wow, you get to watch all your favore stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ william: good evening. i'm william brangham. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on the "newshour" tonight, defense secretary lloyd austin holds his first press conference since his cancer treatment and the killing of american troops in jordan.

a look at swatting, the phenomenon of targeting someone's home by calling in fake reports that trigger a police response. and a former russian politician is forced to flee after publicly denouncing the war in ukraine. >> whatever power i have, i will use it to stop this. because all politics right now in russia are focused on justification. i don't see anything that can be justified. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> 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. william: welcome to the "newshour." defense secretary lloyd austin offered a full apology today for failing to disclose his battle with prostate cancer.

the military's second-in-command kept president biden in the dark when he was initially diagnosed in december, and during subsequent hospitalizations. that prompted new federal guidelines and triggered a political firestorm. at the pentagon today, austin -- who is 70 years old -- was visibly limping as he made his way to the podium for his first press conference since the scandal broke. sec. austin: i'm recovering well, but as you can see, i'm still recovering. i wanna be crystal clear -- we did not handle this right, and i did not handle this right. i should've told the president about my cancer diagnosis, i should have also told my team and the american public. and i take full responsibility. william: the reviews of the department's notification protocols are still ongoing. our own nick schifrin was there at the pentagon today, and joins me now. there is this long gap of almost

a month between the diagnosis and austin finding out about it and him telling the president. how did he explain that? nick: he called his cancer diagnosis a gut punch and he said his instinct was to remain private. but as you point out, it was nearly one month between the time he got his diagnosis, he had his surgery, and he had his complications which required a second hospitalization and only after it became public did he tell the president. i asked him today what was he thinking and this was his response. sec. austin: when you are the president you have a lot on your plate. putting my personal issue, adding to all the things he has on his plate, i just did not feel i should do at the time. but again, i recognize that that was a mistake and i should have done that differently. nick: austin said he never directed staff to withhold the fact he was back in the hospital on january 1, and claimed there was no gap in any authorities inside the department of defense.

but there are still questions, especially the night of january 1 when he went back into the hospital. he was taken there in an ambulance and an aide told the dispatcher to arrive without any sirens. as for informing the public, he acknowledged today he missed a public opportunity to tell men, especially his age, that they should be screened for prostate cancer. because the fact is the screening caught his prostate cancer in good enough time for his prognosis to be excellent. one in eight american men will get prostate cancer. one in six black american men will get it. william: tt scandal is happening amidst the u.s. trying to figure out how to respond to the killing of the u.s. soldiers in jordan over the weekend. what did austin have to say about that? nick: austin called this moment in the middle east a dangerous one and he reiterated that whatever u.s. military response to the attack that killed three u.s. soldiers over the weekend, that military response would not be one and done but instead what he called multi tiered.

sec. austin: i don't think the adversaries are of a one and done mindset. and so they have a lot of capability. i have a lot more. nick: president biden has already decided amongst the targets that include iranian backed proxy forces in iraq and syria, as well as targets inside iran itself. i asked austin if iran's operational role in the attack this weekend would be important when the u.s. administration was deciding how to respond to the attack. he said, quote, "it does not really matter because iran sponsors, funds, and trains these proxy groups in iraq and syria." the question now is how the administration will punish iran itself or just its proxies after 160 attacks on u.s. forces in the last three months. william: nick schifrin, thank you so much. nick: thank you. ♪

stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with "newshour west." here are the latest headlines -- president biden issued an executive order targeting israeli settlers in the west bank who have been accused of attacking palestinians. the move imposes financial sanctions and visa bans on four individuals who have directly engaged in such violence in the occupied territory. the order comes amid growing criticism from democrats over the humanitarian toll of israel's military campaign in gaza. meanwhile, gaza's health ministry says the death toll across that region has now surpassed 27,000 people. that's in addition to more than 66,000 injured by israel's attacks. in the south of gaza, israeli forces have flattened entire neighborhoods in khan younis. thousands have been forced to flee to nearby rafah -- packed into encampments, and living in unsanitary conditions.

the european union voted unanimously today to provide ukraine with $54 billion in aid. it will be used to strengthen the country's economy and sustain essential services. the deal was announced within the first hour of the eu's summit in brussels, after hungary dropped its veto threat. the european commission president was hopeful the u.s. would follow their lead. pres. von der leyen: i think we have proven today by these 50 billion euros that we stand by ukraine, and i think it will be an encouragement to the united states also to do their fair share. we all know that ukraine is fighting for us, so we will support them with the necessary funding and provide them with the much needed predictability they deserve. stephanie: meanwhile in washington, senate majority leader chuck schumer said the text of a bipartisan bill to provide more aid to ukraine and israel, and to strengthen border security will be released as early as tomorrow.

and he expects the senate will take its first vote on the package no later than wednesday. european farmers ramped up their protests by descending on today's eu summit in brussels. hundreds of tractors converged in the belgian capital to raise awareness of their financial hardships. protesters set bonfires, clashed with police, and threw eggs at the parliament building. tijs: most of us are going to go back to their farms, back to milk their cows, but i think the day was a very great success. we have been able to really point at the economic aspect of our struggle. it's not just the environmental measures, it's rather the pressure which is on the backs of farmers. stephanie: back in this country, heavy downpours inundated southern and eastern california today. it was the first of two back-to-back "atmospheric rivers" expected to hit the west coast. in long beach, traffic othe pacific coast highway sloshed through floodwaters. some cars were stranded in the deluge.

forecasters warn the second storm, arriving sunday, will be even more powerful. the rainbow push coalition has a new president and ceo. reverend frederick d. haynes the third was formally installed at a ceremony tonight in dallas. he succeeds reverend jesse jackson, who founded the civil rights group over 50 years ago. haynes received the presidential lifetime achievement award for community service in 2022. still to come on the "newshour" -- the political battle over the affordable care act threatens health coverage for millions. ties between republican politicians and christian nationalists raise concern about threats to democracy. a licensing dispute mutes content from major pop stars on tiktok. oscar nominated actor lily gladstone talks about her history making performance in "killers of the flower moon," and 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. william: the number of americans getting health insurance through the affordable care act has a hit a record high, with more than 21 million people signed up through the marketplaces. but, as it has in the past, this law, often referred to as obamacare, is becoming an election issue. in a moment, i'll have a conversation about what's at stake. but first, let's hear from people who currently get their insurance through this law. >> having access to aca as an entrepreneur has been everything. i don't know what i would do if i didn't have access to it. how would i -- how would i go to those annual visits for my specialists just to make sure that i'm okay? and how would i be able to do it at an affordable price? you know, i'm 2.5 years into being a full time entrepreneur.

i'm not making a lot of money. and so, i mean, it's scary to think about stipends going away because those stipends, even when i worked at a full time company, in 2017, they were everything. they were so helpful. >> i definitely need aca. you know, financially, it's a great resource for me. and with the, you know, the diabetes it's a tough thing. so it helps me through that. and if that wasn't an option, if it would be difficult for me. it's pretty much this or no insurance or, you know, returning to the workforce, which kind of isn't an option for me right now. >> we decided we needed to sign up because my husband was laid off from his job, where we get employee provided insurance, and we did not want to risk having several months without insurance. the affordable care act, while it's giving me health insurance and it's giving me a tax credit for my family, so it's more

affordable, it's not nearly as good as i would like it to be. i do have lots of fears in the coming, the coming year or several years as we are looking at a presidential election and other situations that are gonna occur in our house and senate and how that can impact the affordable care act. i am fearful that if this program goes away, i don't know that we can come up with a better solution. while this isn't perfect, it makes life a little less stressful for those of us with chronic illnesses. william: the biden administration and congress have provided increasing subsidies to help people like those we just heard from buy this insurance, and worked to increase those enrollment numbers. but on the campaign trail, former president trump has said, once again, he would try to replace the law if elected. for more on all this, i spoke earlier with sabrina corlette, founder and co-director of the center on health insurance reforms at georgetown university's mccourt school of

public policy. sabrina, welcome back to the "newshour." five million more people are on the affordable care act's health insurance policies than they were a year ago. what is driving that surge? sabrina: well, a few things. number one, the biden administration has made big investments, first of all, to enhance the premium tax credits that are available to help people buy the coverage. the second thing they've done is increase funding for outreach and consumer assistance so that more people are aware that the subsidies are available. and then once they go to sign up they are helped along the process as they fill out the applications. the third thing that's going on is the states are starting to what we call unwind medicaid enrollment. so, during the covid-19 pandemic, congress required states to keep people on medicaid for about three years.

now, states are starting to go through the medicaid renewal processes and folks who are no longer eligible for medicaid because their income is a little bit too high, are now eligible for the marketplace plans. william: i see. so the subsidies that people are offered to help buy that insurance, that doesn't last forever. people's premiums do eventually start to creep back up. sabrina: well, it depends on your income. so the way obamacare works is the amount you pay in premium is capped based on your income level. so the lower your income, the less you pay in premiums. if your income goes up, then the amount you are expected to pay and premium will go up. william: i see. i mentioned how this is likely going to be an issue in the presidential race. can you just remind us, how pivotal will the 2024 election be with regards to this law? sabrina: well, we have one presidential candidate most likely who has pledged to build

on and improve the affordable care act. that's president biden. and then we have another potential president candidate in trump, who has pledged to repeal it. so it's not clear what he would do if he were successful in that effort, and obviously we don't know what congress will look like if he's elected. but i do think that should a repeal effort be successful, we're looking at a lot of people who could very abruptly lose their health insurance coverage. william: i wonder if you think that the political salience of attacking the affordable care act is as potent as it made -- might have been a decade or so ago. i mean, it seems like the more people you get onto the program, the more sort of individual champions you have for it. sabrina: right. when trump came into office in 2017, there were about 12 million people enrolled in the marketplaces.

now we have 21 million people who've signed up. william: that is a lot more voters. sabrina: it is a lot more people. and i also think that we've had this law in place for over 10 years now. it's just part of the fabric of our health care system. so it's hard to imagine what -- how provider systems would work without obamacare. how coverage would work without obamacare. it's really just become sort of intertwined, and sort of part of the fabric of of healthcare in the u.s. william: i mean, that's one of the criticisms that people who criticized the affordable care act at the beginning was they always said if you allow this to start and people start to enroll, they will like it and then it's impossible to -- it's like a dragon that you can't kill once it is birthed and out in the world. sabrina: yeah, the coverage is not perfect. sometimes there are difficulties accessing certain providers, but it provides really meaningful

financial protection if you get sick. it provides free access to preventive care and access to really critical primary care. so particularly if you have any kind of pre-existing condition, you know, diabetes or a heart issue, the law is really sort of essential to your ability to interact with the health care system. william: do we know how much -- one of the criticisms of all of this that the conservatives will make about these subsidies in particular is that they're too costly for the quality of care that people are getting. is there any way to do a cost-benefit analysis to know that we are as a government spending this much, yielding this much benefit? sabrina: you know, it's funny. i think there's this common misperception that people who have employer-based coverage are not subsidized by the federal government. in fact, employer-based insurance is the most heavily subsidized coverage that we've got. it's just a different form.

so with the affordable care act, we have premium tax credits. with employer based coverage it's a tax exclusion. but either way, the federal government is subsidizing essentially all of us who have any kind of insurance. william: sabrina corlett of georgetown university. thank you so much for being here. sabrina: my pleasure. ♪ william: in russia today, it is rare to find someone willing to publicly criticize russia's full-scale invasion of ukraine, which is now nearing its third year. but it's even rarer for that criticism to come from an elected official. nick schifrin spoke with one russian politician who decided to take a stand. nick: the day sir day -- sergei

decided his countrwas no longer his home he traveled for four days through the snow past the graffiti cursing the man he calls a monster to remove the blindfold he says russians place over their own eyes. >> all sane people can see what is happening right now. after world war ii this is the largest ever war. a war where much has been sacrificed. it is probably half a million deaths by now. what is happening is awful. nick: he is not an activist. he was a local lawmaker in central russia and a member of the pro-government communist party. but he says he can no longer sit in the same government waging war in ukraine. sergei: whatever power i have i will use it to stop this because all politics right now in russia are focused on justifications. i don't see anything that can be justified. kharkiv. the bombing of odessa.

i saw how cities were transformed into ruins, how they bombed theaters and children's day cares. i saw this was my own eyes. i have internet access as does every russian. whoever wants to see, sees. nick: on december 31, he posted unrestrained criticism of president vladimir putin. >> may the creature who unleashed this bloody massacre die. to see maddened people come to your senses. russia, wake up. they are killing you. i want to see russia free from putin's shackles. nick: your post on december 31 went viral. why do you think it went viral? sergei: people saw that they are not alone because in russia you cannot speak freely about this. even though it was criticism i reached the masses. there were a lot of thanks. by the way there were more thanks than criticisms. nick: but he knew he had to flee. he did not feel safe using his credit card so he left his home

using a carpooling app. he then carpooled until he crossed the kazakhstan border on foot and hitchhiked. he bought a train ticket and flew first to a small city and then georgia. sergei: i was very nervous and worried. i am not afraid to go to jail. i understood this could happen but in principle i did not want it. nick: today's russia punishes any and all criticism. 20,000 have been detained for protesting the war. in november, another man was sentenced to seven years for replacing supermarket price tags with critiques of the war. including "russian forces have destroyed over 20 medical centers in ukraine." it was putin himself who

launched a new wave of internal repression. pres. putin: the russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and spit them out like a fly. i am convinced that such a natural and necessary cleansing of society will only strengthen our country. nick: for his sins, he was kicked out of the communist party and the local parliament threw him out. the vote was 33-0. what is the current state of politics and freedom of speech in russia? sergei: you cannot speak freely at all. everyone must speak for the war. anyone who speaks out against will be repressed one way or another. the regime worked the way it is supposed to work. what is really going on? corruption, theft. everyone who is close to parliament are thieves and corrupt. nick: he believes russian society even goes beyond britain's most famous critic of authoritarianism.

sergei: i think george orwell himself could not have imagined that war would be renamed with an acronym. he wrote about war and called war, war. but in our country they cannot even call a war a war. it was called a special military operation, and even the word war itself was banned. nick: what would happen to you if you return to the russian federation? sergei: probably i would have been arrested like all the people who opposed putin and the current war. the war has changed people in russia. people are screaming slogans that even a decade ago they would have been afraid to express. people send their sons and husbands to war and think this is good. nick: it is a motherland that he no longer recognizes. he has lost his home and job but not his sense of purpose. he will keep urging russians to recognize reality, as orwell

said, to see what is front of one's nose needs constant struggle. for the pbs newshour, nick schifrin. ♪ william: imagine you're spending a quiet evening at home with your family when out of nowhere, dozens of heavily-armed police officers are outside your door, responding to a threat of violence that's not real. it's a phenomenon called swatting. lisa desjardins reports on this growing problem. lisa: in recent weeks we've seen many high-profile targets of these hoax 911 calls. among them, republican presidential candidate nikki haley, twice. special counsel jack smith and judge tanya chutkan, who are overseeing the trump federal investigation and trial. maine secretary of state shenna bellows, who disqualified trump from the ballot. and nearly three dozen members of congress since christmas,

according to one report, and that includes house majority whip tom emmer, representatives shontel brown and marjorie taylor greene, and senator rick scott. today, house minority leader hakeem jeffries responded to the recent wave of threats. mr. jeffries: members of congress should be able to serve free of violence, harassment, and intimidation on both sides of the aisle. so we can do what the american people sent us to washington to do, which is solve problems and deliver real results. lisa: just this week, the house sergeant at arms sent a letter to members' families about their security, advising them to stay in touch with local law enforcement. to help explain swatting and what can be done to stop it, i'm joined by lauren shapiro, a professor at john jay college of criminal justice and author of "cyber predators and their prey." what is swatting and how fast is

it growing? lauren: swatting simply means calling 911 to report false kidnapping or other crimes to get a police response. in terms of the degree to which swatting is growing, it is more that people are reporting it in the news is reporting it rather that there is an increase. think people are becoming more aware of it. lisa: in the past things like pulling a fire alarm or calling in a bomb threat especially at schools have been seen more of a nuisance than a direct harm. can you help us understand with swatting, what is the direct harm we are seeing? lauren: first of all, you are taking the police and other

first responders from -- you are also wasting a lot of resources from any particular community in terms of money they need to have equipment be used, pay salaries. so there is a very negative effect on the community and on society in general as well as for the victim who is being harassed by the swatting. lisa: in cases like this these are police sometimes fully armed with weapons, sometimes throwing innocent victims down on the floor. there have only been two cases of death associated with this, which is remarkable. one reason it has been in the headlines now i think is politicians are increasingly targeted, including presidential candidate nikki haley. here is what she said this week on meet the press. ms. haley: the last thing you want is to see multiple law enforcement officials with guns drawn, pointing at my parents, and thinking something happened.

it is an awful situation. it puts the law enforcement officers in danger. it put my family in danger. and it was not a safe situation. lisa: can you help us understand the motive here? to what degree is there more political targeting? is this just a despicable sport for some young people? lauren: i think you are on the mark there. people who do not agree with anybody on the news or making a statement on the internet becomes a target. it is not just politicians , it can be anybody. it can be a celebrity. currently there is this atmosphere of hostility. i think there is permission given in some way to go ahead and harass these other people. lisa: you don't necessarily call this a crime. why is this not a crime everywhere right now?

lauren: this is just not at the federal level considered to be a crime. there is no law that is associated with it. and so in order to prosecute these incidents what you have to do is match the elements of a particular law that is actually happening. it's like a puzzle piece trying to prosecute the offender. lisa: that is wild. as much as we are talking about this now and seeing more prominent examples, this has been going on for well more than a decade and growing. another issue of course is what do you do about it? we showed that letter from the house sergeant from family members and members of congress. but that letter does not say much specifically that they should do. what can police and family members do and what are they doing? lauren: currently the fbi has a national database and they are trying to gather across the country information about swatting.

what actually happened, the number of crimes that occurred. but it is asking people from multiple jurisdictions who contribute to it without being a -- to contribute to it. without it being a law, we also cannot get money to train 911 operators. we don't have enough funding to help train law enforcement to deal with these kind of situations. lisa: lauren shapiro, thank you so much. lauren: thank you very much for having me. ♪ william: the phrase "white christian nationalism" has been in the headlines quite a bit recently, but what does it really mean? laura barron lopez recently spoke to one expert to better understand the concept, and its reach in american society. laura: brad onishi is a former evangelical minister who once identified as a christian nationalist himself.

he left the church in 2005 and began studying religion from the outside, including extremism. he now hosts the popular podcast "straight white american jesus," and is the author of "preparing for war: the extremist history of white christian nationalism and what comes next." i began by asking him what that term actually means. brad: christian nationalism is an ideology that is based around the idea that this is a christian nation. that this was founded as a christian nation, and therefore it should be a christian nation today and should be so in the future. according to survey data, christian nationalists agree with statements like the federal government should declare the united states of america a christian nation. our laws should be based on christian values. being a christian is important if you want to be a real american. laura: onishi tracks a number of sub-groups and ideas under the umbrella of white christian nationalism, including what's known as the new apostolic reformation.

brad: well, the new apostolic reformation is notable for a number of reasons. one, it's built around the idea that christians are called to a new transformation or reformation of the united states. these are christians who want to revolutionize the way that our country looks, and to make it great again in terms of being a christian nation. they also are deeply invested in the notion of spiritual warfare, the idea that we are called as christians to fight a cosmic battle between good and evil, and that it's our duty to be boots on the ground for god in that conflict. what this has led to some decades later, is the new apostolic reformation leaders, the apostles and the prophets that are really at the head of this movement, were some of the earliest to support donald trump in 2016, and they've remained steadfast in that support. they were at the very avant

garde of trying to get the 2020 election overturned in the wake of joe biden's victory and mobilizing folks to be at january 6. there were hundreds, if not thousands of new apostolic reformation christians at january 6 as an example. laura: we know that two thirds of white evangelicals sympathize or adhere to white christian nationalist beliefs. so where do they fall within this larger movement? brad: i think white evangelicals are the group we think of when we think of white christian nationalism, and for good reason. these are folks who, when we think about the iowa caucuses -- in 2016, trump's white evangelical voters were about 20% of his share of voters in that cycle. just a few weeks ago, in 2024, that grew to well over 50%. white evangelicals remain committed to the maga movement and one of the key indicators of why is christian nationalism. laura: are there leaders across these subgroups of white christian nationalism that are tied to the former president

directly or to his larger network? brad: yes. for example, a group of new apostolic reformation leaders, apostles, and prophets and others, were present at the white house a week before january 6. speaker mike johnson has direct ties to the new apostolic reformation. speaker mike johnson is somebody who's sought the counsel and the friendship of timothy carscadden, who is a new apostolic reformation pastor from his home district, in shreveport, louisiana. timothy carscadden is a close associate with dutch sheets. dutch sheets is perhaps the most ardent trump supporter in the new apostolic reformation. he's the one who may have done the most of any christian leader in the united states to mobilize folks to try to overturn the 2020 election and to make sure to attend january 6. one of the most frightening things i think about mike johnson is the flag he hangs outside of his office. an appeal to heaven flag. the appeal to heaven flag goes back to the revolutionary war. it was inspired by john locke.

but over the last 10 years, the appeal to heaven flag has been popularized by dutch sheets. dutch sheets sees the appeal to heaven flag as a symbol of christian revolution. if you look closely at january 6, you will see dozens of appeal to heaven flags. it may have a long history, but in the contemporary context, it has a very specific meaning. so the fact that mike johnson has it hanging outside of his office, to me, signifies how he understands his role as speaker of the house in terms of being a christian and being an american. laura: in a statement to the "newshour," a spokesperson for johnson's office said, quote, the speaker has long appreciated the rich history of the flag, any implication that the speaker's use of the flag is connected to the events of january 6 is wildly inaccurate. but onishi says the concerning links go beyond the conservative politicians themselves. last month, lance wallnau, a key new apostolic reformation figure, announced he was partnering with charlie kirk, the influential right wing activist who leads turning-point

usa. brad: they're going to be visiting and focusing on swing states, wisconsin, arizona, pennsylvania. they claim they've already signed up 2500 churches, and they want to mobilize those churches directly for political involvement and specifically to get trump reelected. the two of them together signifies a crossover. it signifies a joining in a way that promises, i think, to be quite potent. laura: meanwhile, some have mobilized around what gop leaders have labeled an invasion at the southern border. i asked onishi about a protest convoy calling itself god's army currently making its way to texas. brad: i think the end goal for the convoy, is to kind of play a part or play a role in what they take to be the story that is unfolding in the united states. christian nationalists understand themselves to be playing a character. they are drawn into a narrative that says, you are at the last battle. you have a chance to do something that is much bigger than you.

will you answer that call? will you come to d.c. on january 6? will you ride with us to the southern border? because these are the moments, these are the battles that will shape our country. this is the cosmic war between good and evil. are you really going to sit on the sidelines? some of us can laugh that off. we can think that that's a fringe ideal. but january 6 was not something to laugh off. and some of the events we've seen since then, the swatting of judges' houses, the evacuations of capitals due to bomb threats, so many more examples, little fires everywhere, are not things we can laugh off. and so, i think the trucker convoy has cosmic goals as it plays a part in a very earthly standoff between governor abbott and the biden administration. laura: brad onishi, thank you for your time. brad: thanks so much for having me. ♪ william: more than one billion

users around the world may find that tiktok is a bit less fun than it was just yesterday. as john yang tells us, it's tied to a major showdown between tiktok and the world's biggest record label. john: one of the world's most popular video sharing apps is suddenly a lot quieter without some of the world's most popular music. starting today, songs licensed by universal music group are being removed from tiktok, including some of the biggest names in music, like the weeknd or ariana grande. also disappearing, songs that have become viral trends, generating millions of views on the platform. like taylor swift's shake it off. rihanna's if it's lovin that you want. or olivia rodrigo's bad idea right.

now, users say scrolling through the app could soon look and sound like this. the takedown has already begun. search for taylor swift's account, for example, and some videos featuring her music are muted. and the sounds tab on her profile is empty. it's all because universal and tiktok haven't been able to agree on a new licensing agreement to replace the one that expired wednesday. universal says it's pushing tik tok on three issues -- compensation for artists and songwriters, protecting artists from harmful effects of a.i. music creation, and protecting users from hate speech and harassment. in a statement, the company said "tiktok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value, and not reflective of their exponential growth." tiktok fired back, saying it has been able to reach artist first agreements with every other label and publisher.

"clearly, universal's self-serving actions are not in the best interest of artists, songwriters and fans." completely removing universal-licensed music from tiktok will likely take several days to accomplish. ben sisario covers the music industry for the new york times. we have heard they are trying to negotiate a right steel -- rights deal to play universal licensed music on tiktok. what are the sticking points? ben: universal has said that there are basically two sticking points. the first one is money. they have asked tiktok to pay more for the music and they say tiktok has refused to pay what they consider adequate royalties. the other has to do with concerns over ai in music, artificial intelligence. universal says that tiktok has allowed its platform to be flooded with ai generated music which crowds out music by real people and also dilutes the royalty pool. john: universal says they are

doing this for the artists, but what do the artists feel about this? is this something the artists want? ben: if you ask an artist if they want more money from digital music the answer will always be yes. but artists are a bit conflicted about this and some of them has started to speak out. noah con, who is nominated for a grammy this year, he made a short video talking about it. and the indication was tiktok is a good thing for an artist like him. it is the place where songs now become hits. it is a very vibrant and social platform that is popular with young people. and the way that a song can spread and go viral there is really key to the way the music industry works these days. so artists like tiktok. they like how it works. they like that that is the place where their audience is. they may not even know some of

the details about the rights disputes, the copyright issues, the royalty issues. i think that they are generally behind universal in trying to get a better deal from them. but they are very worried about being kicked off the platform and what impact that will have on their careers. john: look at it from tiktok's point of view. how important is it to tiktok to have this music on their site? ben: it is very important. and universal is the biggest record company in the world. they have taylor swift, olivia rodrigo, billie eilish, drake. they are not the only record company in the world but they are a very big one, very powerful, and they have a lot of artists who do very well on tiktok. if you are tiktok, part of what you are pitching to consumers is the ability to get pretty much any song you want and use it in your own video.

and users expect this. they want this from tiktok. that is part of the reason the use it, is that the proposition is they are going to have this material. so they certainly want it. but unlike something like spotify, whose main purpose is simply to have the songs, tiktok is a different kind of service. it's one where users create their own content, and they use music as part of that. sometimes it is just in the background, sometimes they are dancing, lip-synching. so there's a lot people can do on tiktok even without these artists' music. but i think tiktok is going to be concerned about pushing the limit of that and if this drags on for a long time, whether it's users will start to get frustrated. john: if this does drag on for a long time, which side stands to lose the most, universal or tiktok? ben: that is the big question. universal says that revenue from

tiktok only makes up about 1% of their total. and i will bet it is actually a pretty small fraction of 1%. because tiktok generally does not pay a huge amount of money. their exact deals are confidential. but it is well-known in the industry that this is a platform that provides tremendous exposure, can help a song become a hit that then makes more money elsewhere. but that tiktok itself is not the biggest generator of revenue. but nobody wants to lose that promotional outlet. nobody wants to be out of the arena. i think universal does stand to lose quite a bit in terms of access to the marketplace. i think it will hurt them with their artists if their stance winds up costing artists the promotion that they want. on the other hand, tiktok relies on these kind of deals with

media companies to have the content there so that their users can play with it. i think both sides have a lot to lose here. john: tiktok was able to make a deal with warner music last year. why is it difficult now with universal? ben: we don't know all the terms of these deals. we know that warner said at the time they were very pleased with it. but universal has come out very aggressively. they posted a public statement two days ago talking about how the terms were just unfair, unacceptable. neither side, neither universal nor tiktok, will divulge any numbers. but we know that universal says that what tiktok was offering was unacceptable. i think control is another part of it. it is not just dollars and cents. it is control over the content, control over what can be done. that is always a very big part of negotiations with digital

services like tiktok. john: ben sisario of the new york times, thank you very much. ben: thank you. ♪ william: one of the year's most honored films is killers of the flower moon, which tells some of the harrowing story of how osage indians were murdered in oklahoma in the 1920's. and one of the year's most acclaimed performances is by one of the film's stars, lily gladstone, who's already making some of her own history. jeffrey brown reports for our arts and culture series, canvas. lily: i love everyone in this room right now. thank you. jeffrey: for lily gladstone, it's been a season of fanfare, celebration, and now, an academy award nomination for best actress. lily: thank you all so much. jeffrey: you must be kind of

high on life right now. lily: that's one way to phrase it, yeah, for sure. yeah, it's just so touching to share this moment with so many people. just the response across indian country, people i've never met, people i do know. it's really heartwarming. jeffrey: the film, in which she stars alongside leonardo dicaprio and robert de niro, is anything but heartwarming. >> was he murdered? >> don't know. >> he tried to kill himself last year. jeffrey: killers of the flower moon, directed by martin scorsese and based on the best-selling 2017 book by david grann, dramatizes the real-life history of the murders of dozens of osage indians, the precise number, likely never to be known. at stake, the oil discovered on osage land and the riches that flowed from it. >> you scared of him?

>> my brother? >> your uncle. >> oh, no. no, he's the king of the osage hills. jeffrey: gladstone plays molly, an osage woman whose life and family become caught in the violence and loss. did it feel like an important story to you? lily: oh incredibly, incredibly. every native nation in the united states has had some kind of history where, especially if you're resource rich, if you have something that's of value, then what that relationship is with energy development. jeffrey: first that's land itself, right? lily: right, land itself. jeffrey: it's a deeply important story personally as well. gladstone grew up on the blackfeet reservation in montana, just outside glacier national park, itself built partly on former blackfeet land.

daughter of a blackfeet nation father and white mother who'd come to the reservation to teach, she refers to her childhood self as a nerdy rez kid, who couldn't wait for the annual visit of the missoula children's theater, which gave kids an opportunity to put on a play. lily: nerdy, dorky, whatever you want to call it. yeah, i was a little, i was hard to place until i had theater as an outlet. then suddenly i had purpose. suddenly, like, kids were like, hey, lily can do something that's cool. jeffrey: she would continue to act in high school when her family moved to seattle, and then in college at the university of montana. >> i was asked early on by my advisor in college if i was going to try to only target native roles, and warned me that i would be pigeonholed if i did so. and i've always resisted that because i'm, like, well, native people are capable of everything.

you know, we have doctors, we have lawyers. we pop up in every aspect of humanity. so whatever character i play is naturally going to be imbued with being a native woman, at least a little bit, you know? even if i am kind of smashed into a box, there's always a way of expanding it and breaking those boundaries, breaking the frame. jeffrey: she garnered notice in independent films including 2016's certain women. with an extraordinary ability to convey so much depth in the slightest change of expression. killers of the flower moon is her first major studio film, collaborating with the likes of scorsese, dicaprio, and de niro. lily: there's going to be an element of imposter syndrome when suddenly you're thrust in the middle of this circle with these incredibly renowned actors. jeffrey: you felt that? lily: a bit, a bit.

but i had to hide it. because really when you get there and you see the level of commitment, and also the level of, like, questioning. it was refreshing to know that artists are constantly a little bit challenged and haunted by their work. and it just felt at a certain point that i'd be doing these human beings that happen to be uber famous, uber renowned in their field -- they're also searching, striving artists that need questions answered. and i was doing them a disservice if i was a little bit too leaned back or too nervous. you know, i had to bring something to the table too. jeffrey: another vital collaboration, she says, was with the osage people themselves, some of whom advised the director and the actors along the way. gladstone says she and the others were concerned to get it right and honor the osage people and their history.

lily: i know that each one of these stories, while there's a universality that can be found in it, there's definitely common ground that you can draw from as a native person from any nation in the states. it was also very specifically an osage story, and needed to be handled with just the utmost care and involvement. jeffrey: it is inevitably difficult terrain, though, right? because even with all the critical praise and acceptance, there's some skepticism, criticism even of, again, a story of native trauma in which the white people are centered. lily: it's incredibly important that we're in a time where we have these incredible films and incredible television series that are led and crafted by indigenous people. and it's also highly important that we have somebody as influential and as historic as martin scorsese caring about this history. and ultimately, what matters most to me and really, you know,

if i could sum up the one opinion of the film that mattered to me, the one person that i wanted to make happy, it was margie burkhart, molly's granddaughter, and then osage community as a whole. and i've been really touched to find just how protective the community has become of this film. jeffrey: lily gladstone recently became the first indigenous person to win the best actress award at the golden globes. she greeted the crowd in the blackfeet language. saying, hello, my friends, my name is eagle woman. i'm from the blackfeet nation. lily: i'm really thankful that we're just in a time generally where people are seeing like, you know, shifting the lens and shifting the focus into characters that have been on the fringe historically. that's where the interest lies, that's where the stories that really resonate with a bigger audience are. >> you've got nice colored skin. what color would you say that is?

>> my color. jeffrey: next month, another huge stage, the academy awards. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown in new york. william: that is the "newshour" for tonight. join us tomorrow for amna nawa'' interview with the vice president of el salvador about his country's controversial crackdown on gangs. i'm william brangham. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you so much for joining us. good night. >> 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.

>> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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