♪ >> tonight on pbs news weekend, egypt's foreign minister on the effect israel's war in gaza is having on its neighbors and hopes for a cease-fire. then, farmers in revolt. from france to india, why farmers are protesting against climate change policies, red tape and crop prices. >> most of the world's food is produced by small farms, family farms and they're the ones who don't have the financial depth and resources to shoulder this burdennen in a wayhey're being asked to.

>> and as space lawrence back more frequent, where what they're all doing to the atmosphere. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and

institutions. and friends of newshour. this program was made possible but the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening. now that the mother of russian opposition leader alexei navalny has been formally notified of her son's death, she's pressing for details of how the 47-year-old died in a remote penal colony in the arctic. she and his lawyer went to the morgue but once they got there

this facility had been closed. russia won't hand his remains over for barrel until the investigation is over. navalny's lawyer says he was murdered. in moscow navalny's supporters risk arrest to lay powerful to him. since his death police have arrested more than 300 people across the country. ukrainian forces have withdrawn from avdiivka, handing russia a key victory. outnumbered ukrainian soldiers had withstood a russian assault for four months. rat the security conference, vice president kamala harris met with you crane president volodymyr zelensky. he said he's hoping for a break in the logjam that's bottled aid for ukraine. >> we are counting on this positive decision of the congress for us.

this package is vital. we do not currently look into alternatives because we are counting on the united states as a strategic partner. >> when we talk about the role of america as it relates to our support for ukraine, we must be unwavering and w can not play political games. >> harris says there is no plan b if congress doesn't pass the $60 billion aid package. the senate overwhelming approved the aid bill bull house speaker mike johnson said he won't bring it up for a vote. also at the conference, u.s. secretary of state blinken met with israeli negotiators to talk about americans still head. p.m. netanyahu said he would not take part in the next round

of talks because of talks he said were delusional. he wouldn't say when an anticipated ground operation will begin and the food and drug administration has approved a novel cancer treatment to tackle an aggressive form of the dealed lid cancer melanoma. the treatment uses the patient's own immune cells on the tumor. 30% of participants had their tumors either shrink or disappear. the u.s. retail price is expected to be $515,000 per patient. sill too come, why farmers around the world are protesting and the growing problem of pollution in earth's atmosphere as the space race ramps up. >> this is pbs news weekend from weta studios in washington. home of the pbs newshour. >> this week, israel stepped up

bombing across the gaza strip and talked -- talks aimed at the rodriguez of israelis have bogged down. since november 272800 palestinians and 1200 israelis have died. today nick shiffrin sat down to discuss the cease-fire fox and the effect the war is having on the region. >> egypt has been in the middle of negotiations for a deal that would pause war and release israeli hostages being held in gaza and also palestinians detained by israel. cry row hosted a meeting for this a few days ago. has there been any progress? >> they were productive meetings. of course they are sensitive meetings and i-will decline to go any details but they should

be productive and fulfill the needs for a cease-fire, even know a limited one but one that necessarily would have to translate into a more sustainable and complete decision. it's important that we move ahead in terms of negotiations, recognizing that these are difficult issue that is both party will vie for the best possible deal and it is up to us to encourage them, to show flexibility and moderation. >> today the head of hamas in a statement said they would not semianything less than a complete cessation from occupation. that is something that israel has already rejected. does that kind of state doom any progress in negotiation >> inch we've heard statements also from the other side that also raise the bar of the position that might complicate

the current negotiations but it is going to be incumbent on ability of both sides to continue to maintain this ongoing dialogue, this mediation to find the point of convergens. >> israeli leaders, including p.m. netanyahu have threatened publicly to pull out of talk. do you believe israel is negotiating in good faith? >> again, we recognize the cons conventions of this conflict and its impact, which is unpre unprecedented. the scale of human lives, women and children now exceeding 20,000 have been killed. we've gone beyond 100,000 injured and we need to deal with it from all perspectives. >> is egypt building a walled enclosure near the border with israel in case gassens escape

into sinai? >> we have consolidated our border fortifications ove the last four, five years. this was part of our demolition of the tunnel network. we continue to have maintenance around the rafah area because of the volume of assistance and trucks that need to enter. >> there are satellite inches that show what seem to be a walled enclosure. a kind of box that presumably palestinians could go into if anyway escape to the boarder? >> again, i don't have any specific knowledge of what is the construction being undertaken but we have indicated that displacement into our territory is a red line and we appreciate those who also say they refuse entrance into their territory but rhetoric is not enough. they should indicate the consequences if that was to hatch.

>> have you warned israel that if they proceed with a military operation in rafah, the peace feety could be in threat? >> again, the peace treaty have endured over the last 40 years. it has brought advantages to both israel and egypt. we have implymented it in good faith and will continue to do so. >> what are the koons consequences if israel continues to attack gaza? >> let me not try to speculate on the hypothetical but it would certainly be a very dramatic turn of events that will have severe repercussions on the crisis, on the palestinian calls on egypt's security and we will deal with it. >> what do you believe the impact would be if this war is raging in three rebounds when ramada begins ramadan begins?

>> devastating. everyone should do everything possible to end this confrontation and deal with the legitimate concerns, as appalling as october 7 was, it still is not in a vacuum. the issue of occupation, the issue of palestinian state hood. the long cycle of violence and counter violence have all compounded the difficulties of resolving the conflict and living in peace for the region. >> finally, sir, the senate has blocked $325 million of security assistance and the administration has decided to withhold that money from cryo and -- cairo ofo and to get that money, up to make human rights progress. so you've promised to u.s. officials t reduce pre-trial tension and to move towards

reduci prisoners. have you made those moves? >> whatever decisions the congress makes it makes by its prerogatives. whatever decisions we make we make that we feel are in the best interests of the egyptian people. i believe we will take our responsibilities in applying policy that is beneficial to the egyptian people and i think at this stage and what we see in gaza, the discussion related to human right, it needs to be a little bit more insightful -- >> you think it hasn't been insightful from the united states government? >> i'm speaking generally about the international community and how it is applying a single standard and what constitutes the rule of law and how is it applied, whether it's applied fairly so the issues of human rights and any perception that any state is immune from criticism in terms of its application of human rights

would call into question the nature of such comments. >> mr. foreign minister, on and off. >> thank you. ♪ >> from quiet fields to busy city streets, farmers around the world have launched protest in recent weeks, demding relief from what they say is a crisis. a report on what's driving these prozest tests and what it means for food supply and climate policies. >> they come in convoys of tractors. armed with the fruits, bread and even the live stock of their labor. from italy to india.

farmers are taking to the streets, sometimes facing violence, sometimes causing it. protesting policies they say kill their livelihoods. >> agriculture has been on it knees for a long time and we have reached the end of our rope. >> farmers in dozens of countries on six continent have staged protests since 2021. this year most have been in european countries and india. there's one common message -- farmers can no longer bear the burden of economic and climate policies. >> there's a sense of a rupture in the social contract beten farmers and their governors. >> in the e.u. it's a sense that farmers are being forced to unfairly bear the burden of a lot of the effort u. regulations to meet climate emission targets. in india there's a sense that

farmers are overburdened, worried about various smocks and they want some type of social protection. >> in europe those regulations include limits on pesticides and the amount of land that can harvest annually. they also worry about competition from russia and ukraine. >> stop grain from ukraine averment stop the green deal. stop deciding about our land. >> in india, farmers want p.m. modi to extend the long-standing policy of setting minimum prices for certain caroms. in 20 1 he tried but failed to scrap the policy following an earlier round of protests. farmers have been marching from the north to the capital but police and soldiers have blocked their way. >> it is not about whether we go to delhi or not. we just want our demands met for

a law regarding the implementation of the minimum support price. >> experts say the protests are politically timed. both the indian and european parliament elections are set for this spring. >> farmers unions are being political politically savvy in some way to try to get their concerns to the top of the gentle. >> france scrapped a plan to end tax breaks for tyreek diesel and 9 e.u. banned a plan to ban pesticide use and postponed a plan to leave some land fallow. it also omitted farmers from a recommendation to reduce greenhouse gases by 90% by 2040. >> farmers need a worthwhile business case for nature-enhancing measures. perhaps we have not made that case convincingly.

>> but some stakeholders believe politicians are caving to farmers to prevent them from deepening alliances with far right groups who have taken up their cause and they know that agriculture is a major driver of climate change, accounting for more than 10% of the effort u.'s total green house gases. >> i think an attack on the gentle is seen as an opportunity for right wing parties to gain more seats in the parliament at the expense of green parties. they see this as an opportunity to mobilize on grievances to perhaps form with their own gent around migration policies and other types of nativist policies that would resonate with some of e.u.'s farmers concerns. >> but they say leaders must find ways to make the tran transitionless buddensome for farmers. >> most of the world's food is produced by small farms, family farms and they're the ones who

don't have the financial depth and the resources to shoulder this burden. they are being asked to adjust to environmental regulations in a fast period of time. >> christian is a professor of global food politics in paris. >> this is where governments can step in and start spending money differently to address the costs not only to these farmers but if costs that we're seeing from environmental damage, climate change, temperature increases, violent weatr increases. >> after all, as the protesters' signs say, without farmers, there is no food. ♪ >> earlier this week the latest entry in the new race for space commerce lifted off from the kennedy space center.

if all goes well it would be the first ever private spacecraft to land on the moon. according to data from the united nations office for outer pace affair, 20 1 was a record year for launching things into space but scientists worry that those plumes of exhaust could be starterrering harmful pollute ants into the fragile upper atmosphere. shannon wrote about this in the "new york times." what's in this rocket exhaust and why are some scientists concerned about it? >> that is a great question. right now rocket exhaust has black carbon in it and scientists are very concerned that black carbon, which is black, will absorb the sun's radiation and heat the atmosphere. specifically they're worried that it's going to heat the

stratosphere. the stratosphere is so important because it's home of thezone layer which protects us from the sun's left armful radiation so if we're increasing number of rocket launches, we could increa the risk of skin cancer, cataract and immune disorders here on ground because we've harmed thezone air. >> at one point there were concerns about a hole being over the kennedy space center. what did they find about that? >> we did worry about that at the beginning of the space shuttle era. we actually found that there weren't enough rocket lawrence at the time to really create a cataclysmic issue. the ozone hole disappeared relatively quickly. e same might not be true going forward as we launch more and more rockets into orbit. >> and also from more and more sites. is that a concern as well? >> it is, yes. we're going to be seeing a tremendous increase from

multiple sites across the globe as various government agencies and private agencies as well join in this new space race. >> this -- about the black soot heating up the stratosphere, is this something that research has shown or is this sort of a theory? >> that's a great question because the research is really just now catching up to the speed of the space race but from have been a number of studies in recent years. one showed that rocket emission is 500 times better at heating the stratosphere than aviatio for example. another study pub accomplished in 2022 found that if we increase the number of rocket lawrence but just a factor of 10 we could warm the stratosphere but as much as two degrees celsius in virus places and that would degrade the ozone layer

over much of america, a good part of asia as well. this could drastically harm the stratosphere. >> does anyone regulate exhaust coming out of these rockets either in the united states or anywhere in the world? >> no, i spoke with a number of sources who compared this to the wild west. there are no regulations with respect to atmospheric pollution from rocket exhaust right now. >> what are the potential solutions people are looking at? is there such a thing as green rocket rket fuel? >> that's a great question. there really is no such thing as green rocket fuel. even if we were to change from hydro carbon fuel to say something that emmitted water. water is actually a greenhouse gas at these upper layers of the atmosphere so no matter what we are likely going to cause harm on the environment but we can

tweak how much harm is caused. that's the ultimate home. >> how would they do that? >> scientists are hopeful that they can do the research to know how many rocket lawrence will be too many, know what types of fuel and what types of materials to use so that by don't cause quite as much harm on the environment but again, this is really just an open question right now. scientists are at the beginning stages of their research to try to understand where we are and what the future might look like. >> there's also an issue about old is the sort of -- satellites sort of falling out of orbit and dissent grating. what's the concern there? >> what goes up mus come down. these satellites are d designedo fall back to the earth after five to 15 years. we do that so we don't create a

space junk stage ■and alsowe don't want them to create a hazard here on earth so they're designed to fall back to earth and disintegrate in the atmosphere and scientists don't know what impact that's going to have yet but if they're disindependent grating they're going to leave a stream of pollute ants in their wake and one nasa study last year took a jet and sampled the most common particles in the atmosphere and they found at least 120% of those were pollute analysis from these satellites. that might not sound a lot but given we're at the beginning of this new satellite race, that was pretty alarming. >> shannon, thank you very much. >> t

>> thank you. >> now online, why boiled water advisories in major cities are on the rise due to climate change. that's on our website. pbs.org/newshour. next-time, why eating disorders once thought to be more prevalent in women and girls are on the rise among men. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. >> major funding has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? >> this is a pocket dial. somebody's pocket? >> with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and

institutions. this program was made possible but the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

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