so, yeah, it was-- i mean, it was-- paul ryan was tweeting about it as exhibit "a" of look how great this tax cut is. steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary was also touting it. so, yeah, it was a nice plumb for the trump administration. >> sreenivasan: it is a risk for companies that they're taking sides in a political conversation, especially when the country is so divide and they've got customers that are on both sides of the aisle? >> yes, and i think walmart learned that when they announced this because i think if they hadn't-- if the company hadn't tied it to the tax cut, i don't think the criticism about the sam's clubs closings would have been so tough on the company. i think, i mean, retailers are closing stores all the time. it's difficult and painful for the workers, but this, they really took it on the chin. and i think it was because they opened themselves up to it by politicizing what otherwise was a, you know, what scusm companie doing all the time. >> sreenivasan: all right michael corkery of "the new york times," thank you very much. >> this is "pbs newshour weekend," saturday. >> sreenivasan: kentucky is set to become the first state to have a medicaid work requirement. the federal agency that oversees state medicaid programs, the centers for medicare and medicaid services, announced on thursday a new policy that would allow states to mandate work or other "community engagement" activities. kentucky was granted permission yesterday. in kentucky, the new requirements affecabout 350,000 adcipiult rets aged 19 to 64, about half of whom already have jobs. the changes exempt certain groups including pregnant women, full-time students and the medically frail. the state will also begin charging recipients a monthly premium based on income. the latest numbers from the centers for disease control and prevention show we are in one of the most severe flu seasons in years, but it may have finally hit its peak. there are more than 60,000 confirmed influenza cases this season, and flu activity is widespread in every state right now except hawaii and the district of columbia. the c.d.c. reports seven children died from flu this week, bringing the total number of flu-associated pediatric deaths this season to 20. hundreds of newly released pages of court documents offer details into the las vegas concert shooting investigation, but they offer no new insight into the motive for the mass shooting that left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured. the f.b.i. says in the documents that gunman stephen paddock meticulously planned the attack and took steps to "thwart the eventual law enforcement investigation that would follow." the f.b.i. also found two email accounts linked to paddock that referenced bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic rifles to fire similarly to automatic weapons. the shooter's girlfriend, marilou danley, was out of the country at the time of the attack, but she told investigators that they would likely find her fingerprints on ammunition because she helped him load magazines. the f.b.i. said there was no evidence tt she knew of his plans. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, chelsea manning, who had her conviction for leaking sensitive military information to wikileaks commuted by president obama, is entering politics. manning filed papers with the federal election commission to challenge maryland senator ben cardin, who is the ranking democrat on the foreign relations committee. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. th's w we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the cporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. - [jim] coming up on articuletee the kinetic sculptures of reuben margolin are extraordinary mechanic attempts to evoke the modern world. - i know that sometimes that really gut reaction, i don't entirely trust it and it's weird not to trust your gut reaction, but i've learned that sometimes if i back away and give it time that it'll work. - [jim] jennifer higdon is among the most performed living composers in the world today and she's part of a storied musical lineage. - our world is much noisier, so i'm aware when i'm writing a piece of music that i'm also marking our time here now. i'm both a mirror of our experience, but i'm also the hammer saying are you paying attention? 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