amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the “newshour” tonight, negotiations over funding for ukraine and the southern border are derailed by republican infighting, threatening a crucial, emerging deal. former president donald trump takes the stand in the federal defamation case brought by writer e. jean carroll. and the governor of texas defies a supreme court ruling to remove razor wire at the border. the state's standoff with the federal government, and how mexico's foreign minister views the ongoing immigration crisis.

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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. amna: welcome to the "newshour." we start with two intertwined and looming issues. high-stakes negotiations over a possible deal to aid ukraine, and reform the u.s. immigration system, are at risk of collapsing under their own political weight. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins spent the day speaking with lawmakers on

capitol hill and is here to explain. good to see you. bring us up to speed. lisa: after these weeks of very urgent and serious talks between lawmakers on capitol hill and maybe some less serious soundbites from others not involved in the negotiations we are now on the edge of a complete failure by our lawmakers to either address border security right now or to figure out what they want to do to help or not help our allies in ukraine. as you know those president biden issues have been linked since president biden linked them in one bill and republicans asked for policy changes at the border before they would support ukraine funding. right now negotiators that have been working on trying to get that deal together actually have agreed on policy i am told by familiar sources but they have not yet figured out how much money goes where. that is obviously a big problem. however conservatives have increasingly become skeptical on

policy. at the same time leader mitch mcconnell has made it clear today that he ideally would like a combined deal. but he has a different problem. former president trump opposes the combined deal, especially the border security portion. and sims new hampshire mcconnell and other republicans have started referring to trump as a potential nominee of their party and have said he wants to run on the border issue. so we have a political problem. mitch mcconnell said behind closed doors last night net no matter what they want the politics mean this kind of deal may not be able to go forward for republicans picked what is going forward are the negotiations. the senators who have been behind closed doors for week, one democrat, an independent and republican, say they will work throughout the weekend with leader schumer saying he expects them to come up with a deal. senator sinema says she expects tax dollar border policy next week. we will see.

amna: take us back to the presidential politics. how big of a factor is that in blocking potential action for ukraine or border funding? lisa: this deal has always been precarious and difficult. it was not clear democrats would be on the way on board. but at this moment it is presidential palma -- politics absolutely blocking it and has incited more fear in senate republicans who might have been on the fence as to whether to try and help some partial solution at the border. maybe not get everything they want. versus backing off altogether and doing politically more experience things. one of the reasons, former president trump. i want to show you what he wrote in the last day about this deal. i do not think we should do a border deal at all unless we get everything needed to shut down the invasion. of course this is not an invasion. these are groups of an asylum see largely. more than half of them family members. you can see in that

election-year rhetoric that former president trump will be using. to make it even more clear the last person before trump to be the republican nominee, mitt romney, had something to say today. >> the fact that he would communicate to republican senators and congress people that he doesn't want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame biden for it, is really appalling. lisa: as we speak i am told by my sources and the trump campaign he is responding erect lay. it is a blast at mitt romney. all of this another problem, it was not clear that the house would ever pass the deal but senators wanted to do something. they still may try. amna: what about the critical aid funding? when does the inaction to pass funding create more problems? lisa: i want to credit nick schifrin for a lot of this reporting. right now the u.s. is paying for critical weaponry but the ukraine government to keep financial aid viable. $4 billion is needed for them

routinely to keep the payroll going. the u.s. is paying for teachers and those kind of things. if there is not air defense for ukraine, that will be a game changer soon. they will probably not be able to make it as they are coming up quickly. amna: our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins, thank you. lisa: you're welcome. amna: former president donald trump is also dealing with his own legal problems today. he took the stand in a new york city courtroom as part of the defamation lawsuit filed by writer e. jean carroll. in an earlier trial, trump was found guilty of sexually abusing carroll in the 1990's in a department store dressing room, and then defaming her by denying the assault and alleging she invented the story to make money. our william brangham was in the courtroom today and joins us now. william, it is good to see you. we should note that the president, despite the conviction, has maintained his in a sense. but this testimony was long-awaited. what did he have to say on the stand? william: he did not have much to

say. the former president was on the stand for less than five minutes in total today. that is largely because the judge had put a series of constraints on the former president, arguing that by law he cannot try to relitigate the previous case in which he was found ill day. the former president was clearly angered by all of this. but he answered a few quick questions. he said he 100% stood by a previous deposition saying that this set of accusations was a hoax. he was asked whether he had ever intentionally ask someone to harm e. jean carroll and he said no. that was largely it. he got off the stand and as he was walking out of the courtroom he very angrily muttered, this is not america, this is not america. amna: he has already been found guilty of sexually abusing e. jean carroll and defaming her.

so what is the jury deciding in this case? william: the jury has to decide how much money, if any, that e. jean carroll deserves to get from donald trump for those defamatory comments he made about her when he was the president. she alleges that after he made those comments she suffered through a torrent of online abuse and death threats and harm to her reputation. she says this is what happens when a former sitting president, then sitting president accuses you publicly of making a liar and making up a story to attack him. it is worth noting that even though he has been found guilty of defamation, the former president continues to say this, not in a courtroom, but everywhere he goes, he is continuing to say these defamatory comments about e. jean carroll. amna: so this is one case that seems to be coming to a close. i want to ask you about another case being brought in fulton

county, georgia related to his alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 election. there have been some serious accusations brought against a prosecutor in that case. what is the latest on that? william: the prosecutor in that case is the fulton county district attorney fani willis. she has this elaborate election interference case. she has 19 defendants she has charged. a few weeks ago one of those defendants came forward in a motion and said that the lead prosecutor that willis appointed, a man named nathan wade, was in fact willis's boyfriend. and he alleged that wade was using the over half $1 million in legal fees he has been charging against this case to take willis on fancy vacations. and that this is clearly a conflict of interest and she should be dismissed from the case. willis has not said anything publicly directly about these accusations. a week or so ago she did seem to

imply that all the attacks against her and wade, because both of them are black, that these were rooted in racism. now, today, donald trump's lawyers seized on that accusation and said, if you are out there claiming that the defendants in this case are racists, you are hopelessly tainting a potential jury pool and that the district attorney should be dismissed and the entire case should be dismissed. so this has escalated very quickly. the judge in this case has now set a hearing for february 15 to go through these accusations and we will see what happens at that point but so far, a very serious shadow cast over this very consequential case. amna: that is william brangham covering the trials of former president donald trump, joining us from new york. thank you. william: thanks, amna. ♪

amna: in the day's other headlines, former trump adviser peter navarro was sentenced to four months in federal prison for contempt of congress. he had refused to cooperate with the congressional january 6 investigation. navarro appeared in court in washington, where the judge told him he's not the victim of a political prosecution. later, navarro filed an appeal of his conviction and sentence. the u.s. economy is showing more signs of surprising resilience thanks to robust consumer spending. the commerce department reports overall output expanded at an annual rate of 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023. that was down from 4.9% in the third quarter, but much stronger than expected. in gaza, the hamas-run health ministry reported an israeli strike killed 20 people waiting for food in gaza city. the israeli military said it's investigating. elsewhere, fighting raged near

two hospitals in khan younis. palestinian medics said the nasser and al-amal complexes have been cut off by shelling. and, at an israeli border crossing, hostage families demanded that humanitarian assistance be sent to the captives held in gaza. >> hundreds of humanitarian trucks come inside to gaza strip, and only for one side, only for the palestinians. there is no humanitarian steps for our hostages over there, there is no red cross visiting, there is no food. amna: also today, the israeli military said a mis-fired hamas rocket may have struck a u.n. shelter in khan younis on wednesday, killing 12 people. it ruled out an israeli air strike or artillery as the cause. in yemen, the leader of the houthi rebels vowed today they will go on targeting commercial shipping, until food and medicine gets to palestinians in gaza. abdel malek al-houthi insisted

that the rebels, backed by iran, will not be stopped by u.s. and british reprisals. ukraine is calling for an international investigation into the downing of a russian plane that killed all 74 people on board. the russians claim it was hit by a ukrainian missile and that 65 ukrainian prisoners were among the dead. today, moscow said the plane's flight recorders have been recovered from the crash site in western russia. in kyiv, president volodymyr zelenskyy said it will take outside investigators to get at the truth. pres. zelenskyy: the 700th day of this war -- a very difficult day. it is obvious that the russians are messing with the lives of ukrainian captives. all clear facts must be established to the extent possible, given that the aircraft crashed on russian territory. amna: ukraine has not confirmed shooting down the plane, but it has questioned whether any pow's were actually on board.

a russian court today sentenced darya trepova to 27 years in prison for a bombing that killed a pro-war blogger. trepova said she did not know a bomb was hidden in a gift she delivered to the victim in st. petersburg. her lawyers called the sentence cruel. a separate court gave russian nationalist igor girkin four years in jail for criticizing president putin's war strategy. the state of alabama prepared today to execute convicted killer kenneth smith with nitrogen gas, pending his final appeals. that method has never been used in the u.s. plans called for smith to be strapped to a gurney tonight and fed pure nitrogen, causing him to suffocate. the state says it's painless. but opponents call it cruel. a chapter in spaceflight history has closed tonight on mars. nasa says its ingenuity helicopter has flown its last flight because one of the rotor blades is bent. ingenuity made the first powered flights on another planet.

its original 30-day mission ended up lasting more than three years. japan's space agency confirmed today that its first lunar mission made a pin-point landing last week, but it's upside down. an image from a alr probe showed the rover toppled over because an engine lost thrust. that left its solar panels unable to generate power. scientists hope the sun's changing angle will fix the problem. and on wall street, stocks advanced on the upbeat news about economic growth at the end of last year. the dow jones industrial average gained 242 points to close at 38,049. the nasdaq rose 28 points. and the s&p 500 added 25. still to come on the "newshour," new abortion restrictions affect an estimated tens of thousands of rape victims. why the demand for lithium batteries could drain water resources. ohio becomes the latest state to restrict minors' access to gender-affirming care.

plus much more. >> 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: a standoff between federal border patrol and texas state officials is intensifying following a supreme court ruling in favor of the biden administration. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: earlier this week, the supreme court said u.s. border patrol agents could remove razor wire that the state put in place alonthe rio grande river. the homeland security department is demanding immediate access to a section of the border and -- being blocked by razor we and fencing. but texas governor greg abbott is doubling down, blocking the agents from entering the area and saying texas' constitutional authority is, quote, the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. joining me to discuss this

further is stephen vladeck, a professor at the university of texas school of law. thank you so much for joining. republican governor abbott is saying texas will hold the line and it is unclear when or if this razor wire is going to be removed. who ultimately has the authority over the border here? stephen: i think it is pretty clear under the constitution, under our precedents, that immigration policy is ultimately in the federal government's purview. but it is just as clear that governor abbott wants this confrontation and he is willing to take this battle all the way back to the supreme court before he is going to stand down. laura: and governor abbott is claiming he has this authority under the u.s. constitution because the federal government is not protecting tanks this -- protecting texas against a quote, invasion. is this a reasonable interpretation of the constitution? stephen: no. in two respects.

obviously an influx of asylum-seekers, how many we are talking about, is not an invasion. even if you are not persuaded by that, the clause governor abbott is relying on in the constitution was dealing with a specific scenario of the ability of states to respond to invasions until federal authorities were able to respond. this is a time in american history when the federal military was small, it was very spread out, it took weeks to travel, congress was usually out of session. there is no support in our history for the idea that states can decide for themselves that they are under invasion. and even if the federal government disagrees, that somehow it is the state's determination that would control. laura: recently three migrants drowned in the rio grande, in this section that border patrol agents have been trying to access. all of this comes as a number of republican governors say that they support and standby texas.

what are the larger implications of this standoff between texas and the federal government? stephen: we larger implications are pretty staggering. it is not just a specter of a physical confrontation between federal and texas officials along the border. it is also basically a relitigation of a debate that we had in american law for the first 70 years of this country about the ability of states to effectively nullify those federal laws that they disagreed with that they thought were unconstitutional. for better or for worse in our constitutional system, federal law supersedes state law. even when we don't like how the federal government is or is not enforcing those federal laws, the remedies for those disagreements are not to allow every state to go out on their own and have their own policies. the remedies, if you have a real problem with the policies, is to change the people who are making them. otherwise it is a federal system in name only. laura: governor abbott also claims the federal government has quote, broken the compact

with states. what do you think he means by that, and has states in the past use that language to justify defying the federal government? stephen: the compact theory of the constitution is a pretty outlier view, especially these days, about the way the constitution was formed. the basic premise is the constitutional system we have was formed by the states and therefore the states could control its terms. that was the argument on which the southern states predicated secession and helped precipitate the civil war. the reason why we don't hear much of it these days, again, i think there are a lot of folks who are going to have strong views about whether the biden administration is or is not doing what is best for the country at the border. but the way to air those disagreements is through the federal electoral process. in a world in which states can follow this version of the compact theory as a justification for interfering with federal authority, what is

to stop california to doing that to the next republican president? what is to stop vermont from doing that to the next republican president? then we are talking about a system in which the states have all the power and the federal government is basically impotent to do anything. laura: professor stephen vladeck of the university of texas, thank you for your time. stephen: thank you. amna: now to a view of this crisis from the top levels of the mexican government. a short time ago i spoke with mexico's secretary of foreign affairs, alicia barcena. just last week, she met with secretary of state antony blinken here in washington on this complex, political, but fundamentally human matter. since the holidays, there's been a drop in migrant encounters at the u.s. border, which the biden administration credits to more aggressive enforcement by mexico. i began by asking secretary barcena what mexico has done differently. sec. barcena: in the case of u.s. and mexico, it is no longer mexicans go to the u.s. that much. we are having much more people coming from guatemala,

venezuela. and we agreed that we were going to do some repatriation back to their countries of origin. that is the number one measure we have been doing and that has worked quite well. secondly is that we have done much more law enforcement to bring down the pressure in the border in the north. and we are bringing people from the north to the southern part of mexico. and from there, we are looking for, in some cases some migrants cannot be repatriated, such as haitians. so we help them to find some jobs in our own country. and the third one is we are focusing on the structural causes of migration, which means that we are going to these countries and we are providing some development packages to a certain way to incentivize them to stay back in their countries of origin. amna: i know in the past mexico has relied heavily on your armed

forces and on the national guard. there have been some studies that showed that reliance has led to a number of abuses. sexual abuse and extortion, particularly for women and migrants of african descent. i have to tell you from most of the migrants i have met, most say the most difficult part of the journey is coming through mexico because of that abuse. how is your government planning on stopping that? sec. barcena: you see, the thing is something that this is something we are very worried about. because precisely, we are trying to seek possibility of people staying in the southern part of mexico. because the travel is dangerous. i think the smugglers is a big issue not only for mexico. they start from panama. one of the things you're aiming at is to work together with the u.s., columbia, panama, and other countries to see if we can stop the human trafficking -- amna: if i may, what i have

heard from these migrants is that mexican officials and mexican authorities are the ones abusing and extorting them. sec. barcena: sometimes we have to stop them from going to the border. sometimes we have to realize these people are looking to go to the u.s. that is what they want. these people are basically illegal immigrants. we are in a certain way doing a lot of effort to accompany the guards, the military and the law enforcement officials, to be accompanied by human rights officials. we are working on that. and also to provide them with social services on their way and humanitarian. we have 52 shelters and we have 100 shelters for children that are unaccompanied or children on their own. so what we are working on is whenever a migrant comes in and transits in our country, if they

are unaccompanied children we send them to shelters immediately. the shelters for children and for families. and then of course, yes, many of them get very aggressive because we want them to go back. of course that becomes a problem. or when we want to repatriate them, that is another issue. amna: let me ask you how you are viewing the current immigration debate in the u.s. right now the man who could become the nominee for the republican party, former president donald trump, has talked about cracking down on immigration and on deporting more people. and the conversation right now is around tightening access and asylum restrictions. how do you view that conversation? how do mexicans view that conversation? sec. barcena: i have to tell you that i think we have to change the narrative because at the end of the day mexico and the u.s. our neighbors. our proximity is there. we're the first trading partner of the u.s. today. $163 billion a year, which is $2

million per minute. this is the trading between the u.s. and mexico. the major part of these exports to the u.s. are also u.s. components, by the way. we are talking about 40% of the exports of mexico are u.s. components that come in and out. so if the borders are closed, as happened in december, the damages not only for mexico but also for the u.s. so this is why we believe that we have to partner, the u.s. and mexico, agree on how we want to deal with migration, which is not coming from mexico that much, it is coming from the region, from the southern part of mexico. so of course i understand the narrative. it is a narrative that is very negative because also it is like the mexicans are the bad guys bringing and contaminating the blood of the americans. come on, give me a break. the mexican migrants in the u.s. are contributing to the economy big time.

they are providing $9 billion a year of taxes. and the salaries, only 20% of the salaries of the mexicans in the u.s. are coming to our country. we are talking about six to $5 billion. -- $65 billion. that means 80% is staying in the economy of the u.s. amna: if i may, let me ask you about the other aspects of this relationship. a senior official spoke with today stressed exactly that, that it is a multifaceted he u.s and mexico. he said in part it is based on security, economic, migration cooperation, also to combat trafficking and organized crime, and also what he called the scourge of fentanyl. on that point i need to ask you, because we know most of the precursors of fentanyl are produced in china, but mexico has become a major transit and production hub fueling the opioid crisis here in the u.s., where tens of thousands of people have died in the last year.

what more can your government do to adjust that? sec. barcena: what we are doing is we are controlling the coming in of the precursors of fentanyl from china. and we have a system that we are controlling, the entrance of these precursors, because many of these precursors of fentanyl are legal, by the way, because they are used for anesthetics. and the other thing is we have to work on the addiction. we don't have that much consumption of fentanyl in mexico. the fentanyl that goes into the u.s. is basically -- we have closed down laboratories. we are doing a lot of work in enforcing and supervision of the borders. amna: that is the mexican secretary of foreign affairs alicia barcena joining us tonight. madam secretary, thank you for your time. sec. barcena: thank you so much for the opportunity. great pleasure. ♪

amna: new research is showing just how much of an impact the overturning of roe v. wade has had on rape-related pregnancies. john yang has more. john: amna, polls show that about seven in 10 americans say abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest. but since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade in 2022, nine states have banned abortion even in those cases. five others have exceptions for rape, but only in the very early stages of pregnancy or after the assault is reported to law enforcement. in a new study published this week in the journal of the american medical association, researchers use government data on sexual violence to calculate that since the supreme court said states could regulate abortion however they want, there have been more than 64,000 rape-related pregnancies in jurisdictions with bans. they estimate that 26,000 of those were in texas alone.

dr. samuel dickman is one of the study's co-authors. he's an abortion provider and the chief medical officer for planned parenthood of montana. doctor, is there anything in what you found in your study that surprised you? dr. dickman: thank you, john. the numbers are just shocking. we know that sexual assault is common, or at least people who work in the reproductive health world know that it is common. but seeing the scale of this problem, i mean, it was honestly horrifying when we conducted this study. john: you say in your report, or at least i take it you are saying this could actually be an undercount. dr. dickman: well, studying sexual assault and rape is notoriously challenging because it is such a stigmatized life event. so, some people will never report they were sexually assaulted, even on an anonymous survey. that would cause our estimates to be too low. on the other hand, there are

other signs we have to take in a modeling study that might bias the estimates to be too high. so we think we use the best available data using published peer-reviewed research, but of course these are just estimates. john: why did you undertake the study? dr. dickman: well, i have been an abortion provider for years, and i have taken care of far too many patients who have come to me and told me that their pregnancy was the result of rape. and when i talk to my friends and colleagues around the country who work in abortion care and reproductive health, they told me the same thing. our study was an attempt to try and figure out, how come, and is that case where someone becomes pregnant as a result of rape. john: as we mentioned there are five states that you have exceptions for rape, but under very tight restrictions. given those restrictions, how meaningful are those exceptions? dr. dickman: those exceptions provide no meaningful abortion

care for survivors of rape and sexuak assault. full stop. in states like idaho, that supposedly have exceptions for rape, but we know that because of the extremely burdensome criteria for obtaining an abortion, not just on the survivor but on the medical provider, that providers are essentially telling those survivors of rape that they need to travel out of state or find somewhere else to go,, or continue a pregnancy that was a result of sexual violence. john: there is no way of telling because these are estimates, but from your experience, what are these women doing who are pregnant because of rape and unable to get an abortion where they live? dr. dickman: well, i have taken care of patients who have driven hours with their family members from idaho, who have flown from

texas, because they were not able to obtain abortions in those states. so, i think some are able to make that incredibly challenging trip to travel out of state. but when i think about the patients i took care of in san antonio when i worked there for years in south texas, in order for them to get out of state they would have to drive 10 hours each way. they would have to find childcare. i mean, that is difficult for anybody, but imagine the patient who is in an unsafe, abusive relationship, where she does not have control over anything in her life, even her own body. i mean, it is just so hard to imagine her getting out of state to obtain an abortion. and that means that many survivors will end up having to continue a pregnancy. john: you mentioned you use to practice in southern texas. you moved to montana just before the court overturned roe v.

wade. why did you move? dr. dickman: you know, i trained for many years to become a physician and an abortion provider. it's an absolute privilege to be able to provide those services to patients. my family and i knew that i would not be able to do that after the dobbs decision was made. it was very clear that texas was going to ban all abortions. so, it was a very difficult decision. john: dr. samuel dickman, chief medical officer for planned parenthood of montana. thank you very much. dr. dickman: thank you, john. ♪ amna: the push towards a green, battery-powered future comes with a major tradeoff.

more mining for lithium in the u.s. will stress a vital resource -- water. this story comes to us from the howard center for investigative journalism at arizona state university. caitlin thompson has more. caitlin: in the dry, desert landscape of central nevada, nyle pennington is checking groundwater levels outside america's only active lithium mine. >> the water goes in through the hole in the bottom, and when it just kisses that, then you read the tape. that's how it's done. caitlin: pennington is a longtime water scientist, who works for a neva water authority. >> and since we're here, i'm going to give it the old nyle pennington test. caitlin: he drops a rock into a water monitoring station. >> bone dry. if that would have had water in it you would have heard a pronounced loud splash. caitlin: this well typically

held 30 feet of water. for pennington, the hollow sound is a warning bell about the impact from lithium mining. the mine here needs billions of gallons of water every year, taking it from underground aquifers. the mine's owner denies it is impacting freshwater aquifers, but pennington says the evidence he found shows otherwise. >> they're overdrafting down there and it dried this well out. caitlin: not far away, esmeralda county commissioner de winsor is also seeing a disturbing pattern. >> these out here have opened up a lot more since i've been around in just the last few years. caitlin: fissures and sinkholes have formed across the valley. >> this one here has been opened up for quite a few years. it's getting wider all the time. caitlin: winsor suspects lithium mining's thirst for water is altering the landscape. >> a lady fell in there one year, her and her dogs. caitlin: pennington and winsor are frontline observers of a new

mining rush for lithium. the mineral is critical for batteries that power everything from electric vehicles, to power tools. for now, china controls much of america's supply. pres. biden: and for some battery components and critical materials, china controls nearly half the global production. but china's battery technology is not more innovative than anyone else's. caitlin: the biden administration is pushing for home-grown lithium production, for national security and green energy. pres. biden: anyone want to jump in the back? caitlin: research by the howard center found opening new domestic mines will require billions of gallons of water. the majority of new mines are proposed for the arid american west, in areas prone to chronic droughts. we found large-scale lithium production could soon stress water supplies in many states. it's already happening in nevada at silver peak, the country's

only active lithium mine, operating since 1966. it's where nyle pennington has documented falling groundwater levels. like at this well that he says provided water for cattle. >> my static water level was at 70 feet. and it didn't take any time at all. i mean, they dried this well out in the course of a year. caitlin: the silver peak mine is owned by albemarle. the american company is the world's largest producer of lithium, mainly from mines overseas. silver peak is albemarle's first u.s. mine. we told albemarle we wanted to ask about how the water authority identified groundwater wells running dry, and how it believes the silver peak mine is playing a part. the company provided the mine's operations manager, scott thibodeaux, who spoke to howard center reporter jordan gerard.

>> those reports blames lithium mining for, quote, de-watering clayton valley. >> i'm not familiar with the particulars. i don't know that i can comment on that. caitlin: albemarle is permitted by the state for its water use. and government records show in 2020, silver peak pumped more than four billion gallons of salty, lithium-rich groundwater. plus, hundreds of millions of gallons of fresh water to extract lithium. and since then, its water usage has only grown. the central nevada regional water authority says all the pumping is making the groundwater dry up. its 2022 annual report says the drying of one monitoring well is due exclusively to de-watering throughout clayton valley for lithium mining purposes. >> i think that the alarm bells have been rung. caitlin: jeff fontaine is the executive director for the central nevada regional water authority. >> i think there are a lot of people concerned about what's happening in clayton valley.

but i don't know that there's agreement on what needs to be done. coming. across the nation, we found more than 70 proposals already in the exploration or permitting phase. the projects span nine states, from california to north carolina. just in nevada, 28 lithium mines are trying to come online within 50 miles of the silver peak mine. a potential economic boon for nevada. >> whether it's closing the lithium loop, unlocking innovation and investments in logistics, the message is that nevada is ready to partner. caitlin: the howard center found most of nevada's proposed projects will rely on groundwater from basins that are already stressed. >> we see this as one of the greatest economic opportunities of our lifetime. and we want california to dominate in this space. caitlin: california governor gavin newsom is one of lithium's biggest cheerleaders. >> and that's the opportunity

here. this is it, the holy grail. caitlin: here in the salton sea, carbon dioxide bubbles announce chemical reactions deep below ground. the superheated liquid contains lithium from one of the biggest deposits in the world. planned extraction will require access to large amounts of fresh water from the colorado river. its water supply is already stressed and suffering the impact of chronic drought, leaving states, native american tribes, and industry fighting to access what's left. >> there probably will be a lot of tension. there already is. caitlin: in january 2023, jim turner, president of controlled thermal resources, spoke to the "newshour" about his lithium mining project. >> we will take that lithium hydroxide and we will crystallize it with a certain type of equipment. and we will get little crystals. caitlin: months later, the company disclosed just how much

colorado river water the project plans to take when it opens next year. almost two billion gallons of fresh water a year. or nearly 100 billion gallons over the mine's life. in a recent interview with the howard center, turner broke the numbers down. >> when you put it in terms of gallons, it does sound like a lot of water, and it is a lot of water. caitlin: turner says his company is considering alternative water sources. he wants to use water left over from farming and ranching, which take the lion's share of water from the colorado river. >> we're doing a lot of work on, can we take drain water, for example, after it's gone through the agricultural world out here, can we use that water with some cleanup effort in our process? caitlin: the howard center found the combined water needs of lithium mining in california could force neighboring states upriver like nevada and arizona to reduce water consumption in a future drought. arizona congressman ral grijalva supports lithium mining but says

the 19th century law governing mining was written in an era when lawmakers didn't think about the impact on water supplies. >> we're working with the regulatory framework based on 1872, a 150-year-old federal law that basically is permissive to the point of giving the mining industry almost unfettered right to utilize whatever water resources needed to extract. caitlin: there are no federal laws governing how much water a mine can consume. grijalva is sponsoring new legislation to modernize the law. so far it has support only from fellow democrats. >> i think it's critical to create a balance in order for us to be able to do this correctly. dealing with the crisis of climate does not mean that we create another environmental crisis by using water now that is becoming more and more precious every day.

caitlin: back in silver peak, albemarle is sticking to plans first announced in 2021 to increase pumping to 6.5 billion gallons of salty, lithium-rich water a year, right as more mines continue the push to come online. for the "pbs newshour," i'm caitlin thompson, at the howard center for investigative journalism at arizona state university in phoenix. ♪ amna: ohio is the latest state to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and limit trans athletes' participation in school sports. a total of 23 states have passed trans healthcare bans, with 20 approved just in the past year. stephanie sy has more. stephanie: amna, ohio governor mike dewine had blocked this bill late last month, saying parents and doctors should make decisions around

gender-affirming care, not the state. but yesterday, the ohio senate overrode the governor's veto. the new law bans gender-affirming surgeries, new prescriptions for puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and restricts mental healthcare for trans minors without a parent's or guardian's consent. doctors who provide care in violation of the law can lose their medical license. it also bans trans women and girls from playing on women's sports teams in high schools and colleges. orion rummler covers all this for the 19th news. and joins us now. what kind of impact will this law have on transgender youth and and transgender athletes? orion: thank you so much. this law, which is important to remember it will not go into effect until late april, like you said, would prevent trans youth from accessing medication such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy as part of their

gender affirming care. there are also other restrictions at play in ohio right now that governor dewine put into place whenever he vetoed this ban. he made a couple of administrative proposals. those restrictions that dewine brought would affect adults as well as men -- as well as minors. stephanie: we spoke to someone from transohio earlier. here's what they said about the effect the law is already having on ohio families. >> we're in the process of essentially starting refugee enclaves in half a dozen states of people who used to want to be in ohio. i mean, many of them still do. you know, these are people who've lived here their whole lives. they have extended family connections, businesses, jobs, everything that you would expect for people who live somewhere. and they're in the process of deciding to uproot themselves or what they do. stephanie: so they are saying people may just leave ohio.

but with nearly two dozen states enacting similar bans on gender-affirming care for minors, where do these families with transgender kids go? orion: that is a good question. as more states ban this care, there are not many options for them to go. if you look at a map of which the 22, now 23 states have put in place a gender affirming care ban, it is basically the entire south, and then in ohio we are seeing more into the midwest. so, not many families have the ability to just pick up and leave. the ones i have spoken to in other states, when they are able to move and decide to do so, it is usually quite a distance. like, cross-country, as far as they can get. stephanie: i want to play what a republican senator who supported the ohio bill said. >> we're not outlawing all trans in the state of ohio. we're just asking you to wait till you're 18, wait till you have the ability to make the

decision with your un-mature mind. to give that a break. stephanie: the backers of the ban say they're trying to keep children safe from medical experimentation, that is what they call it, citing risks for example with puberty blockers. where does the evidence stand right now on what is best for these children, mentally and physically? orion: so, whenever a child is going through with gender affirming care, it already involves elements such as a mental health screening. it already involves being told of what the consequences are with the child and the parents involved and going through a process of, these are all the irreversible changes, these are the reversible changes, here what you can expect down the line. so, all of that is already a part of the process. and gender affirming care has been approved by several major

medical organizations who say this care is safe. the way that republicans frame this care, it is framed in a way that they are just given this care without any context of what they can expect and what the side effects are, and that is just not true. that is always the discussion when you are receiving this kind of care. stephanie: you have covered ways of how other states are targeting trans people. what are you watching for in the year ahead? orion: i am watching for more states to be focused on restrictions on trans adults beyond gender affirming care. right now at least 10 states are trying to change how they define sex in their state law, based on reproductive ability, in ways that would prevent trans people from being able to access identity documents such as their driver's license, from being able to access public restrooms, and even in florida, from

holding public office. this would also exclude transgender women who have certain health conditions, and advocates are really concerned about these bills. that is one thing i am watching in the new year. stephanie: orion rummler with the 19th news. thank you. orion: thank you so much, stephanie. ♪ amna: after serving prison time for forgery, credit card abuse, and burglary, saulpaul turned to music to change the direction of his life, and help young people avoid his path. the three-time grammy-nominated performer calls himself the musician with a message. our student reporting labs team caught up with him during their winter academy in austin, texas for our arts and culture series, "canvas." ♪

saulpaul: if young me saw me now , young me would be very proud. he would have his mind blown. i grew up in the ghetto. as a young adult 20 years old, i was sent to prison. as i sat in prison i realized it was not because my mom died when i was three. i was not in prison because my dad left. i was not in prison because i was black. i was not in prison because of poverty. i was in prison because of my choices. that is what empowered me. if i am in prison because of my choices, through my choices i can also dictate my success. prison is terrible. definitely punishment, not rehabilitation. prison, to me, was rock-bottom, and inspired me to become who i am now. my name comes from the apostle paul. before his name was paul his name was saul. he wans't the best person and that he had a life

transformation, and i could relate to that because it was my experience. i chose to be the change because someone chose to be the change in my life, and that was my grandmother. she adopted me and raised me as her own. she is no longer here but i am her legacy. she is my "why." i like to create movement. my first movement was called tower to tower. it was how i transitioned and one from prison incarceration to college graduation. i was like, this is not working. everybody is just like, i am great. i need people to realize they are great. i came up with another project, be the change. i think this is big enough that everybody can be part of it. yet it is unique to every individual. what is one way you can give back, be kind, or be the change? last fall when i went on the be the change tour and visited 100 schools in 100 cities in 32 states and saw 125,000 students.

they've done sports clinics. we have had singers, mentor, tutor, elementary schools. there is this other group of young people, they basically wrote notes of encouragement to victims of the wildfire in hawaii. i think one reason i am able to connect with young people is because i speak to young people the way that i wish someone would have spoken to me. when you give back, not only do you get the benefit of helping others, it just works. i am saulpaul, physician with a message. i entertain, i inspire, i empower, i equip others with a purpose and to be the change in their neighborhoods, their communities, in their cities, and on this planet. ♪

amna: choosing to be the change. what a great message. and that is the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining 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 the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure, and british style. all with cunard's white star

service. >> 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

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. kyiv's wartime crisis just got worse, as russia says its plane returning 65 ukrainian p.o.w.s crashed, killing all onboard. a report from the field, where the country's need for military aid is urgent. then -- >> immigration's a big deal. big deal. very big deal. we have millions and millions of people flowing into our country illegally. >> winning in new hampshire, trump doubles down on his signature message. i'll ask a front line mayor in texas, republican javier