♪ ♪ amna: good evening. geoff bennett is away. on the newshour tonight, and on the ground look at the aftermath of an israeli raid that rescued two hostages but killed dozens of palestinians. former president trump's positions grow more extreme advocating for math deportation and encouraging russia to attack

nato allies if they don't pay out. and both parties work to turn out nur -- new york voters to fill the seat of george santos. >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour including leonard and nora and judy and peter bloom. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.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. amna: welcome to the newshour. it has been a day of joy in israel and dread in gaza and a day of warnings in washington. israeli troops rescued two hostages from hamas militants in rafa in an operation that palestinian authorities has killed more than 30. israel says hamas leadership is hiding in rafa.

president biden today warned israel that the displaced must be protected. nick schifrin has our report. reporter: as he is really military lit the rafa sky, on the ground special forces launched a rescue mission. they raided an apartment complex recovering two hostages. a 60-year-old and a 70-year-old reunited with family members after 128 days of captivity. the second and third hostages to be rescued and israel called their release proof that military needs to maintain pressure. >> this rescue mission underscores the importance of our ground operation in gaza. reporter: the prime minister's -- called the rescue historic. >> i want to tell you that the release of lewis and fernando is one of the most successful

rescue operations in the history of the state of israel. reporter: reporter: rescues facilitated -- by dozens of airstrikes. they tried to save the wounded in the only available facility, and overwhelmed tent. >> [inaudible] reporter: today, in the operations aftermath family homes are reduced to rubble. >> houses were demolished as you can see in the pictures. if you look around to me you see the house was destroyed. there were people killed here in this place in rafa. reporter: hamas said the operation killed three other

hostages and wounded five more. israel says it cannot confirm that and accuses hamas of lying about the fate of the hostages. the prime minister has ordered the is really military to develop plans to move civilians and busy the city where they say that hamas leadership is hiding. top european union diplomat said -- >> he is not saying where these people could go. >> a potential full-fledged military incursion and a rafa where 1.5 million palestinians are packed against the a gypsum board or. this is terrifying. reporter: egypt has threatened to suspend its peace treaty with israel and a senior administration official told -- said that president biden told the prime minister that they

cannot proceed without a credible plan. >> many people have been displaced multiple times fleeing the violence to the north and now they are packed into rafa exposed and vulnerable. they need to be protected and we have also made clear from the start that we oppose any force displacement of palestinians from gaza. reporter: israel and the u.s. believe about 100 hostages remained alive in gaza. more than 100 were freed in november. progress is being made for another release. their framework is pretty much in place and the initial phase is finished but significant differences remain. >> the key elements of the deal are on the table. but gaps remain. reporter: the cia director tomorrow will resume the negotiations in cairo to try to maintain diplomatic momentum

before israel followed through on its threat to invade rafa. ♪ amna: houthi -- in yemen targeted another ship and red sea in retaliation for israel's offensive in gaza out. officials reported minor damage and no injuries among the crew. these attacks have continued despite u.s. and british airstrikes against them. former president trump asked the u.s. supreme court to continue a delay in his election subversion trial in washington. the emergency appeal was expected and has asked to the case on hold. the high core is also considering a separate appeal of efforts to remove him from state

ballots. it is unclear when decisions might come. u.s. senate is poised to hold two more key proceed rowboats tonight on $95 billion in aid for ukraine and israel. the target -- the package cleared its first hurdle on sunday. most republicans are demanding changes in u.s. border policy after blocking a measure that -- that was a prominent issue in today's debate. >> we should not send a dime to ukraine until our borders are fully secured. we have already given ukraine more than 120 billion dollars. this is more than enough money to secure every border in our country. >> these are a normatively high-stakes. our security, our values, our democracy. it is a down payment for the survival of western democracy on

the survival of american values. amna: the a bill faces an uncertain fate in the republican-controlled house. lloyd austin has canceled a trip to brussels tomorrow to meet with nato ministers on ukraine age. pentagon officials say that follows his hospitalization on sunday with ladder complications from prostate cancer surgery. his doctors said he had nonsurgical procedures to correct the problem. in pakistan thousands of supporters of the former prime minister protest at last week's parliamentary elections. he is jailed but his loyalist won the most seats. in weekend protests and again today they claim they might've won an outright majority in parliament but they charged the outcome was written. instead to other parties are in talks to form a government. a u.n. report today offers a grim assessment of the world's migratory species. the authors studied nearly 1200

species from songbirds to sea turtles and concluded that about 44% of the species are declining and population. they also assessed that more than 1/5 are threatened with extinction. the report blames climate change and other factors. in this country the kansas city chiefs are celebrating their third super bowl win in five years. they beat the 49ers in las vegas last night 25-22 claiming the nfl title for a second straight year. patrick mahomes won his third super bowl mbp award and is already looking ahead. >> i'm going to celebrate at the parade and will do whatever i can to come back here next year. we are going to celebrate and then work our way to get back to this game next year. amna: no team has ever won the nfl championship three years and a row. losses in the tech sector.

the dow jones industrial average gained 125 points. the nasdaq fell 48 points. the s&p 500 slipped four. and a passing of note. former longtime npr broadcaster bob edwards died over the weekend of bladder cancer and heart trouble. he started with npr in 1974 and cohosted all things considered for five years and then spent 25 years anchoring morning he did in. he was 76. still to come, the newshour, we break down the latest political headlines. and a new documentary explores black astronauts efforts to overcome injustice. why some communities of color are embracing youth tackle football despite safety concerns plus much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from

w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: on the campaign trail this weekend former president donald trump made clear that if elected again he would pursue more extreme immigration policies including mass deportations of millions of people. >> on day one i will terminate every open border policy of the biden administration and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in american history. we have no choice. amna: to break down the potential impact we are joined by lara lopez. what has the former president laid out in terms of his immigration plan? reporter: on the mask deportation plan that he has talked about including this weekend, we have known some details of how it would be carried out from stephen miller, the architect of donald trump's

first-term immigration policies who remains a close ally of the president. he talked about how they would carry about. carry out that kind of deportation plan. >> in terms of personnel, you go to the red state governors and you say, give us your national guard. we will deputize them as immigration enforcement officers. the virginia national guard will work in virginia. amna: stephen miller is talking about how they would federalize the national guard to carry out the mass deportation plan. through comments from the former president himself, reports as well as aligned policy groups we have a picture of the type of immigration policies that the former president would implement if you were to win a second term. the list is not exhaustive but

it includes building large-scale camps near the southern border, the end of birthright citizenship for u.s. born children of undocumented immigrants and creating a federalized army of red state national guard spirit amna: is that legally possible? reporter: technically, yes it is. i spoke with joseph non-from the brennan center for justice and he is a legal expert on u.s. military activities domestically. and he said that this is legally possible for the president to do. >> for donald trump's proposal to send the national guard from red states into blue states in order to enforce the deportation program could only be accomplished through the insurrection act which makes the president the sole judge of whether a given situation warrants invoking the act. an insurrection is whatever the president says is an

insurrection. that is why it is important for congress to reform the insurrection act to put in place safeguards against abuse. as things stand there are quite literally no guard rails. reporter: the former president trump has wide authority to institute the insurrection act in order to federalize national guards and send them into other states to round up migrants. the last time the insurrection act was invoked was in 1992. before that, it was invoked over the objection of states and state leaders was in the 1960's. amna: what would that mean for the military? reporter: joseph non-said to do something like that you would have to have large-scale mobilization of the national guard and it would require these members of the military who have other duties and the national guard is key with helping duties

are brought, they would be taken away from that in order to carry this out. i spoke with a former commission of customs and border protection who said that national guard are not trained in the way that border agents or ice agents are trained to be able to tell whether something can be says -- whether someone can be did change. amna: mr. trump also made some other eye-popping statements about america's commitment to nato allies. what did he say and what has the response been like? reporter: his statements were in form with the former president. we have heard him say and the path that he does not always want to be aligned with nato. he went further this weekend. >> one of the presidents of a

big countries that come if we do not pay and we are attacked by russia, will you protect us? and i said, you did not pay and you were delinquent and i would say, no i would encourage them to do whatever they want. you have to pay your bills. reporter: going further by outright encouraging an adversary like russia to invade nato allies and that he would encourage them to do so. the white house almost immediately responded saying that, threatened not just national security but also global stability. i spoke with a former ambassador who said his phone was almost immediately blinking red. he said that allies in europe are considering the unthinkable which is that the u.s. may no longer be willing to play a leadership role in nato.

this comes as the vice president is about to head to the munich security conference to address allies. amna: some insight into what another trump presidency could look like. european leaders have widely condemned those comments by mr. trump as reckless and dangerous. in a meeting focused on ukraine, germany, france and poland expressed solidarity with one another saying europe must be ready to defend itself and its allies. for more on the implications to the u.s. and the world we turn now to kurt volker. he was u.s. special representative for ukraine negotiations during the trumpet and got -- during the trump administration. i want to begin with your reaction to those comments from former president trump saying he would encourage russia to attack a nato ally if they did not pay their dues what did you think when you heard that? >> it is an outrageous comment.

if you look at what russia is doing to ukraine right now, killings, bombing cities, civilian deaths, torture and rape as a weapon of war -- you should not wish that on anyone and do say that we would encourage vladimir putin to attack one of our allies is too much. to be clear, what president trump was doing, he was at a campaign rally and he was bragging about saying what he had said in the past. even so it is nothing to brag about. it is not the kind of leadership that america should be showing the world. nato was created to prevent war. it was created so that by banding together and countries pledging to defend each other, we would dissuade anyone from attacking. and here we have a suggestion that someone should attack. that is the opposite of what we should be trying to do. amna: what do you believe the

u.s. relationship with nato should look -- would look like under another trump presidency? >> it is hard to know because president trump says a lot of things. during the first term as president, he had a lot of warm words for vladimir putin and at this in time he threw the russian consulate out of san francisco and provided arms to ukraine and reported a lot of russian intelligence officers. there are things that were done under the trump administration that were sound policy even though the rhetoric coming from the president sometimes is in the opposite direction. amna: do you believe he would try to pull the u.s. out of the alliance? >> i don't know. the most recent -- the most recent thing he said is that he would want nato to be in dormant possession. i don't know what that means. nato is in a defensive position. but if attacked there needs to

be a certain and substantial response so that it serves its role of deterrence to it -- to an attack. i think he would be unlikely to try to uphold the u.s. out of nato and even if he tried i think you would be unlikely to be successful because there would be substantial resistance in the senate and it would go to the courts to see if he even had that authority. amna: i want to put you -- i want to put to you a statement -- democrat and media pearl clutch or seem i forgot that we have four years of peace and prosperity under president trump . but now there is more death and destruction under biden. when you don't pay your defense spending you should not be surprised that you get more war. oh >> there are several things

wrapped up their and we have to pull them apart. the first thing is that he is right -- european allies do need to spend more on defense. every u.s. president that i have ever worked with have said that european allies need to do more on defense. president trump was more forceful about it and allies did spend more on defense under his watch. but they spent even more under president biden. and it is because of vladimir putin. vladimir putin has launched a war in europe at we have not seen since world war ii and this has caused european allies to fear for their security and to begin doing more for defense than they had been here poland will spend 4% of gdp on defense this year. estonia will also spend 4%. these countries are wrapping up -- ramping up their defense spending. that is why it is so important

that the u.s. is the leader of nato be supporting and encouraging that and sending a message to any aggressor that there would be a collective response if attacked. amna: i need to ask you about the immigration piece of his plan that my colleague just reported on. the idea that a u.s. president said he would deploy red state national guard troops into blue states to remove undocumented migrants. what is your reaction? >> let's first say i don't think this is something that is actually possible. the governors and the national guards of the states where this would take place would not want this and would resist. i can't see states putting their militias up against each other. this would be a civil war. amna: that is former u.s. ambassador to nato, kurt volker joining us tonight. thank you for your time. we appreciate it. ♪

amna: house republican leaders continue to struggle to conduct the basic functions of government hindered by a razor thin majority and infighting within their ranks. this congress has witnessed failed floor votes, two extended battles for the speaker gavel and the booting of george santos last year. as lisa desjardins explains the latest wrinkle will come tomorrow when george santos district will get their congressional voice back. reporter: at the base of long island the race for a congress with a new york persona. 73 days ago house members ousted george santos. that mdc has been the difference in some key votes.

including last week's attempt to impeach homeland security secretary who -- which failed and the house by one vote. democratic hopes and the rays are pinned on tom. >> this is not a game or about tweets or press conferences. this is about real lives. reporter: he is a moderate democrat who held the seat for six years before falling short. facing him -- >> i am the person who will deliver what i promise. reporter: it is an ethiopian born is really american who served in the is really defense forces and is a county lawmaker elected office as a republican but still registered to vote as a democrat. >> she sits in caucuses and votes with the democrats. reporter: he has a unique vantage point. his small paper first exposed george santos lies. >> it is a special election and

it is day nationally famous special election. the big issue is migration and the border crisis. there are tent cities in this congressional district holding thousands of migrants. reporter: the months of migrant crisis have dominated the campaign and it is why his paper endorsed tom. >> the immigration issue is so important and it is such a crisis especially locally, we felt her election would send the right signal. reporter: and she is signaling that she is in line with most house republicans. >> i will actually -- i will absolutely vote to impeach him. we have to have a strong majority to start to do the right things. reporter: same issue and a different local newspaper sees the other candidate as the best

option. that is his message, he is tough but not partisan on the border. >> she says she is concerned about the border but she opposes the bipartisan solution that would close the border. reporter: they both tiptoe around -- president joe biden and former president donald trump. covering new york state politics for politico. >> swazi does not want to be closely affiliated with biden because he is so unpopular in the district. reporter: she would not say that she voted for him in 2020 and when it comes to his legal problems -- >> if he is convicted of a crime, you will not support him. >> no one is above the law. reporter: there is an avalanche of ads. as they play an actual storm, a

snow storm is brewing that could make early voting critical. normally it favors democrats. republicans come on election day. both candidates pushing their supporters to bank their votes and come out before the storm hits. reporter: new york democrats are re-drying the congressional battle lines presumably and the favor of their party and district lines will be closely watched. >> the path to the gavel in the house most likely runs through half a dozen seeds in new york state. reporter: in long island tomorrow we have a race that could preview how suburbs will break this fall and how the house will operate next week. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. amna: for more on the impact of that special election as well as some congressional retirements, it is time for politics monday with amy walter and tamra keith. great to see you both as always.

let's pick up where lisa left off. what stands out to you, amy about the special election? amy: special elections are special. i don't want to overgeneralize. lisa's piece was spot on. it is getting national attention because it is a swing seat and it is a district in which the migrant crisis is literally in its backyard. the debate over what to do about it is playing out politically in real-time. and while again this is a unique period of time and one district, i do think for folks in congress looking at this raise, the decision by the democrat in the race to talk about wanting to have something like border security built, the and the bipartisan bill in the senate and the republicans saying no -- what that will tell leaders in congress going forward will be

important. and this is one of those very important swing seats that will determine who controls the house in 2024 a. it is the kind of place that will be critical. >> it is a rare election year trial run. various groups and the parties are trying things out that we might see later in the election year in other congressional races or even the presidential race in terms of on the ground tactics. and also just -- what is up with the weather? it is supposed to snow tomorrow. there is a raging debate in the republican about whether eubank your boat or whether you always vote on election day. snowstorms are the kind of things why parties try to bank their votes. amna: i love one election

coverage also becomes weather coverage. in the house, other shifts. wisconsin congressman mike gallagher, a rising star in the republican party and a leading national security voice, announced that he will not run again for election. he said the framers intended citizens to serve in congress for a season and then returned to their lives. congress is no place to grow old. he is in his fourth term and only 39. amy: we have seen republicans especially who have gone up against the status quo whether that is donald trump himself or are things that the donald trump wing of the party would like to see past. if they have gone up against that, they have usually been on the losing end, using -- losing

a primary or realizing that the writing is on the wall. he is also unique in that he is a conservative republican who really does believe in working across party lines. on the china committee for example, remember, if you look at recent pew polling, when we look at the difference between how voters see the issue of compromise is different. republicans see it as something that shows weakness. amna: as amy mentioned, he had done a lot of bipartisan work to counter china's influence. and the future funding for ukraine is uncertain in the house. are we seeing a more isolationist stance in the house? >> former president trump is making foreign policy a plays where he is exerting his power over the party and exerting has power over members of his own

party in congress. part of that is because the supplemental for funding for ukraine and israel and countering china and all of this is basically the only thing happening right now in congress. this is where donald trump is able to try to influence the party. but also, this is where he has taken the party. it is a much more isolationist party under him and you can see the splits. it is playing out in the republican party. there is donald trump and there is nikki haley. nikki haley's ceiling is around 30%. many of those voters continue to be more traditional republicans. they are more concerned about america's place in the world. she is talking about how you need to fund ukraine. that is not a popular view in donald trump's republican party. you see that split on the

campaign trail where she is struggling. and where donald trump republicans are saying, why would we support someone like that? she is just like george w. bush. amna: the one thing to say is that while i do think the rings have been vending, there were still 18 republicans who supported the supplemental funding in the senate. that is not an insignificant number. in the potential rematch between biden and trump, the headlines that have dominated since last week special counsel report that was released that was about president biden's memory function and age. former president trump continues to mixed up world leaders and even u.s. leaders and he often

veers in and out of coherence but it does not generate the same headlines. is there an asymmetry of expectations? >> yes, and part of that is because one of these people is the current president. president biden gives a speech and they are typically bite sized enough to be carried live on television. people see the president when he speaks because he is the president of the united states. former president trump is running and is a candidate and he is basically his party presumptive nominee. he gives to our speeches that go on forever and veer off in all kinds of directions including things you can't put on television because the sec would come after you and people don't see it. donald trump is putting out massive amounts of content that no one is seeing. president biden is not putting

out a lot of content. he is limited in his public engagements. everyone sees it and it gets a different level of focus in part because he is the president. >> and what you see and the polling is there is a reason why democrats are not as engaged in the selection. some of that is because there is reticence among democrats about the president's age and his ability to do his job. the other is because when donald trump was in the white house he was in your face every day and all the time. and that is what motivated those voters to show up and vote in 2020 more than it was a sign of their enthusiasm for biden. i was looking at recent polling and the percentage of people that say they are voting for biden because they don't like donald trump is not much different than what it was in 2020. that has always been the

underlying energy behind the biden campaign. but you need donald trump to be more in focus which is why the campaign is going to try to do that. amna: democrats and the biden campaign don't jump on this. is that deliberate? >> they are doing a fair bit of it and they are ramping up more. president biden is suddenly on tiktok. in the conservative world, there are memes born every second that go out on social media about him being old. there is not the same culture of putting all that content out by average democratic voters. amna: we will wait and see you. always great to see you both. thank you very much. ♪

a new documentary explores the little-known stories of the first black pilots and engineers who became astronauts. pioneers of nasa's space program. geoff bennett has a look at a film, "the space race." it is streaming starting tomorrow. it is part of our program, candace. >> very few people today have a clue about black people's contribution to human spaceflight. reporter: to tell us more we are joined by one of the directors of the film and read tired major general charles bolden, an astronaut and former nasa administrator who is featured in the documentary here charlie bolden, it is always an honor to get to speak to you in large

part because you have had such a distinguished career in the military on the space program. retired marine corps major general, nasa administrator during the biden administration. it is hard to believe you did not set out to be an aviator. >> that is not something i wanted to be. it was something i swore i would never do. geoff: tell me about some of the obstacles you faced in being a pioneering astronaut. >> i grew up in columbia, south carolina. my wife and me. at 12 i saw a program about life at the academy. that was my goal in life from then on. i met with the obstacles when i was finally in high school and i could apply. no one in the south carolina delegation was going to appoint a black to any service academy. i was overwhelmed by

disappointment. but i learned that the vice president of the u.s. could make an appointment of anybody and that was lyndon johnson. i began to write him over years. i never heard from him but i got a visit from a navy recruiter and a retired federal judge from here in d.c. who came around at the behest of president johnson looking for qualified young men to go to the service academies. i got an appointment from a congressman from chicago. and i was off to the naval academy. i came out of there saying, no marine corps and no aviation. geoff: lisa cortez, there are any number of stories you could tell as an award-winning producer and director. why this one? >> i'm always intrigued by the hidden figures. people that we think we know about but when you start to pull back the layers you discover the contributors who have not had their time in the spotlight. and to be able to focus on the

beginning of the program and it whites journey as we -- and ed dwight's journey was something that was missing in the popular narratives being told and so rich in detail and legacy. geoff: guy bluford was the first black american to go into space in 1983. dwight was set to do that 20 years earlier but it did not work out. >> it did not work out because he was the dream of one person and that was president kennedy. when president kennedy was assassinated, within weeks if not days, any dream of him becoming an astronaut was gone. they told him out of the line of people that were potential astronauts. nasa went through a selection that year and he was not among

those selected. although everyone had given him the expectation that he would be. and the explanations -- the funny thing is that there are no explanations. to this day, you have history from him but there is no one on the other side to tell the opposing story. everyone says, we never heard of it. geoff: and he has since become a prolific artist and sculptor. >> i tell people that the greatest gift to the world was ed dwight not being selected as astronaut. he is one of the most prolific sculptors today and the one i love is his emancipation sculpture which is a life-sized -- it stretches across the front of the state capitol in austin, texas. i think it is appropriate for today that his work going from

slavery all the way up to the modern time titled emancipation is on display in front of texas's statehouse. geoff: let's talk about the pioneering female black astronauts. how do their stories figure into the larger story? >> one thing that is interesting about our film is we look at how the program changes with the introduction of the shuttle. the shuttle allows for people that are not going to be pilots and so we first see this expansion in 1983 with the group that includes guy and fred and then shortly afterwards we see other women who are scientists, geologists, who are able to then become a part of this expansion. geoff: charlie, you have logged

more than 680 hours in space. >> not a lot of time. i love to hear it and it sounds like a lot but in relative terms , that is about a month. victor glover spent six months in space. geoff: and he is the first black astronaut to go to the international space station. >> victor and i -- there is a 20 year gap between when i became the second black pilot to fly in space to get into nasa's astor knot program and victor became the third. we seem to go in these decade-old upgrades to the system which just tells you that in this kind of activity you have to be persistent and you have to have a pipeline through which people go. lisa's movie hopefully this is the right time for it because

you are hearing a lot of ridiculous stuff about the lack of qualifications of blacks and women in fields like aviation and everything else which is absurd. you cannot argue with what is documented in this particular movie. geoff: lee said there is such power in letting the astronauts tell their own stories. what conversations do you hope this documentary will inspire? >> increasingly we live in a time where there are many factors who are trying to tell us that the teaching of black history is not necessary. or they are trying to re-create the contributions of african-americans to our great country. and charlie bolden has one of my favorite quotes which is -- charlie, actually, if you will share it about black history, think it is a perfect that people need to hear about the film.

>> what i have always said is that black history is american history. and we all play a role in the history of this country. we are on this constant march towards a more perfect union. and my point to everyone and i think what lisa is saying what this movie will hopefully portray is that we deny black history, american history at our own peril. if we choose to ignore it and choose to ignore that you and i did not contribute to this phenomenal country there remains the greatest country on the planet, you do it at your own peril. we have been through this once. the scary part about what we are going through today is the fact that we know the end if we keep going down this road of trying to pretend that people who played one of the most important roles in the space program, if you are talking about people

like katherine johnson in the hidden figures, you cannot eradicate them from the story because there are too many people that participated in the story. john denton who was on this planet would tell you that the difference between him going and not going is this young, black woman who had done the math telling him that everything would be ok. you can tonight that and pretend it did not happen but there are other people around will tell you, we are not going had it not been for katherine johnson. and that is important, it is important for young kids to understand. geoff: the film is "the space race." thank you, sir, for your service, your sacrifice in your example. >> it is always good to be with you and lisette. thank you so much for this opportunity. amna: online you can hear more from charles bolden on how space

changed his perspective of the world. it is on our youtube channel. ♪ amna: last night's super bowl with more than 100 million viewer is expected cap to a major year for the nfl. in 2023 the nfl accounted for 93 of the most-watched programs. for others including in the town of lexington, mississippi, the commitment to youth football remains high. this report comes to us from the university of maryland and the student corresponded. reporter: like many kids in lexington, mississippi, rj and mason have been playing tackle football on this field since they were five. it is a place that fosters big dreams. you know what you want to be when you grow up? >> an nfl player.

reporter: an nfl player. and how about you? parents enroll their kids on teams like the lexington colts by the time they reach kindergarten with an eye on where this work can take them. currently, one in every 300 85 lexington residents play football at a power five school. it is one of the best rates of any town in the country. and it inspires mason and rj's father to imagine what is possible for his sons. >> when we are watching the nfl games i tell them that -- that could be you on the field. all boys -- it all boils down to what you want. reporter: lexington, a town of 1200 people, is 77% black. nearly 35% of people live in poverty. >> living in lexington, it has a

small population, and the opportunity for kids is at a bare minimum. we have no swimming pool. we have no community swimming pool or tennis court. the basketball court is bad. reporter: in a place like lexington, football does not just benefit the few that become stars. it opens doors according to the head coach. >> football teaches them about life. now, i'm not playing football anymore and i tell the kids all the time that football set me up for what i am doing today. i played high level college football but it set me up with relationships with people. reporter: a 2023 boston university study said that those that play tackle football for more than 11 years are at

greater risk of cognitive problems. as a result, any communities around the country are turning away from youth football programs. tackle football participation is down 13.2% from 2019 to 2022 among kids six through 12. but communities of color have a higher tendency to stick with the sport. marcus rogers says that safety has improved around the sport. >> football is the same it has ever been. i don't force it on anyone. it has to be something you want to do. it is a tough sport. reporter: god is not the only reason communities of color -- that is not the only reason communities of color are sticking with football. black and hispanic parents are twice as likely to see youth football as a path to color scholarships and even the nfl. >> they start out at 5-8 years

old. someone will end up in the nfl. someone is going to push it and they will end up in the nfl. reporter: last season nearly 40 children aged five through 12 played for the colts and they were all black. only two white players have ever enrolled. colts ceo sherry reeves says a big part of the reason for that is white and black students in the town don't attend schools together. >> there is little intermingling among the kids. it is grounded in a mentality that has been overshadowing and i'm going to say mississippians in general. reporter: lexington and self -- lexington itself is still dealing with a racial divide.

the police department remains under investigation for alleged civil rights violations. some families say the path to a better future may involve tackle football and some success stories began with the lexington colts. but football cannot keep every kid on the right path. >> i have lost a couple of football players in the last few years. more than a couple. we have lost a few students per year with gun violence, drive-by shootings, stuff like that. we will continue to work with these guys and try to get them to have a different mentality. reporter: for the pbs newshour and the poet jen howard centers at the university of maryland this is the reporter reporting from lexington, mississippi. ♪ ♪ amna: later tonight here on pbs,

new docuseries hosted by henry louis gage junior delves into the power of african-american gospel music exploring the rich history of black spirituality, their sermon and song. >> the black preaching tradition is deeply connected to gospel music. our singers preach and our preacher is saying. -- preacher is saying. -- preachers sing. >> it makes you want to shout and sing. >> that is beautiful. ♪ amna: gospel airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on pbs stations and at pbs.org. going us again here tomorrow for our report from the streets of el salvador where a crackdown on gang violence has made neighborhoods safer but also put democratic values at risk.

and that is the newshour for tonight. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> q nod 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 top star service. ♪ >> the kendeda fund committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments and ideas. more at kendeda fund.org.

supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at mac found.org. and with the ongoing support of these 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ mhello and welcome to "amanpour & co." here is what's coming up. >> the only reason the border is not secure is donald trump. his magaepublican friends. >> after a bipartisan immigration deal is blocked in the senate, where does it leave a system at breaking point? i ask jonathan blitzer. as ukraine funding falls