November 10, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: on the rise.

Millions of Americans feel a price pinch, as inflation in the United States reaches a 30-year high.

Then: the tipping point.

As world leaders struggle to build consensus, the ever-worsening climate crisis fuels widespread anxiety among younger generations.

And desperate journey.

Migrants as a political weapon, as Belarus' hard-line leader confronts Europe.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, President, European Commission: This is not a migration crisis.

This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilize its democratic neighbors.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: New numbers tonight show an inflationary wave is still building in the U.S. economy.

The Labor Department reports consumer prices jumped more than 6 percent in October from a year ago.

That was the biggest increase in 31 years.

Lisa Desjardins begins our coverage.

LISA DESJARDINS: Across the U.S., signs and sounds of a problem affecting millions of pocketbooks.

Prices are up.

The main sectors leading the surge have big impact, gasoline and food.

DORIS KNOBLER, Consumer: It's terrible.

Who can afford to fill up 15, 20 gallons of gasoline?

I know a lot of people are struggling.

That is a heck of a lot of money.

GABRIEL BOLANOS, Farmer (through translator): The prices for the seeds that I buy to produce these are also going up.

That's already hurting my business.

And, on top of that, with the gas prices, you see I have a large vehicle.

I drive to markets far away.

I use 10 to 20 gallons every time, and I'm a small business.

It's hard for me to earn enough money.

LISA DESJARDINS: The average gallon of gas is now in the $3 range, up more than a dollar over just one year ago, according to AAA.

That's the highest in five years.

And the pinch is even worse in some places, like in California, where pumps show prices pushing $6 a gallon and beyond.

Energy costs are fueling the national problem.

In the past year, gas prices are up nearly 50 percent, and heating oil has soared 43 percent.

At the same time, some people are looking at food, and what they can afford, differently, from grocery stores.

TRACEY, Shopper: I don't see anything going down anytime soon.

But we have to eat, so you have no other choice but to pay.

0:04:32.889,1193:02:47.295 LISA DESJARDINS: To food banks.

ITA ESPINOZA, Food Pantry Customer: I come here because I need food for my family.

You know why?

Because the stores are very expensive, the food, and my money is not enough.

LISA DESJARDINS: Today, President Biden toured the Port of Baltimore, and acknowledged one source of the problem, supply chain backlogs.

Mr. Biden pledged $4 billion for construction projects at ports and elsewhere in the next two months and $3.4 billion to upgrade other trade facilities after that.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: We're going to reduce congestion.

We're going to address repair and maintenance backlogs, deploy state-of-the-art technologies, and make our ports cleaner and more efficient.

LISA DESJARDINS: House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed the president with a blunt statement, writing: "The Joe Biden plan for increasing Americans' standard of living is a complete failure."

Economists and politicians disagree about how far and how long the price spikes will go, but in daily American life, inflation is firmly here.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It is clear that this surge of inflation has already been higher and lasted longer than some had expected.

We break down more about what is happening and the potential consequences.

Catherine Rampell, who is a special correspondent for the "NewsHour" and a columnist for The Washington Post, joins me now.

Catherine, welcome back to the program.

So, it seems that prices are rising across the board, just about everywhere you look.

What is behind this?

CATHERINE RAMPELL: There are a number of factors that have been driving inflation.

The most obvious one, of course, is the pandemic.

The economy powered down, during the pandemic.

It's powering back up.

There are supply chain problems all around the world, labor shortages that make it harder to find workers who can make the goods we buy, transport them, put them in warehouses, get them onto store shelves, et cetera.

So, you have shortages, which are driving up prices.

And then on the other side of the calculation is the fact that Americans have a lot of money in their pockets.

They have accumulated savings in this past year.

It's difficult -- or it is risky, I should say, still to spend on some of the common services that consumers used to buy, things like travel or going out to eat.

So they are buying more stuff.

In fact, consumers are buying more stuff today than they were before the pandemic began.

So you have more demand for goods, at the same time that the pipeline through which those goods must travel is extremely fragile.

And all of that is leading to higher prices.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, these explanations, Catherine, affect everything from gasoline to food to furniture.

People want to improve their homes.

I mean, you are saying that these causes affect every one of these things that people want to buy.

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Right.

There are shortages and bottlenecks in almost every kind of product that people want to buy right now.

And that is partly because people have money to spend, particularly here in the United States.

And it is hard to get the things that they want to spend money on.

So the result of that is shortages and upward pressure on prices for the goods that are available.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So we know that wages are rising some.

They have been rising.

Are they in any way keeping up with this inflation?

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Unfortunately, they are not.

Americans have gotten pretty big wage increases over the past year.

But they have been almost entirely -- or more than entirely eaten up, I should say, by those consumer price increases.

So, year over year, adjusted for inflation, wages are down, on average.

That is not adjusting for the composition of the kinds of jobs that might have been created.

If you have lower-wage jobs that have been created, that might skew the overall average, of course.

But other measures that do adjust for the composition of the changing work force also suggest that, on net, workers have seen their wages fall once you adjust for those higher prices.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The question on everyone's mind, how long is this going to last?

The Biden administration economists have been saying it's temporary.

Others agree with them.

Others don't.

I mean, what do you see right now?

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Well, if I knew the answer to that question, I would be a very wealthy woman.

Unfortunately, we don't know.

There's a lot of uncertainty.

I mean, there's always uncertainty, right, with any sort of economic prediction, but especially right now, because the answer to that question is contingent on the path of the pandemic, whether various countries around the world can get adequately vaccinated and get people back to work, not just here, but in poorer countries where they don't have adequate vaccine supply.

And that's disrupting their economy and their supply chain there.

And it depends, of course, on consumer expectations.

So there are these very real, tangible reasons that might lead to upward price pressure, things like there aren't workers available to make the things that people want to purchase.

But there's also sort of a fuzzier psychological aspect to all of this.

How much do people expect that prices will increase?

And that's the scary part, right?

As long as everybody believes that the price pressures are caused by these temporary bottlenecks, that they will be transitory, they can be transitory.

But at the point that everybody looks around and sees prices increasing and says, maybe I should preemptively raise my prices too, that's where it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And that's the state of the world we don't want to get in that the Fed is much - - would be much more concerned about.

And that's why they keep emphasizing, this is transitory, this is temporary, this is caused by the pandemic amidst other kinds of factors, and, if things get worse, we will step in before those inflation expectations get unanchored.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And it sounds like some of those expectations are already starting to get baked in.

But just finally, Catherine, in terms of connection to the pandemic, can we safely assume that, if the pandemic begins to lift, that inflation will get better, or not?

CATHERINE RAMPELL: It seems like that should allay some of the pricing pressures, right?

As long as the economy can get back to where it was, in the sense that people have child care, and they can get back to work, they're not afraid of going to work because it's it's unsafe for various reasons, that should allay some of these price pressures.

But that's not the only factor.

I mean, you also have a very generous set of government transfers that is also potentially giving people more purchasing power.

There are -- again, there's this psychological aspect that I hope we don't get to the point where -- where everybody sort of assumes that inflation will come, more inflation will come, and, therefore, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But that's possible.

That's the scary state of the world.

So it's difficult to rule that out.

Certainly, getting the pandemic more under control would be a positive for all of these trends, even if it doesn't ultimately have the final say on ending this above-trend inflation entirely.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Catherine Rampell helping us understand this very tough question about inflation.

Catherine, thank you very much.

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: Ten states have filed suit to block a federal COVID vaccination requirement for health care workers.

Mostly Republican state officials had already sued over similar requirements for large employers.

Meanwhile, the White House reported 900,000 young children have gotten shots in their first week of eligibility.

Kyle Rittenhouse took the stand today in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and denied doing anything wrong when he shot two men to death and wounded a third.

It happened during racial justice protests last year.

Rittenhouse insisted he was defending himself in the confrontations.

We will take a closer look after the news summary.

At the U.N. climate summit, governments today considered phasing out the use of coal, but with no timeline.

That's in a draft final document.

It also calls again for cutting carbon emissions nearly in half by 2030 from 2010 levels.

The president of the so-called COP 26 gathering says the summit needs a strong finish.

ALOK SHARMA, President, 26th Conference of Parties: I still have the intention for us to be able to close COP 26 at the end of Friday.

Everyone must come armed with the currency of compromise.

We all know what is at stake in these negotiations, and indeed the urgency of our task.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Meanwhile, the U.S. and China pledged to increase their cooperation on climate action.

They are the largest carbon emitters in the world.

We will look at the climate issue later in the program.

There is word that up to 300,000 Afghans have fled to Iran since the Taliban takeover last August.

The Norwegian Refugee Council gave that estimate today, and it warned that hundreds of thousands more will follow.

But the Taliban urged former Afghan military pilots to stay without fear of reprisal.

About 140 Afghan fliers were evacuated from neighboring Tajikistan on Tuesday to the United Arab Emirates.

Back in this country, a federal judge approved a settlement of $626 million for people exposed to lead-tainted water in Flint, Michigan.

It means every child who was exposed, plus many adults, businesses and others, will receive payment.

The money is coming mainly from the state, which allegedly ignored the problem for years.

The U.S. Treasury said today that the federal budget deficit fell sharply in October.

It was $165 billion, down 42 percent from the same month last year.

The Treasury credits economic recovery for boosting tax revenues.

And on Wall Street, the inflation report did a number on stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 240 points, to close at 36079.

The Nasdaq fell 263, nearly 1.7 percent.

The S&P 500 slipped 38.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": Kyle Rittenhouse on the stand in his homicide trial following last year's violent protests; hospitals in Colorado struggle with the perpetual overload of COVID patients; more subpoenas are issued as the investigation into the Capitol insurrection intensifies; plus much more.

It was a fiery and emotional day in the courtroom in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for the murder of two men and the shooting of a third.

John Yang has the latest.

JOHN YANG: Judy, a fiery day indeed.

At one point, the defense moved for a mistrial over some of the prosecution's cross-examination.

That followed Rittenhouse taking the stand in his own defense, breaking down as he described the moments before the fatal shooting of Jacob (sic) Rosenbaum, who was unarmed.

KYLE RITTENHOUSE, Defendant: I was cornered from in front of me with Mr. Ziminski.

And there were -- there was people right there.

JOHN YANG: Rittenhouse says he was at the protests to offer first aid.

During cross-examination, the prosecutor pressed him why he was carrying a rifle to do that.

KYLE RITTENHOUSE: I needed the gun because, if I had to protect myself because somebody attacked me... THOMAS BINGER, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney: Why would you think anybody would do that?

KYLE RITTENHOUSE: I don't know.

THOMAS BINGER: But you clearly planned on it.

You were prepared for it.

You thought it was going to happen.

KYLE RITTENHOUSE: No, I didn't.

JOHN YANG: The defense objected to some of the prosecutor's questions, saying he was trying to get the jury to hear evidence the judge had ruled inadmissible.

With the jury out of the courtroom, the judge criticized the prosecutor.

THOMAS BINGER: My good-faith feeling this morning, after watching that testimony was, you had left the door open a little bit.

Now we had something new.

And I was going to probe it.

JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER, Kenosha County Circuit Court: I don't believe you.

There better not be another incident.

I will take the motion under advisement.

JOHN YANG: The judge said he would rule later on the motion for a mistrial.

Corri Hess of Wisconsin Public Radio has been following this case closely.

Corri, thanks for joining us.

Defendants don't have to take the stand in their own defense and usually don't.

What was it that the defense seemed to be trying to do with his testimony today?

CORRI HESS, Wisconsin Public Radio: I think it was a surprise that Kyle Rittenhouse took the stand, but I believe that they put him up there because just having the jury see him and hear him talk, they got to see how young he is.

I mean, just his voice, he sounds like a teenager.

He looks like a teenager.

Of course, he's 18 now.

But they also got to really let him tell his side of the story, which he has not spoken about this before.

And they got to paint him as this good samaritan.

They spent much of the beginning of his testimony talking about all the volunteer work he did.

He's a lifeguard.

He was in this police prep program.

He volunteered with the EMT.

So they really went a long way to sort of paint him as this young guy who was just out to help people, even talking about the early part of August 25, 2020, where he went to Kenosha and was cleaning graffiti.

So I think that's why the put him on the stand.

JOHN YANG: It also allows the prosecution to cross-examine him.

What did the prosecution try to do with that opportunity?

CORRI HESS: Well, the prosecution wanted to really, I think, drive home the point that there were thousands of people there that night, and Kyle Rittenhouse was the only person who killed anyone.

And they wanted to keep reinforcing that he had this rifle, this high-powered rifle, and others didn't, and it was unlawful for him to have it.

He was only 17 years old.

And they kept talking about the fact that he had this gun.

He tried to say that he was just there to help people, to act as a medic, but he had this gun, and, as you heard in the clips that you were playing, that he was out to kill.

So that was what they were trying and to say all afternoon.

JOHN YANG: And was that also the message?

The prosecution rested their case yesterday.

Was that the nub of their case during the first seven days of the trial?

CORRI HESS: Yes, that has been the theme throughout, that this guy did come.

This young guy came.

He was inexperienced.

He might have been there in the beginning to protect a business.

But he very quickly moved into this crowd with a gun.

And he was -- he was quick to pull the trigger.

JOHN YANG: And there was a lot of -- there was some drama over this motion for a mistrial.

And as we heard a little bit of the back-and-forth between the judge and the prosecutor, what was that all about?

CORRI HESS: Yes, there was a lot of drama today.

So, in September, the judge had ruled that several things that Kyle Rittenhouse had done could not be talked about.

And the prosecution tried -- kind of inched and tried to get that brought up in front of the jury.

One of the things was that, 15 days before the shootings, the fatal shootings, Kyle was heard on video saying he had seen some alleged shoplifters at a CVS pharmacy.

And he was heard on video saying he wished that he had his rifle possibly to shoot or kill these people.

And so the prosecution had wanted to bring that into the trial.

The judge ruled against it.

He started talking about that today.

So, things like this were really on the edge.

And that's why the defense wanted a mistrial.

So it just got pretty fiery today.

JOHN YANG: And has the judge been as tough on the defense as on the prosecution throughout all this?

CORRI HESS: No, it hasn't felt that way.

And, certainly, if you're watching social media, along party lines, really, the judge has gotten a lot of pushback.

But it also - - the judge's role is to protect the person who is on trial and who's accused.

So, I mean, I think that is something to take into consideration as well.

JOHN YANG: The trial continues tomorrow, with the defense continuing its case.

Corri Hess of Wisconsin Public Radio, thank you very much.

CORRI HESS: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Nationwide, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 had been dropping around much of the country in recent weeks.

But now cases are on the rise again in the Midwest and New England.

And they remain too high in parts of the West.

Some states like Colorado have seen spikes that threaten to overwhelm hospitals.

Amna Nawaz has our conversation.

AMNA NAWAZ: Judy, the Colorado Department of Public Health estimates one in 48 people in the state are infected with COVID.

There are fewer ICU beds available now than at the peak of hospitalizations last December.

And, yesterday, the state implemented crisis standards of care to give more options to burned-out staff.

For a front-line perspective, I'm joined by Dr. Ivor Douglas.

He's chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Denver Health and a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Dr. Douglas, welcome to the "NewsHour."

Thank you for making the time.

Take us, if you can, inside your hospital right now.

What does it look like?

What do you see?

DR. IVOR DOUGLAS, Denver Health: It's an exceptionally busy time.

And as much as we have been here before, unfortunately, we're dealing now with a very busy surge of COVID-19 and a very substantial demand for hospital services for a range of other things.

Unlike the previous surges that we have dealt with, where we had a little bit of reserve, without the impact of social distancing, masks and a relatively low immunization rates, we are really at the point where our resources are maximally strained.

Despite that, what I am seeing is remarkable commitment to care.

Our teams are doing their - - really the utmost.

And I think that, while we hear a lot about burnout, what we may not hear about is resilience, and the recognition that there are folks that have been at this for months and months and months, and every day turn up and do outstanding care.

So it's a tightrope balance, but the truth is, we're in trouble.

AMNA NAWAZ: We're so grateful to them and to so many others in other states as well.

But tell me a little bit more about this surge that you're seeing.

Is there an average COVID patient profile?

Mostly unvaccinated, older, younger?

DR. IVOR DOUGLAS: Mostly unvaccinated, younger by about 15 years than the first surges, very worrying, because we're seeing patients who are presenting and getting very sick very quickly.

This seems to be a little different than earlier, with patients who would languish a little while at home or languish in the hospital, then get sick.

We're now seeing younger people who really have no business getting this sick being dramatically ill very quickly.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, what does the crisis standards of care mean for all those patients with other critical needs?

DR. IVOR DOUGLAS: Yes.

And I think that, for our patients, they may - - it may be utterly opaque.

The point of this is that crisis standards of care apply, not just to the specific individual cares of COVID patients, but our ability to leverage additional resources, dialysis machines, additional staff and expertise, to bring to the bedside care of all patients.

The key issue about Colorado's crisis standards of care is that, while there has indeed been an activation, it's done in a layered fashion.

And the most important initial phase of this is the crisis standards around staffing.

What this does is open a channel for us at the federal level to leverage additional FEMA support, for example, additional expertise to do front-line care, supplement services, and, most importantly, allow us to distribute patients in a more rational, balanced fashion within the state and not require a very strict adherence to ratios of certain patients to certain providers.

At the end of the day, we have to preserve our work force.

While we're committed to the care of every patient, we have lost large numbers of highly expert and professional people.

It's true we're tired, but, at the same time, we have got to be there for tomorrow's patients as well.

And if we burn through everybody, there is no future and there is no cavalry coming.

So we have got to do this in an affordable, careful way.

AMNA NAWAZ: Dr. Douglas, help me understand.

Statewide, Colorado has a relatively high vaccination rate.

So why are you seeing this surge right now?

DR. IVOR DOUGLAS: The answer is, we don't really know.

But the likely answer has a lot to do with Delta virus, and the fact that 70 percent vaccination rate is just not enough for herd immunity, part one.

Part two, there are pockets of Colorado that are doing phenomenally well, where there's great pride in what our state has achieved, where immunization rates are far above 70 percent, particularly amongst the elderly.

But there are pockets where vaccination rates are much lower, where adherence to social distancing and mask requirements are zero or next to zero, and where cohorting, particularly now very worryingly going into the Thanksgiving and holiday period, represent a tremendous risk to us, not just from COVID, but, very worryingly, with an influenza season on our front door, the real risk and concern that we will have a confluence of undervaccinated folks for COVID, unvaccinated people for influenza, and we're already at the top of our resource availability.

AMNA NAWAZ: Dr. Douglas, briefly, now we know there are new federal vaccine rules, the vaccine now available to millions of more people, including younger Americans.

What kind of impact do you think that will have on what Colorado is evening?

DR. IVOR DOUGLAS: Oh, we are tremendously excited about this.

While the likelihood that young people will get very severe disease from COVID is lower, the benefit is that, with young people, under-12s particularly, getting vaccinated is, it protects the entire community and particularly around the holidays.

Because the likelihood of asymptomatic carriage is higher amongst kids, the likelihood that they will not transmit to older relatives who may have waning immunity from earlier vaccination or, unfortunately, if you're unvaccinated, goes down.

This is probably the most important public health balance to the work we're doing at the level of personal care in the hospitals right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Dr. Ivor Douglas joining us tonight from Denver Health.

Thank you for your time, Doctor.

And thank you to you and your staff for everything you do.

DR. IVOR DOUGLAS: Thank you and your team.

Thank you for allowing me to join you.

Have a good evening.

JUDY WOODRUFF: This week, thousands of refugees from across the developing world tried to enter Poland by crossing its border with Belarus, its neighbor to the east.

But the European Union says this is more than simply a case of the desperate journeys of families fleeing their homes, but is meant to be an attack against the European adversaries of the leader of Belarus, the man considered Europe's last dictator.

Nick Schifrin reports.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Along the Poland-Belarus border, a standoff, on one side, polish soldiers, on the other, refugees hoping for better lives.

MAN: Don't have water, don't have food.

How many time we're waiting?

MAN: How did you close the border?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thousands of families from Iraq and the developing world hope to get to Poland and, therefore, the European Union.

They trekked for weeks through forests, swamps, and freezing streams, through water so cold, Mohamud got frostbite.

QUESTION: From the water?

DAIUD MOHAMUD, Migrant: I was walking for more than 14 or 15 days.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Just a few feet away, Somali migrant Ibrahim did the two-week walk without any shoes.

LYDIA GALL, Human Rights Watch: There's a shared responsibility on the part of Poland and Belarus for what can only be described currently as a humanitarian disaster.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Lydia Gall is a research for Human Rights Watch who just left the Poland/Belarus border.

LYDIA GALL: These people are completely unprepared for what is in store for them.

They come with normal suitcases, clearly not aware of the fact that they will spend days, if not weeks, trekking.

And then, by the time they get to the border area, they're being unlawfully pushed back by Polish border guards.

NICK SCHIFRIN: That's what happened to Mohammed, who said Polish soldiers pretended they were going to help, and instead pushed them back into Belarus.

MOHAMMED, Migrant: He told us he will bring us to the U.N. camp.

So, they lied to us.

We go with them, and they directly pushed us inside the border.

Go, go.

And then they take our phones.

They break our SIM cards.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, back in Belarus, the migrants are treated even worse.

LYDIA GALL: They can be kept there for days and days and days, without food, without water, being subject to violence, theft, robbery by the Belarusian border guards, extortion, death threats.

One man told me that, basically, they were told, you have a choice.

You either die here or you go to Poland.

That is the choice you have.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Their desperation is genuine, but their presence on this border is manufactured.

Much of this footage is released by Belarusian and Russian state TV.

European leaders say this crisis was created by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who's using people as political pawns to pressure his European Union neighbors.

ARNOLDAS PRANCKEVICIUS, Vice Foreign Minister of Lithuania: We have indeed reached now a very dangerous level of this hybrid attack.

It is a very sophisticated scheme which has the elements of deniability.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Arnoldas Pranckevicius is the vice foreign minister of Lithuania, another European Union country, and Belarusian target.

In one month, 4,000 migrants tried to cross from Belarus into Lithuania, compared to 81 in total last year.

ARNOLDAS PRANCKEVICIUS: There is ample evidence that suggests that the Belarusian authorities have been facilitating this new illegal migratory route.

It is really the highest level of cynicism to really accuse the victim, in this case, the European Union, and indeed, the migrants, who have become the victim of this hybrid operation.

NICK SCHIFRIN: He says the operation begins online.

Belarusian government authorities team up with Middle Eastern intermediaries, whose Facebook pages offer visas to Belarus, direct flights from Damascus, Syria, to Minsk, Belarus, and hotel reservations for one week.

Another post shows Belarusian visas in Syrian passports.

LYDIA GALL: There are agencies in Belarus who work in cahoots with travel -- so-called travel agencies all across the Middle East.

And that's how they entice people: We take you to the border, we make sure that we give you great GPS coordinates.

We even help you to cut the wire into Poland.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Many migrants are vulnerable to the pitch.

In Northern Iraq, in semiautonomous Kurdistan, Halkaft Mohammed says his son fled in September and reached Germany through Belarus.

HALKAFT MOHAMMED, Father of Refugee (through translator): We have no other choice.

We are worried for our youth.

Our villages are besieged.

I have no money.

If I had money, I would go with all my children, because we are very scared.

NICK SCHIFRIN: This week, Lukashenko denied creating the crisis, but did admit in an interview that aired on Russian TV he wanted to punish Europe.

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, President of Belarus (through translator): You imposed sanctions against me, against Belarusians.

You went for a hybrid war against Belarus.

And you, bastards, madmen, want me to protect you from migrants?

NICK SCHIFRIN: But it is Belarusians whom the European Union says it's trying to protect from their own government.

Last year, Lukashenko launched an unprecedented crackdown on pro-democracy activists and declared himself the winner of an election widely deemed fraudulent.

In May, the government forced a Lithuania-bound plane to land in Minsk in order to arrest an opposition journalist.

The E.U.

and U.S. have punished Lukashenko with multiple rounds of sanctions.

And, at the White House today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said they plan more sanctions on Belarus and airlines carrying migrants.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, President, European Commission: This is not a migration crisis.

This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilize its democratic neighbors.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, E.U.

and Polish officials tried to show a united front.

But, for years, migration has threatened to rip the European Union apart, and today's crisis is designed to exacerbate internal tensions.

ARNOLDAS PRANCKEVICIUS: Such type of a hybrid activity, one can create big tensions within societies, could also undermine governments from within.

The only language that probably he would understand is indeed the more pressure and more sanctions.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, so far, there's no sign Lukashenko, backed by his main ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, will respond to more sanctions.

And, as the politics play out, innocent refugees are the victims.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In a recent "PBS NewsHour" survey, in partnership with The Generation Lab, children and young adults said they expect climate change to have major implications for how they live.

Nearly two-thirds said that climate change will influence where they decide to live.

More than half said it will change how and where they travel.

And a third said it would affect their decision to have children.

That is on top of growing resurge that shows that young people are increasingly experiencing what's now known a climate anxiety.

Our William Brangham has this report about young people's lives and how they see their future.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: These young protesters in downtown San Francisco are frustrated by what they see as inaction on climate change.

PROTESTER: What do we want?

PROTESTERS: Climate justice!

PROTESTER: When do we want it?

PROTESTERS: Now!

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: They're also here because they're worried about their own futures.

SOFIA PALAU, Youth Vs. Apocalypse: Of course I have panic attacks about climate change.

It's the biggest issue facing our society today.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Seventeen-year-old Sofia Palau is a member of an organization called Youth vs apocalypse.

It organized today's protest.

Palau says the group's name is no exaggeration.

SOFIA PALAU: Truly, what we are facing right now is the apocalypse.

When people think, oh, no one's going to die of climate change, then they're already discounting all of the people who have died in California wildfires, or all of the people who've died in hurricanes, or islands that are slowly going underwater, and people's lives who are being uprooted.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Palau says, thinking about climate change is overwhelming at times.

It makes her nauseous.

It makes it hard to concentrate at school.

SOFIA PALAU: It's very stressful.

Like, last weekend, I had my ACT, but all I could think about was impending doom.

LISE VAN SUSTEREN, Climate Psychiatry Alliance: It's clear that we have passed certain tipping points already that have convinced children that they are in trouble, that their futures are imperiled.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lise Van Susteren is a member of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance that's training more therapists to recognize and treat this growing anxiety.

LISE VAN SUSTEREN: Kids have told me that they don't want to pursue a secondary education.

What's the point?

Kids have said, of course, that they don't want to have children because they don't want to bring a child into the chaos.

And then there are other kids who have just become anxious by themselves and might take all sorts of responses, maybe eating disorders, some people, or just a general feeling of apathy.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you share any of the concern that some critics share that we're overly scaring children, that the entire youth climate movement is stirring up fears that are terrifying kids inappropriately?

LISE VAN SUSTEREN: That is a common reaction among some people who do not want to face the reality.

The kids are not dreaming this up.

They aren't living in a cave.

They have seen with their own eyes.

It's no longer just scientists telling them.

They have seen what is happening.

And for us to sweep this under the rug makes them feel even worse.

ANA ALANIS, California: Carpet Creek Road snakes through these trees, and this is Billy's Peak.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Twenty-five-year-old Ana Alanis is one of those young people who has seen the effects of climate change firsthand.

Alanis grew up in Coffee Creek, California, population 200.

It's a tight-knit community in the Northern California wilderness.

It's a haven, but it's one threatened by wildfires that are, in part, made worse by climate change.

ANA ALANIS: My climate anxiety looked, at its worst, it was not being able to sleep and thinking about different disaster scenarios.

It feels like you're trying to be productive, but it's very painful.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For several years, she worried that fire would come to her childhood home, where her mom and stepdad still lived.

Then, earlier this year, it did.

ANA ALANIS: It's still hard for me to say it out loud, but, on September 7, 2021, my family home burned in a wildfire.

It was surreal to realize that what I had feared for years happened.

And it was a mix of balancing relief and gratitude that we're physically OK, and then just incredible grief of what happened to my community and the areas around us.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: After taking leave from work and seeing a therapist, Alanis is slowing learning how to cope.

ANA ALANIS: What I really want now is acknowledgment that my personal tragedy is happening, in the greater context of climate change.

Because there's still so much that is threatened and still so much that we can save, I need that acknowledgment, so, that way, this loss didn't just happen for nothing.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There are some groups popping up to help kids put climate change in perspective and to give them a sense of agency.

For example, in this interactive class in Oakland, California, elementary-aged students are learning how to make teas that are good for the throat and lungs.

WOMAN: So, when you're having problems with, like, air quality issues, these are good teas to have.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The goal is to empower kids, like 8-year-old Kabir Jacob, who's already thinking about climate change.

KABIR JACOB, 8 Years Old: I'm starting to worry about climate change, because, every day, all these people and, like, just not endlessly, for like 24 hours, just burn all this stuff that's bad for the Earth.

So I'm getting a little worried.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The class is run by the Mycelium Youth Network, which uses technology and indigenous traditions to empower students.

LIL MILAGRO HENRIQUEZ, Founder, Mycelium Youth Network: I had this huge sense that, when the chips are down, that there is very little that the government is going to do to support and empower poor people of color to be able to survive climate change.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lil Milagro Henriquez founded this group because she worried how this issue would affect her own kids, physically and mentally.

LIL MILAGRO HENRIQUEZ: Kids as young as second and third grade know when the air is toxic.

They might not have the words for it, but they know that they're experiencing it.

But when we don't talk about climate change or the effects of it, that's when young people have a sense of anxiety, of hopelessness, of disconnect from what they are themselves experiencing, and what adults are telling them is what is important and what we should be focusing on.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Even as kids try to prepare for a changing future, many, like Sofia Palau, are using their fears to fuel climate activism.

SOFIA PALAU: I march, I protest, I take action.

And that's the only thing that really calms me down, is knowing that I'm doing all that I can to stop climate change.

But even if I'm just doing this, or my friends are doing this, it still might not be enough for the giant changes around the world that we need.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Those changes have to be made by older generations, who, she says, hold young people's fate in their hands.

Judy, those young people's experiences are absolutely echoed by what we heard from young people here in Glasgow.

I met a young woman from Kenya.

She's Maasai.

Her region is being hit with terrible drought and floods.

And she's worried whether she can live there when she grows up.

I talked to two university students who said, coming to COP and learning about the very real revolution that's going on in renewable energy, how that helped blunt some of their concerns.

And then I met a chemist who brought her two young daughters to COP so that they wouldn't be anxious about climate change.

She said: I want them to see that there are people from all over the world coming together trying to address this problem.

So it is a really diverse and interesting group of young people who are watching these negotiations very closely.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Former President Trump was dealt another legal blow last night, this time in his attempt to keep secret White House documents from the days leading up to and on January 6.

It is a win for the House select committee investigating the attack, which seeks Trump's materials, and the Biden White House, which supported the release.

Yamiche Alcindor joins me now to explain what it all means.

Hello, Yamiche.

So, walk us through this.

We know former President Trump was trying to keep these papers from being accessed by the House committee.

Tell us why this federal judge ruled as he did - - as she did.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, as you just noted, Judy, a federal judge in the District of Columbia has ruled that former President Trump, his request to hold back these documents is denied.

That is in fact a win for the House select committee that is trying to seek these documents related to January 6.

What is important to understand here is that this is a judge that really issued a 39-page biting decision in this case.

I want to read to you part of what she wrote.

She wrote: "Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff," referring to former President Donald Trump, "is not president."

She went on to say: "Former President Trump retains the right to assert that his records are privileged, but the incumbent president," talking about President Biden, "is not constitutionally obliged to honor that assertion."

So there you have it.

Really this is a judge taking the idea that President Biden, who has said that he's going to waive executive privilege on these documents, these documents that have been requested, because the issues related to January 6 are so extraordinary.

Now, the former president is continuing to assert that there is executive privilege claims here.

I should also note that this is really a large number of documents being requested by the House select committee.

When you look at the documents that they're looking at, they're looking -- they're looking for communications, videos, photographs related to former President Trump's actions on January 6, his speech on that day, also the planning and preparation that went into the rally, as well as the march.

They're also looking at White House communications, visitor logs, call logs.

Another thing that they're looking for is the White House's sort of response to what was happening in that - - during the violence on Capitol -- on the Capitol that day.

And, also, they're looking for -- and I have to read part of this because it's so extraordinary - - all documents and communications from April 1, 2020, to January 20, 2021.

So that's a large breadth of documents that these lawmakers say are relevant and needed for this case.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Yamiche, what is next here?

What legal recourse does the former president have?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, there's a deadline looming.

The National Archives has indicated that, if there is not a decision reached by Friday to stop them from releasing these documents, that they will release it to lawmakers on Friday.

So there's sort of a time crunch there.

We should also note that this is the first time a federal judge is weighing in on competing executive privilege claims from a current president going against a former president.

Now, when you look at sort of the way that this case will go, former President Trump has already appealed.

So there's already an appeals process happening.

Once that happens, whatever the appeals court decision is, the loser, so whoever -- whoever is not happy with the decision, they will likely then appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court will then decide whether or not they want to hear this case.

If they decide to grant that emergency request, it could be a matter of days to hear from the Supreme Court or it could take longer.

But there is going to be this long legal process, or this long -- or this legal process happening because former President Trump has said that he is going to continue to pursue this.

And Democrats, including chair of the House select committee, Bennie Thompson, has said that he believes lawmakers have the law on their side.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And speaking of Chair Thompson and that committee, Yamiche, we know they're seeking other information beyond what they're asking from President Trump.

This week, they let it be known that they have issued subpoenas for a number of senior officials who worked in the Trump White House.

Where does all that stand?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right.

Well, just in the last two days, this House select committee investigating the Capitol attack have doubled the number of subpoena requests.

Now the number is at least 35 subpoenas.

I want to read to you some of the people that are on the request -- that have been subpoenaed now.

They include Michael Flynn, who was a former national security adviser under former President Trump, Bill Stepien, who was a campaign manager -- was the campaign manager for the Trump 2020 reelection campaign, Kayleigh McEnany.

She was the former White House press secretary under President Trump.

Stephen Miller, a former Trump senior adviser who worked a lot on immigration, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign, and a key spokesman for the former president.

John Eastman is also on this list.

He was a conservative lawyer who worked on a now dubious sort of memo that was trying to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to subvert the Constitution and throw out the 2020 election results.

I should also note that it's anyone's guess who -- how these people will respond.

The former president is really pushing people not to respond to these subpoenas, not to cooperate at all with the select committee.

But there have been some people engaging with the committee, so we will just have to see what happens here.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Following it all, Yamiche Alcindor.

Thank you, Yamiche.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks so much.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has become almost as famous for how she looked as how she painted.

As a new exhibition at Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum reveals, that look was entirely by her own design.

Special correspondent Jared Bowen of GBH Boston shares the story behind the story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JARED BOWEN: It was a deep and years-long cultivation, this young girl casting the camera in her spell before growing into one of the most recognizable figures of the 20th century.

She is Frida Kahlo, whose dress, hair, and eyebrows were all methodically considered and constructed.

GANNIT ANKORI, Director, Rose Art Museum: She had so many mirrors around the house, indoors, outdoors, inside the canopy of her bed.

They were a tool for her to pose.

She was composing her identities.

JARED BOWEN: Gannit Ankori is the director of the Rose Art Museum, now presenting Frida Kahlo: POSE, a show she co-curated, tracing the path to an icon.

How mindful was she that there was an audience for most, if not all of these photographs?

GANNIT ANKORI: Well, I think that she was very mindful.

And she used to give her photographs, autograph them, and give them to people, and tell them: "Don't forget me.

Never forget me."

JARED BOWEN: The unforgettable face was first and often captured by Kahlo's father, Guillermo, an architectural photographer who charted his daughter's transition from a cheerful toddler to a young woman disabled after a bout with polio, then severe injuries resulting from a bus accident that left her literally at pains to emerge as someone new.

GANNIT ANKORI: What's special about her is that she took all of that and not only survived, but thrived, then created something that's so impactful.

JARED BOWEN: In her early 20s, Kahlo adopted what became her signature style.

While others were taking their fashion cues from Europe and Hollywood, she began wearing the dress of indigenous women throughout Mexico, a nod to her pride in her Mexican heritage.

CIRCE HENESTROSA, Fashion Curator: She established a relationship between her wounded body and dress and dress from a very early age.

JARED BOWEN: Longtime Kahlo scholar Circe Henestrosa says that, while Kahlo's dress was inspired by the powerful women traditionally wearing this style, it also disguised her disabilities.

CIRCE HENESTROSA: This dress is composed by a headpiece and a shoulder reveal, and a long skirt.

All the adornment of this dress is concentrated from the torso up, distracting the viewer from her wounded legs and her broken body.

JARED BOWEN: The focus on her upper body also accentuated what would become Kahlo's hallmark monobrow and mustache.

CIRCE HENESTROSA: It informs also her gender identity, because her choice of dress and her construction of identity is not only informed by her ethnicity and disability and political outlook, but also by her queer identity.

JARED BOWEN: Among Kahlo's identities, a masculine one.

GANNIT ANKORI: She was posing as a man when she was 19.

This is a time when gender fluidity, there was no name for that.

But she was performing that in front of her father's camera.

JARED BOWEN: Without inhibitions, as Kahlo would demonstrate in photographs that document the close and sometimes sexual relationships she had with women, in addition to men.

GANNIT ANKORI: She really teaches us a lot about ourselves.

She was way ahead of her time in many ways that relate to identity, disability, ethnic identity, and being who you are.

JARED BOWEN: Which was an artist who never received fame in her lifetime, not that it deterred Kahlo.

The pose she maintained in pictures, often with a direct gaze toward the viewer and a slight turn of the head, was the same she carried into her paintings, which Ankori says were expansions of the photographs.

GANNIT ANKORI: Paintings allow her to add symbolism.

She shows herself to think about herself within the cosmos, within broader contexts.

So, this is also, I think, a unique aspect of her contribution in art.

JARED BOWEN: Kahlo was 47 when she died in 1954.

Bedridden and with one leg amputated, she had become, as she described it, the disintegration, although neither her work nor her look wavered, even on her deathbed, where she painted this final self-portrait.

GANNIT ANKORI: She's almost disintegrating into becoming a flower.

And she's still wearing a Tehuana dress.

You can see the deterioration, both of her body and her capacity to hold the paintbrush.

This shows her resilience.

Yes, it was the waning of her life, but she continued to paint, to insist on posing.

JARED BOWEN: All to leave a legacy that now makes her a legend.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jared Bowen in Waltham, Massachusetts.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A legend and so alive right now.

Fascinating.

And online, join Miles O'Brien for an in-depth look at how climate change is threatening the Colorado River Basin, the primary source of water for millions of Americans.

If you're watching us live online right now, just stay put.

That program is coming up next on our stream.

You can find all that and more on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.