amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “newshour” tonight, civilians in gaza get another day of reprieve from war. we speak to the head of unicef about the urgent humanitarian needs of the war's youngest victims and the risks should fighting resume. amna: the latest united nations climate conference opens in dubai amid global tensions and skepticism that the world will move away from fossil fuels. geoff: and a masterful diplomat

or an instigator of vast human suffering? the controversial former secretary of state henry kissinger dies at age 100. >> i think henry will stand out as one of the most important international figures in the last hundred years. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? this is pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i'd let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas.

more at kendedafund.org. 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 individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the “newshour.”

hamas has released more israeli hostages after an 11th-hour deal extended the temporary gaza ceasefire through tonight. and mediators are working to extend it for two additional days. amna: two women were the first hostages to be handed over today. they were reunited later with their families in israel. and this evening, six more were released into egypt, in exchange for 30 palestinians held by israel. meantime, secretary of state antony blinken returned to the region. he pressed israel to protect civilians if fighting resumes. >> israel has the most -- one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world. it is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by hamas while minimizing harm to innocent men, women, and children. and it has an obligation to do so. geoff: amid the efforts to prolong the calm in gaza, there was new violence inside israel. two palestinian gunmen killed at least three people at a bus station outside jerusalem, before being killed. hamas said it was retaliation

for israeli actions in gaza. prime minister benjamin netanyahu said it shows israel is justified in trying to root out hamas. >> we swore, and i swore, to eliminate hamas. nothing will stop us. we will continue this war until we achieve the three goals, to release all our abductees, to eliminate hamas completely, and to ensure that gaza will never again face such a threat. amna: the war in gaza has had a devastating impact on children in particular. unicef says more than 5300 kids in gaza have been reportedly killed. that means more than 115 children have died every single day of the war. and during the october 7 hamas attacks, 35 israeli children were killed and more than 30 were abducted. to discuss the brutal toll on the war's youngest victims, we turn now to the executive director of unicef, catherine russell, who's back in new york after visiting gaza in recent weeks. catherine, i want to begin with

this pause we're in right now. fighting has been on a temporary cease fire since last friday. in that time, how many aid trucks -- which we know are so desperately needed -- how many have been able to make it into gaza? what kind of difference can they make? catherine: the pause has been really a godsend for us and a sort of a ray of hope for the people who live there, because we've been able to get -- it really varies the numbers of trucks that go in. but, you know, it's a couple of hundred trucks have gone in. you mentioned i was there. i started at the rafah border and the crossing there. it's an amazing thing to see with all these trucks lined up. a lot of them are egyptian government and the egyptian red crescent, u.n. trucks, bilateral partners are sending in trucks. so there is a huge effort to try and get resources in there. and for a while, that was very challenging. before this whole thing started, they would routinely get about 500 trucks a day into gaza. and that's where commercial trucks, you know, different things, not really aid trucks in the same way. but it gives you an idea of the needs. and now, even though we are

making some progress and getting more trucks in, we're not getting close to the resources that we need to get in there. amna: we are now nearing eight weeks of war. we mentioned officials saying over 5300 children killed in gaza. it's leading us to see countless videos like this one. i'm sure you've seen so many. this is a man named khalid nabhan, and he's mourning the death of his grandson, tarek, and his three-year-old granddaughter, reem. he calls her in this video the soul of my soul. he says they shared the same birthday. he wears her earring as a badge. now, unicef has called gaza a graveyard for children. can you help us understand what's the context for this loss of life in this amount of time? catherine: well, let me say this first. it is always the case that war and conflict are terrible for children. in every situation that i've ever seen. what we've seen here is the scale has been enormous. and it also the pace of the terror, the bombings and the

attacks early on were really quite dramatic. and so it was very hard to see these numbers of children who are dying every day. and, of course, that comes on top of the children from israel who were killed, as well as children who were abducted. and so in every situation and in every aspect of this situation, i would say the children are the ones who are really suffering. and i think it's incumbent upon the adults in the room to try to do better to protect these children. amna: do you believe that israel is abiding by international law? catherine: you know, those are actually legal determinations that get made. i mean, what we would say is that all parties have these obligations to minimize the impact of these conflicts on children. i mean, ideally, there would be no conflicts in the world, but that's never been the case. that's why there are rules of law that say you have to minimize the impact on not just children, but civilians more generally. and i think, you know, everyone has a story. everyone has a side to their to their argument. but at the end of the day, every one of us has an obligation to do everything we possibly can to protect the people who are most

innocent here, who have nothing right now, no responsibility for this conflict and no ability to stop it. but they are the ones who are suffering. and the videos that you showed demonstrate the incredible loss that people feel. and i think for all people, you know, we have children in our lives we love so much and can hardly imagine what people are going through, either having children abducted for months or children who are killed or buried in the rubble. i mean, it's all horrendous. amna: those dozens of israeli children who were abducted, we know they've been prioritized for release as part of the exchange of people held during this pause in fighting. we all know the story of this one little girl in particular, abigail moore idan. she marked her 4th birthday as a hostage in gaza. she is now an orphan. her parents were killed in that hamas attack. what can you tell us about those children? have you had any access to them? what have they endured?

catherine: it's just god awful. for these children it is so traumatizing. and i think it is one of the things that we at unicef are very worried about, which is obviously we have the immediate impact on children, but the long term impact, the stress, the strain of living through situations like this, either, you know, children have been abducted and obviously living in situations that we don't really have full visibility into yet, or children who, you know, have parents who they've lost or other people that they've lost. when i was in gaza, one of the staff people there was proudly telling me about this water sanitation project that she'd worked on. and then she says, kind of as an aside, well, you know, i've lost 17 members of my extended family. i mean, i couldn't believe it. you know, it was just the scale of the loss and the trauma and the fact that these people are still trying so hard to go on and make a life for themselves. and that community was really striking to me. amna: that is the executive director of unicef, catherine russell, joining us today. catherine, thank you so much. always good to seeou. catherine: thank you. thanks so much. ♪

geoff: in the day's other headlines, former president trump is under a gag order again in his civil fraud trial in new york. a state appeals court today reinstated the ban on his criticizing court staffers. it had been on hold, pending the ruling. trial judge arthur engoron imposed the order after mr. trump posted derogatory comments about his clerk. court officials said the comments sparked hundreds of threats. senator tommy tuberville is signaling he's ready to end his blockade of hundreds of high-level military nominations. the alabama republican has been holding up promotions for nearly a year. he's trying to force an end to paying for u.s. troops to travel for abortions. today though, at the u.s. capitol, he said he'd like to get some of the promotions moving in the next week or so. >> we've had real good

discussions about this, about the proper way to do this because we do want to stand up for life and the taxpayers not having to pay for anything having to do with abortion, and get these people that need to be promoted, promoted. geoff: tuberville did not say how many promotions he's willing to let through. he spoke as democrats, and a number of republicans, are working on a way to get around the promotion freeze. social media giant meta says it has eliminated a network of fake facebook accounts designed to increase political divisions in the u.s. in all, close to 4800 accounts were re-posting polarizing messages from x, the former twitter. meta says the accounts appeared to come from americans, but they actually originated in china. in russia, that country's supreme court today banned what it called the international lgbt movement in a long-running crackdown on gay, lesbian, and transgender rights. a judge in moscow read the ruling after a four-hour closed hearing. human rights advocates said it effectively bans lgbtq activism in russia.

>> the justice ministry demanded that the court label a nonexistent organization, the international lgbt movement, as extremist. but it could happen that russian authorities will enforce it against lgbtq groups that work within russia, considering them a part of this international movement. geoff: the russian justice ministry argued that gay, lesbian, and trans activists are extremists who incite social and religious discord. the russian orthodox church praised the court's action. saudi arabia and other oil producing states made new attempts today to reduce output and shore up lagging prices. the opec-plus members announced they'll maintain and add new cuts, totaling more than two million barrels a day, through the first quarter of 2024. they also announced that brazil will join the alliance in january. it's one of the world's fastest-growing producers. back in this country, new data shed more light on the state of the economy.

the commerce department reported consumer prices were unchanged from september to october. year over year, prices were up 3%, the slowest pace in 2.5 years. and the labor department said the number of people collecting jobless benefits hit a two-year high in mid-november, at nearly two million. and on wall street, stocks had a lackluster day to finish their best month since last year. the dow jones industrial average gained one point today to close near 35,951. the nasdaq fell 32 points. the s&p 500 added 17. for the month, the dow and the s&p rose 9%. the nasdaq shot up nearly 11%. still to come on the "pbs newshour," elon musk lashes out at advertisers leaving his social media platform over a rise in hate speech. and artist simone leigh gives space to under-represented people with her towering work.

>> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the united nations climate conference, cop 28, began today in the united arab emirates. negotiators from nearly 200 countries are hoping to hammer out agreements to limit the pollution that's warming the planet, and to agree on aid for the nations most impacted by climate change. william brangham joins us for a preview of what's to come. good to see you. so this is the 28th such climate summit hosted by the u.n. what are and ingratiate her's hoping to work out in this one? william: the backdrop for all of this is we are living through the hottest year ever in recorded human history. and that warmer world creates havoc all over the planet. in extreme events, drought, fire, floods. that cost billions of dollars and kills people. so the goal of this summit in

essence is to stop that damage. there is a new focus that has been happening in recent years which is, what is the responsibility that the developed world that is principally responsible for climate change, what does the developed world owe to the developing world that is suffering the impacts of climate change who did nothing to cause this? there was a fund for the first time established today to try and offer some aid to those nations. so that is a start. amna: we know we cannot meaningfully address climate change without reducing fossil renewable energy. how are the nations doing on those? william: not great. u.n. secretary antonio guterres has been very harsh about nations that talk a good game but failed to deliver. the fact is progress is not happening nearly weekly enough. the hard part is we live in a fossil fuel world. everything are around us, the lights, the stable, the concrete

on the floor, how we got to work, all powered by fossil fuels. transitioning away from that is costly and complicated. it is a hard thing to do. that transition is happening. renewable energy is coming on like gangbusters, as my mom likes to say. but it is not happening nearly fast enough. critics contend this cost of inaction is an unacceptable cost to pay. amna: this one summit was also beset by controversy before it even began. what happened? william: people argue, why are you having a climate change conference in a nation known for exporting oil and gas? the president of the current cop is an oil executive in the uae. and so people argue this is a classic example of the fox guarding the hen house. the bbc and the center for climate reporting reported that he was found trying to make oil and gas deals in the lead up to

this event. so people are dubious of what might come out of this. and earlier this week i tried to get some context for all of this. i spoke to a veteran of these prior u.n. climate talks and we began talking about this controversy about the cop president. >> caught red-handed, the cop presidency, frankly, has no other option but to unequivocally step up its transparency, its responsibility, and its accountability with which they are leading this process. now, from a planetary perspective, frankly, we cannot afford for them not to do so. that is where we are. william: he certainly says he appreciates there has to be a transition away from fossil fuels, that we have to cut emissions drastically. 50% in the next few years. he seems to argue he is uniquely

positioned to help lead this cop and help lead the world in emissions reductions. >> and we all need him to do that. that is exactly right. we all need him to do that. no one can afford for him to waver on that. so yes, i can totally agree that that is his job, that is his responsibility. and if he really sets his head to what, he can do it. he is a very, very intelligent person. william: but you and many others have argued if we continue on our current path, we are condemning current and future generations to an increasingly unlivable planet of famine, disease, conflict. do you worry that the sense of urgency on that front is diminishing? >> we humans have a very interesting, contrasting

reaction to acute and chronic situations. we act pretty well when there is an acute threat. that hits us, hits us really hard, and then we address it and then we pass. a pandemic being a pretty good case in point. we are absolutely terrible about dealing with chronic threats. despite the fact that they may be life-threatening. but if they are chronic and sustained over time, and gradually hitting us, we are just terrible at that. we cannot deal with that. and so the new muscle that we have to exercise here is, how do we deploy those measures and

that decision, that commitment that we bring to acute threats, to get through acute threats -- how do we deploy it for chronic threats? that is the lesson that we have to learn. william: the war in ukraine certainly sent an incredible shock through the energy industry. there is concern what is happening in the middle east right now with israel and gaza could also spread wider. do you share the concern that the tumult in the energy market pushes the commitment to renewables and the green energy transition to the side or to the back burner? >> no. to the contrary. william, i thought you were going to end that sends completely in the opposite direction. the worry about energy dependence pushes countries toward domestic energy

production that, by and large, is actually renewable energy direction. and that we have seen since the war in ukraine. we have seen investment into renewable energies worldwide go up. two years ago we had $1 trillion invested in fossil fuels still, oh my god. this year we still have $1 trillion invested into oil and gas, and $1.7 trillion into renewables. why? because that actually strengthens energy independence. that strengthens security, strategic national security. and so, the invasion of ukraine is a tragedy, and completely cannot be justified under any account. absolutely. and it has had a very interesting accelerating effect on the energy system of the wor

ld. it has accelerated the decarbonization of the energy system. william: on that revolution in renewable and green energy that is underway, as you say, what is it that most gives you hope when you look at that industry? wind and solar, prices are dropping and production is going up. what gives you the most hope when you look at that field? >> that is exactly what gives me hope, the fact that this is no longer linear. the fact that we now see very, very clearly the s-surves, the exponential curves of all of those solution technologies. wind is definitely on an exponential curve. solar, definitely. batteries, definitely. ev's already showing that initial indication of being on

that curve. so, what gives me hope is the fact that the technologies that can help us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are on an exponential curve of improvement, development, and deployment. that of course means that we are, frankly, on a race here between two exponential curves. the exponential curve of solutions, which i have just described, but also the exponential curve of the negative effects that we are seeing. so we are seeing two exponential curves that in my book are racing against each other. when they are going to intersect, we don't know. but we do know which of those exponential curves has to win the race. william: thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. >> thank you, william. good to see you.

♪ geoff: henry kissinger, america's most consequential and controversial secretary of state, died last night at the age of 100. he reached the peak of his power in the 1970's, and as nick schifrin reports, he remained highly influential until the very end. nick: he was a titan of american foreign policy, an american immigrant, who became an american original. >> america has never been true to itself unless it meant something beyond itself. nick: from china. >> the closest cooperation between china and the united states is essential. nick: to chile. from vietnam, to the middle east. >> the united states is committed to bring about a just and lasting peace. nick: kissinger's impact on

american policy is measured in decades. to his supporters, a hero. >> i think henry will stand out as one of the most important international figures in the last hundred years. nick: to his detractors, a villain. >> i think it would be hard to find somebody else as comparable as henry kissinger in terms of the damage that they have done. nick: heinz alfred kissinger was born in germany in 1923 to a jewish family. when he was 15, they fled nazi germany for new york. he was drafted into the american military, and deployed to his home country to help with de-nazification. he taught at harvard, giving him access to elite foreign policy circles, until president richard nixon named him national security advisor, and, later simultaneously, secretary of state. >> there is no country in the world where it is conceivable that a man of my origins could be standing here, next to the president of the united states. nick: the moment that would make him famous led to what nixon

called the week that changed the world. a secret 1971 trip to beijing, ending more than two decades of mutual hostility. the next year, nixon made his own trip, setting a path to u.s.-china normalization. in that room that day, kissinger aide and later ambassador to china, winston lord. >> maybe it would have happened at some point, but it was still a very courageous and controversial move in the early 1970's. this meeting set the stage for the subsequent discussions and the opening up the relationship, which had a major impact immediately by improving relations with the soviets, it helped us end the vietnam war. it restored morale in the united states that we were an able diplomatic actor despite all our problems, and restored american credibility around the world. nick: but before he could end the vietnam war, kissinger had expanded it. beginning in 1969, the u.s.

secretly bombed cambodia to try and disrupt north vietnamese supply routes. the campaign is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. >> he had a remarkable indifference to human suffering. nick: greg grandin is a professor of history at yale and author of the book "kissinger's shadow, the long reach of america's most controversial statesman." he argues kissinger and nixon unnecessarily extended the vietnam war by four years. >> how many thousands of u.s. soldiers died as a result of that? how many thousands of vietnamese soldiers died of that? his secret and illegal bombing of cambodia resulted in 100,000 civilian deaths. but more than that, it radicalized what had been a small nucleus of extremely militant communists. that brought pol pot to power. and that led to the killing fields and the millions dead. he does have inordinate amount of blood on his hands. nick: by 1973, kissinger and his team negotiated an end to the vietnam war in paris, where

winston lord was again at his side. >> henry and i went out in the garden and we shook hands and he looked me in the eye and said, we've done it. and this had particular poignancy, because i'd almost quit over our cambodia-related policy to vietnam a couple of years earlier on that very subject. and so after all we've been through, this was a major moment. nick: the moment allowed kissinger to share the nobel peace prize with his north vietnamese counterpart. but two years later, the u.s. fled saigon. and north vietnam and viet cong troops conquered u.s.-ally south vietnam. >> the withdrawal from vietnam was an american tragedy. nick: kissinger never expressed regret over vietnam or any decision. in 2003, he told jim lehrer the priority was to put vietnam aside so he could focus elsewhere. >> all you could do is try to preserve a minimum of dignity and save as many lives as you could.

nick: kissinger's peace efforts extended to the middle east. in october 1973, egypt and syria attacked israel on yom kippur. kissinger held so many regional meetings, he helped create the term shuttle diplomacy. it helped lead to israeli-egypt negotiations, and edged the soviet union out of the middle east. kissinger's concern over communism, and his realpolitik, peaked in chile. in 1973, the u.s. helped the military overthrow the democratically elected socialist government and install general augusto pinochet. pinochet's military dictatorship caused the death, disappearance, and torture of more than 40,000 chileans. but kissinger's priority was preventing communist dominos from falling, as he told the newshour's elizabeth farnsworth in 2001. >> first of all, human rights were not an international issue at the time the way they have become since.

we believed that the establishment of a castro-ite regime in chile would create a sequence of events in all of, at least the southern cone of latin america, that would be extremely inimical to the national interests of the united states, at a time when the cold war was at its height. nick: kissinger's cold war strategy called for detente with the soviet union. in 1972, president nixon and soviet premier lenoid brezhnev signed salt, the first limits on soviet and u.s. ballistic missiles, and ballistic missile defense. it opened decades of arms control agreements. >> the benefits that accrue to the united states are the benefit that will accrue to all participants in the international system, from an improvement in the prospects of peace. nick: by then, kissinger had reached his popular, and policy peak. he was charming, funny, craved proximity to power, and was, in his supporters' eyes, a steady steward of american interests.

after nixon's resignation, he remained president ford's secretary of state. >> i think his most significant achievement was holding together america and its foreign policy in the wake of watergate and the ending of the vietnam war. kissinger remained untainted by the scandals, pursued remarkable diplomacy under the circumstances, and maintained america's position in the world, as well as restoring some morale in the united states itself. it was a remarkable achievement. nick: but to his critics, kissinger symbolized the pursuit of order over justice, and the kind of pre-emptive action that paved the way for continuous war. >> i think he was absolutely indispensable in creating a sense of keeping the united states on a permanent war footing. this war without end, in which everything is self-defense. every drone attack can be justified. nick: his influence endured to

the end. dozens of books, hundreds of speeches. consultations or advice to 12 presidents. perhaps no single individual before, or since, has exercised so much control over u.s. policy. henry kissinger was 100 years old. for the "pbs newshour," i'm nick schifrin. ♪ geoff: elon musk, the owner of x, formerly known as twitter, is dialing up the pressure on his own company even more after cursing advertisers who paused ads on the social media platform. the advertising freeze from major companies like disney and apple came after musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory on x earlier this month. in an interview at the new york times' dealbook summit yesterday, he denied the accusation of antisemitism and

told companies not to advertise. he even called out the ceo of disney, bob iger, who was at the event. >> you don't want them to advertise? >> no. >> what do you mean? >> if somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmailing with money, go -- yourself. but, go -- yourself. is that clear? i hope it is. hey bob, if you're in the audience. geoff: npr tech reporter bobby allyn joined just now. there is no possible business benefit, at least not one i can think of, to elon musk sitting on stage cursing out the advertisers who he needs to buy ads on x to keep that company afloat. it raises the question, what does elon musk want with x right now? is he trying to take the company? bobby: it sure did seem like it.

this was an act of pure self sabotage. 90% of x's revenue comes from advertisers. since elon musk made waves by endorsing an anti-semitic conspiracy theory, there has been an exodus of major corporations away from x. linda yaccarino who was brought in as 's new ceo has been trying to court some of those fleeing advertisers back to the platform. but now we have the world's richest man who runs x literally trolling the brands to go f-themselves, cursing them out. i cannot imagine this does anything but make the problem much worse. musk even said himself from that very stage that advertisers are going to kill the company. he seems even to be saying but many outside observers have been saying for a while, which is that it sure does seem like bankruptcy is a fate a complete. it is just not a matter of if but when x files for bankruptcy. geoff: the new york times reported x could lose as much as

$75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year. you mentioned linda yaccarino who was brought on to bring advertisers back to x after elon musk took it over in 2022. what does this mean for her and the job she was hired to do? elon musk is not making her job any easier. bobby: not at all. linda yaccarino today is in crisis control mode. remember, her main job has been to try and bring some of these skittish advertisers back to the platform. she issued a statement today saying that x is at a unique and amazing intersection of main street and free speech. she's trying to spin her boss's comments in the most positive way possible. but think about it, if you are someone whose job it is to bring corporations to this platform and to try and place ads on this platform, and the person who leads it is basically cursing you out and saying he has absolutely no respect for your

concerns, that's going to be a really hard business case. it is going to be really hard to be a salesperson in the wake of these comments were elon musk does seem to be trying to drive his company directly into the ground. i cannot imagine any other outcome but that. like i said, he said in no uncertain terms that this advertiser boycott will likely decline the company into bankruptcy. geoff: big picture, the u.s. government cannot seem to quit elon musk even if it wanted to. the pentagon needs his satellites, nasa needs his rockets, the biden white house needs his electric vehicles as a key component of this green economy they are trying to promote. how is the government contending with the fact that so many of his companies are woven into the fabric of american culture, and are so inextricably linked to national security interests? bobby: that is completely right. the new yorker has called this

elon's shadow rule. some say elon musk is like an unelected official. he has a tremendous amount of power, whether it is with his starlink satellites in ukraine which are on the front lines of the war with russia, whether it is the ev charging stations across the country. remember, elon musk's company, tesla, controls 60% of the ev charging stations around the country. so the biden administration cannot push its green energy policies without working with elon musk. we cannot send astronauts from american soil to the international space station unless we work with spacex. so, the government has no choice but to play nice and to do business with this very mercurial, erratic business leader who is becoming increasingly unhinged by the day. some u.s. government officials say it is just too late. we wish we could've done something sooner, but this entrepreneur just has so many

deep inroads into the federal government at this point. geoff: bobby allyn, thanks again. good to see you. bobby: thank you. ♪ amna: last year, artist simone leigh represented the u.s. at what is widely considered the world's most important exhibition of contemporary art, the venice biennale. she was the first black woman to have that honor. now, there's a chance to see her work in a retrospective touring the country. jeffrey brown meets the artist for our arts and culture series, "canvas." jeffrey: outside the hirshhorn museum in washington, d.c., a monumental bronze sculpture, a 24-foot female form, titled satellite. inside, smaller but no less striking works, in which artist simone leigh explores the representation of black women, by pulling together different materials and forms, and pulling

from different traditions. >> it makes something new. sometimes it collapses time. sometimes it makes similarities that may have happened over a millennium more obvious. it's just one of the joys of sculpture. jeffrey: leigh went really big, in her work and the attention it gained, in 2019 with bri house, towering over new york's high line park. the exhibition now in washington, some 29 works spanning 20 years, mostly sculptures but also several videos, was organized by the institute of contemporary art in boston. it includes major works that were part of her acclaimed venice biennale project, and a few new ones. heady stuff, perhaps. but at 56, leigh is hardly an overnight success. >> i was told that i wasn't going to make it a thousand times. so i think that you -- jeffrey: you smile as you say that. >> yeah, because there's an idea that art can be anything.

but i was being told, "but it can't be that." jeffrey: "that" is ceramics, works made of clay and ravishing glazes, usually shaped by hand and fired in sometimes enormous kilns. it wasn't seen as high art by many when she was starting out, she says, but she loved the labor that went into it, the control, and lack of it. >> the inexhaustibility of ceramics. even next week, i don't know exactly what's going to come out of the kiln. there's a lot of unpredictability involved. i enjoy that. i enjoy that there's still questions that i have that are unanswered about what i can do with the material and how far i can push it. jeffrey: leigh was born and raised in chicago's south side. her father immigrated from jamaica and served as an evangelical preacher. caribbean motifs run through her sculptures, sometimes in the form of plantains. she also looks to africa,

including nigerian pottery she studied long ago as an intern at the national museum of african art. now such forms become part of a human figure, as in the sculpture, jug. in cupboard, she combines a cowrie shell, another favorite motif, with raffia, the fiber from a type of palm tree. >> it also refers to kind of makeshift building and dwelling. it also -- jeffrey: but the hut here becomes a skirt. >> and the hut also becomes a skirt. i like that combination. i like all the different histories that come together as they're carried both by the material itself and also the forms referenced. jeffrey: so, each different kind of material here is also carrying -- >> cries histories with it, yes. jeffrey: many of leigh's women lack eyes, she says they're both figurative and abstractions. and her work always begins with ideas of how we value craft and labor versus art.

most of all, how black women have been represented, misrepresented, or simply ignored, including in popular culture. some of her early work referenced uhura, a character on "star trek." >> i remember playing star trek with my friends when we were younger, and we had the complication of there was only one black girl character. and so we would fight over who got to be uhura. so, it's always been something that even subconsciously i was aware of. jeffrey: cupboard itself plays off the racist imagery of mammy's cupboard in natchez, mississippi, captured in a 1941 photo by edward weston. >> i hope that my work shows a more nuanced, more subtle, more bold, more complicated, and more varied representation of black women. jeffrey: and leigh reframes colonial imagery.

she covered the u.s. pavilion at venice with a raffia, hut-like facade, an echo to a 1931 international colonial exhibition in paris. in the runup to the venice exhibition, much attention focused on leigh as the first black woman to represent the u.s. she says that was important to her, but as part of a larger community and deeper history. >> there were many, many artists before me that would have shown in the venice biennial, black women artists, had we had a different history. i've been thinking recently of the metaphor of a relay race. it's just i was the one that's had the baton more recently. jeffrey: simone leigh's exhibition is here until march and then travels to los angeles where it will show at the los angeles county museum of art and the california african american museum. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown at the hirshhorn museum in washington, d.c. ♪

geoff: and we'll be back shortly with a story from our student reporting labs about how young people in hawaii are working to address inequities in girls' health. amna: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. ♪ geoff: for those of you staying with us, we take a second look now at so called ghost gear, that's fishing gear that's lost or abandoned in the ocean. as science correspondent miles o'brien reports, there's a growing effort to remove the debris, including off the coast of the u.s. miles: heart island is a tiny, rugged spit of land about one mile off the coast of maine. it is uninhabited, a natural

refuge for seabirds. but humans are spoiling the landscape with an unending tidal wave of lost, abandoned, and dumped fishing gear. >> it is incredibly overwhelming. and the fact is it just keeps coming. oh, it probably has not been trapped there very long. miles: lynda welch is a wildlife biologist for the u.s. fish and wildlife service. it manages the maine coastal island's refuge. 73 islands home to thousands of nesting seabirds, some of them endangered or threatened. >> i don't think there is another industry that would be allowed that type of behavior, where trash from your industry accumulates on public land and you have no responsibility to clean it up. miles: chicks instinctively seeking shelter from predators climb into lobster traps, confining them inside. >> it died because it was not

able to get free from that marine debris. miles: the tangled, mangled traps weigh at least 50 pounds apiece. and the refuge islands have no harbors, docks, or boat ramps. >> so we have to come ashore, those boats shuttled the gear to offshore larger boats, and they transported back to the mainland. it is incredibly time-consuming. miles: the cleanup is largely left to volunteers, coordinated by nonprofits. >> you get an appreciation for how these friggin' things are made. miles: lower ludwig is -- at the center for coastal studies. we caught up with her on a foggy morning. >> at its peak, i believe they were 3.2 million trapped tags sold annually. that can be anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 traps lost

annually. annually. miles: that is a pretty stunning number. >> it is. miles: lobster mint steve has been fishing in the gulf of maine for more than 40 years. >> last year we had quite a few storms and i lost 30 traps and that was a record for me. boats and ships cut them off, but is not trash. miles: the industry started using steel traps coated with plastic and plastic lines. they replaced wood and sizable which degrade naturally. this gear does not. it lasts forever. for buzz scott, the bigger problem is out of sight, but not out of mind. traps that pile up on the seafloor, so called ghost gear. >> there goes gear because we have lost them, they are gone, they are ghost to us. but those traps are still fishing if they catch one animal

a year that is eaten by another animal that is in that trap. we're wasting a lot of resources. miles: scott is founder and president of oceans wide, a nonprofit that educates students about the gulf of maine. >> we could have 100 divers, 20 boats, and five rov's working in the gulf of maine constantly. it has taken 40 years to fill the ocean up so it will take us a lot longer to find all the straps. miles: of course the problem is not limited to lobster traps in the gulf of maine. all over the planet the seas are littered with abandon lines, buoys, and traps. death traps for all kind of marine life, like these desperate crabs. >> fishing gear is the most harmful form of plastic marine debris in the ocean. miles: she is with the ocean conservancy. it is seeking solutions to this burgeoning problem. part of the plastic onslaught on

the oceans. so, pound for pound, is this more lethal for marine life? >> marine animals can get entangled in ghost gear. they can ingest it, it can break down. the reason is because fishing gear can be incredibly light and float within the water column were often marine animals live and play. miles: the nonprofit leads the global ghost gear initiative, fostering recycling projects that lead to consumer products. but recycling any kind of plastic is problematic. most fishing ports do not even have a place for fishermen to recycle their old gear. >> all of the gear i have here comes from different fishermen in massachusetts. miles: caitlin townsend works trying to make it easier for fishermen to recycle their plastic gear. she works mostly alone, with her dog, in a warehouse near the most lucrative fishing port in the u.s., new bedford,

massachusetts. >> i will lay it out and separate it into all the different types of plastic. miles: they have recycling sites and alaska, washington state, california, maine, as well as this one. what is the big solution in your view? >> in my view, it would be to have an operation like this in every major fishing port in the united states. miles: but she has to send the sorted plastic to europe because there are no recycling facilities here that will accept it. back down east, buzz scott employs a hydraulic pressure to make it easier to recycle the lobster traps. to get them melted down, he must truck them across the border into canada. about one month after our visit to heart island, lynda led a cleanup effort. volunteers gathered and crushed more than 200 traps. a chartered barge is set to haul it all away. but the derelict fishing gear

just keeps coming. for the "pbs newshour," i'm miles o'brien along the gulf of maine. ♪ amna: it took years of effort by students and advocates, but hawaii is now one of nine states requiring public and charter schools to provide free menstrual products for students. kate nakamura from our student reporting labs has the story. >> all the public places that we have access to as citizens, if there's toilet paper and soap stock there, to me, there should also be period products stocked. kate: not being able to afford menstrual products is known as period poverty. it's an issue of inequity that is familiar to teachers like sarah kern, who witnessed the issue while teaching at chiefess kamakahelei middle school. >> i saw a lot of period poverty at our school.

it was mostly indirect. there's a lot of students who would go to the health room to get their products and that resulted in missing class time. i personally and a lot of teachers would provide products to students, so i would always keep some in my desk. kate: hawaii state representative amy perusso has been advocating for period poverty since her former days of teaching. >> when we talk about, for example, hawaii public schools, the vast majority of our menstruators live in fairly high poverty communities and conditions. kate: it took several years of lobbying, but students and advocates celebrated a victory in june 2022, when legislation requiring the hawaii department of education to provide free menstrual products in public and charter schools was signed by the governor. hawaii is now among nine states in the u.s to do so, according to the alliance for period supplies. it's already making a difference to students like breanne battulayan, who attends kauai

high school. >> the first time i saw it was in pe and i was like, oh my gosh. wait, i don't have to carry like, my big period bag everywhere. i literally just have a pad right there that i can just grab from the wall. kate: kern, who serves as the kauai representative for the mai movement, a nonprofit organization working to eliminate period poverty in hawaii, in addition to teaching, says expansion of access to free menstrual products in other spaces in the community, such as university campuses, will benefit local menstruators. >> one of the next steps to getting period products more widely accessible throughout the state is definitely getting them free and accessible in the uh system. so the community colleges uh west o'ahu, uh m'noa, uh hilo, all of those campuses. kate: representative perusso who supports this bill in the state house knows that there are many challenges that come along with creating change. >> i think that the most

difficult obstacle is the education piece. because sometimes -- not always, but sometimes legislators live in their own bubbles. right? and that can affect the quality of their policymaking. so if they are not actively seeking out young people and trying to identify the concerns of young people and then working to address them, then they're never going to be engaging with young people. kate: for "pbs newshour" student reporting labs, i'm kate nakamura in hawaii. ♪ geoff: and there is more coverage online, including a look at a controversial execution that took place in oklahoma today as advocates are calling for all death row cases to be reviewed.

you can learn more at pbs.org/newshour. amna: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "newshour," including leonard and norma klorfine, and koo and patricia yuen. >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well-planned. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i'm legally blind, and yes, i'm responsible for the user interface. data visualization.

if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "newshour." this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

caption content and accuracy.] >> you're wat

♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. six days into the israel-hamas truce and negotiators are working toward a further extension. with more hostages and prisoners set to be released. i ask middle east expert khaled elgindy what we know about those palestinian detainees. then, no more excuses. i speak with commonwealth secretary-general patricia scotland about her calls for faster climate action ahead of the u.n. climate summit, cop-28. also ahead for us, isia